On the origin of the Mainstream Hakka word [oi1] “mother”

Abstract

One of the most common morphemes meaning “mother” in the Hakka dialects is a syllable pronounced [oi1], [ɔi1], or the like. This word, so far as is known, has no phonologically systematic cognates in other Chinese dialect families and is not attested in early Sinographic records. Nor has any plausible non-Sinitic donor language been identified for it. The object of the present paper is to suggest a possible earlier origin for this word. Our hypothesis is that it is in fact a fusion of a Common Neo-Hakka compound *a1 moi1, in which the first element is a kinship prefix and the second is a word whose basic meaning is “mother, aunt, etc.” The paper then suggests that the morpheme *moi1 descends from an even older, pre-Hakka word *moi4, which may in turn have been related in some way to the pre-Hàn word mǔ 母 “mother”.