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PAN *water’: *Zanum and *nanum

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The PAN word for ‘water’ was *ZaNum [ɗalum]. This is phonemically more specific than Blust’s *daNum, since  Blust’s *d conflates three distinct PAN phonemes (Ross 2015). I am using Ross’s symbols.  In Sagart (2025) I proposed that Ross’s *Z was implosive: [ɗ]. Blust’s gloss ‘fresh water’ may be too restrictive as there is no competing form for salt water at PAN level.

A verbal meaning may be supposed at a post-PAN level, although it is only attested in Amis radom, mi-radom ‘carry, draw or pour out water’ (Wu Ming-yi 2013).

Out of the verb, a noun was derived by the <in> infix: *Z<in>aNum [ɗinalum] ‘water carried home’, hence ‘drinking water’.

The new trisyllable was irregularly shortened to a disyllable through left-pruning, being too long for its frequency (cf. Manczak’s ‘Irregular Sound Changes due to Frequency, Manczak 1969, 1977, 1978, 1980). This resulted in *naNum [nalum].

Coarticulation from the initial and final nasals gave rise to variant pronunciations with nasalized lateral [nal̃um]; that variant, reinterpreted phonemically as /nanum/, was preferred to inherited /nalum/ as it allowed a more robust distinction with *ZaNum /ɗalum/.

The phonetic sequence leading to *nanum was completed at the Eastern Walu-Siwaish node, of which *nanum ‘(…), drinking water’ is a defining innovation. *nanum competes with *ZaNum in languages of the Formosan east coast, Kra-Dai and Malayo-Polynesian.

Doublets for *ZaNum and *nanum exist in Formosan, MP and KD languages: https://stan.hypotheses.org/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-25-at-14.54.45.png

References

Mańczak, W. 1969. Le developpement phonétique des langues romanes et la fréquence, Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński.

Mańczak, W. 1977. Slowiańzska fonetyka hisoryczna a frekwencja [Slavic historical phonetics and frequency], Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński.

Mańczak, W. 1978. Irregular Sound Change due to Frequency in German, in Recent Developments in Historical Phonology, pp. 309-19, J. Fisiak (ed.), The Hague: Mouton.

Mańczak, W. 1980. Irregular Sound Change due to Frequency in Latin. Language Sciences, volume 2, number 1, 62-68.

Ross, M 2015, ‘Some Proto Austronesian coronals reexamined’, in Elizabeth Zeitoun, Stacy F. Teng & Joy J. Wu (ed.), New Advances in Formosan Linguistics, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australia, pp. 1-38.

Sagart, Laurent. “The PAN Voiced Stops and Affricates” Oceanic Linguistics. Published electronically May 3, 2025. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ol.2025.a960256.

Wu Mingyi (Namoh Rata). 2013. O Pidafo’an to Sowal Misanopangcah [dictionary of the Amis language]. Taipei: Nan t’ien.


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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Laurent Sagart (January 25, 2026). PAN *water’: *Zanum and *nanum. Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian. Retrieved February 7, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15k26


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