Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/m/s/g-ljak

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: *liek (Coblin, 1986)
  • Proto-Tibeto-Burman: *m-lyak ⪤ *s-lyak ⪤ *g-lyak (Matisoff, STEDT); *(m-)lyak ~ (s-)lyak (Benedict, 1972; Weidert, 1987; Coblin, 1986); *m-lyak ⪤ *s-lyak (LaPolla, 1987; Michailovsky, 1991)

Other cognate roots in STEDT:

• *m/s-laj ~ s-lej (“tongue”)
• *s-l(j)a (“tongue”)
• *s-ljam (“tongue, flame”)
• *s-ljaːw (“to lick, tongue”)

The words for "to lick" and "tongue" in many languages have similar shapes, compare:

• Indo-European
  • Proto-Indo-European: *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue”) (English tongue, Latin lingua; the change *dn̥- to l- occured in three branches: Lithuanian, Armenian, Latin)
  • Proto-Indo-European: *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”) (English lick, Latin lingō)
• Hmong-Mien
  • Proto-Hmong-Mien: *mblet (“tongue”) (Hmong RPA nplaig)
• Tai-Kadai
  • Proto-Tai: *liːnᶜ (“tongue”) (Thai ลิ้น (lín), Lao ລີ້ນ (līn))
  • Proto-Tai: *Ĉ.lwiəᴬ (“to lick”) (Thai เลีย (lia), Lao ເລັຽ (līa), ລວບ (lūap))
• Austroasiatic:
  • Vietnamese: lưỡi (“tongue”), liếm (“to lick”), lời (“word”), lém (“glib”)
  • Khmer: លិឍ (lɨt, “to lick”)
• Austronesian:
  • Proto-Malayo-Polynesian: *dilaq (“tongue”) (Malay lidah)
  • Malay: jilat/dilat ("to lick")
• Afroasiatic: *lis- ("tongue"), *lVḳ- ("to lick")
  • Proto-Semitic: *lišān- (“tongue”) (Arabic لسان‎ (lisān), Hebrew לשון‎ (lāšôn))
  • Arabic: لحس‎ (láHasa, “to lick”), لعق‎ (lá3iqa, “to lick”)
  • Hebrew: לִקֵּק‎ (likek, “to lick”)
• Kartvelian:
  • Proto-Kartvelian *loḳ- (“to lick”) (Georgian: ლოკვა (loḳva, “to lick”))

*m/s/g-ljak

1. to lick

*m/s/g-ljak

1. tongue

Descendants listed hereafter are mainly for words with the sense "to lick" only. Words with the sense "tongue" in daughter languages are mostly cognate to these and can be found at *m/s-laj ~ s-lej.

• Old Chinese:

  舐, 舓, 咶, 𦧇, 𦧧 (*Cə.leʔ (B-S), *ɦljeʔ (ZS), “to lick”)

  餂 (*l̥ʰeːmʔ, “to entice”)

  食 (*mə-lək (B-S), *ɦljɯɡ (ZS), “to eat”)

  蝕 (*mə-lək (B-S), *ɦljɯɡ (ZS), “to eat away, to erode; eclipse”)

  食/飼 (*s-m-lək-s (B-S), *ljɯ (ZS), “to feed, to rear”)

  • Middle Chinese: 舐, 舓, 咶, 𦧇, 𦧧 (ʑiᴇX); 餂 (tʰemX); 食, 蝕 (ʑɨk); 飼 (zɨH)

• • →   Japanese:  食 (しょく, ​shoku)
          Korean:  식 (食, sik)
          Vietnamese:  thực

    • Modern Mandarin
      • Beijing: 舐, 舓, 咶, 𦧇, 𦧧 (shì, /ʂʐ̩⁵¹/); 餂, 舔 (tiǎn, /tʰi̯ɛn²¹⁴/); 食, 蝕 (shí, /ʂʐ̩³⁵/); 飼 (sì, /sz̩⁵¹/)
    • Cantonese
      • Guangzhou: 舐 /lɑːi³⁵/ (colloquial: 𦧺); /sɑːi³⁵/ (literary); 餂, 舔 /lɛːm³⁵/ (colloquial); /tʰiːm³⁵/ (literary); 食, 蝕 /ɕɪk̚²/; 飼 /t͡ɕiː²²/
• Himalayish
  • Tibeto-Kanauri
    • Bodic
      • Tibetan
        • Written Tibetan: ལྡག་པ (ldag pa, “to lick”)
• Lolo-Burmese-Naxi
  • Lolo-Burmese
    • Burmish
      • Burmese: လျက် (lyak, “to lick”)
    • Loloish
      • Northern Loloish
        • Yi (Liangshan): ꑽ (yot, “to lick, to lap up”)
• Karen: *hlajᴮ (Luangthongkum, 2013)
  • Sgaw: လ့ၣ် (lè, “to lick; to lap”)

• *dz(j)a-k/n/t/s (“to eat”)