Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/teda

According to Kupchik (2021), borrowed from Amis cidal (“sun”).

Alternatively, ultimately from a source deriving from Chinese 天道.[1] Proponents of the Chinese derivation use other examples where Sino-Japanese au correspond to Proto-Ryukyuan *-a(a); e.g. *sata (“sugar”), *katya (“mosquito net”), etc. Hattori (2018, 67) also cites Old Okinawan correspondances in the Omoro Sōshi, such as すぢや (suj(iy)a, “all living things”, 素性 (sujō)), ひやし (h(i)yashi, “rhythm”, 拍子 (hyōshi)), や (ya, “look, appearance, way”, 様 (yō)), きや (k(i)ya, “capital”, 京 (kyō)), いちらご (ichirago, “Ichirō”, 一郎子 (Ichirō-go)), たら (tara, “Tarō”, 太郎 (Tarō)). However there are problems:

• *sata (“sugar”) has word-final length, which could imply the diminutive suffix *-a(a).
• *katya (“mosquito net”) is strangely absent from all Amami dialects except for Toku-no-Shima and Yoron, where it instead uses *kaya, but it is attested in Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama topolects, implying a loanword from a Chinese source in (Proto-)Okinawan with a spread to the south.

The word *pi refers to days; this word likely displaced this meaning due to a taboo homonym *pi (“vulva”).

*teda

1. sun

• Northern Ryukyuan:
  • Kikai: 天道, 太陽 (θida, θïda)
  • Kunigami: 天道, 太陽 (thidā)
  • Northern Amami-Oshima: 天道, 太陽 (θeda)
  • Okinawan: 天道, 太陽 (tīda)
  • Oki-No-Erabu: 天道, 太陽 (θida)
  • Southern Amami-Oshima: 天道, 太陽 (θïda)
  • Toku-No-Shima: 天道, 太陽 (θida)
  • Yoron: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
• Southern Ryukyuan:
  • Miyako: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
  • Yaeyama: 天道, 太陽 (tida)
  • Yonaguni: 天道, 太陽 (tidan)

• Thorpe, Maner Lawton (1983) Ryūkyūan Language History‎, Doctoral dissertation. University of Southern California, pages 336-337