This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Not mentioned by Ratliff at all. Doesn't seem to resemble anything in the MSEA area, and the way it serves as a conjunction similar to Englishthat (and even sounds similar to "that") doesn't seem to be done by most other languages in the area. The closest analogue might be Japaneseと(to, “complement marker”), which also starts with an alveolar stop, funnily enough.”
This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Not mentioned by Ratliff at all. Doesn't seem to have any similar comparanda in the MSEA area. There's a similarity to the first character in Chinese胎記／胎记 (tāijì, “birthmark”, literally “fetus mark”), but a supposed clipping of a disyllabic character (especially when the first character does not carry the full meaning of the compound) seems uncharacteristic of Sinitic borrowings into Hmongic.”