Once upon a time, in coastal SE China, a flea ran into a louse. Hello, said he, I see you lay eggs, you must be a female. I am looking for a mate, will you marry me? All right, said the louse. And since then, speakers of Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Jieyang (and other dialects, I am sure), have been calling fleas as 蝨 /sɐt 7/, /sak 7/, /sak 7/ (etymologically ‘louse’) respectively; and lice, /sɐt 7 na 3/, /sak 7 bo 3/, /sak 7 bo 3/; that is, etymologically ‘louse’+female suffix.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Laurent Sagart (December 28, 2017). A Christmas story for lovers (of insect names). Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian. Retrieved January 16, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ukc1
One of the better holiday stories I’ve read!
Did they say all those in Proto-SE-Coastal-Chinese?
I don’t think there was such a thing as a proto-SE-coastal Chinese, ancestral to Yue and Chao-zhou-Jieyang; and I think that’s your point. In fact I’m not sure how far the phenomenon of flea and louse being treated linguistically as husband and wife extends. Presumably substrata and/or contact will be needed to explain the facts…