I got one more. The Sinitic word 竹. 竹 is tik in Taigi, trjuwk in Middle Chinese, *truk in Old Chinese. It is a loanword from Kra-Dai’s *b.twuːkᴰ, originally meaning a strip of bamboo, cognate with ตอก (dtɔ̀ɔk, “bamboo strip”) in Thai. In Proto-Kam-Sui the word is *thruk7 ‘bamboo strip’.
Since Sagart claimed Kra-Dai is a daughter language of Proto-Austronesian, and a sister language of Malayo-Polynesian, it would ultimately mean the Chinese word bamboo came from Taiwan.
So I went looking for what that word is supposed to be in Austronesian languages.
In Paiwan, the word for a strip of split and flattened bamboo is taqtaq, and adding the m would make t-m-aqtaq into a verb meaning splitting bamboo.
It ultimately came from the root -tak/-taqak, meaning the sound of splitting or cracking something. Related words are *betak meaning to split or crack, which is cognate with biták in Tagalog.
It would make sense that this word is a loan into Old Chinese, at a time when they still created new characters for new things. There would have no bamboo around the bend of the yellow river, and bamboo wear that made its way to that region probably were weaved with bamboo strips.
| OC | PAN | Proto-Kra-Dai | Proto-Kam-Sui | Thai | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bamboo strip | *truk | *taqtaq | *b.twuːkᴰ | *thruk7 | dtɔ̀ɔk | bamboo in Sinitic |