The Buttocks

It just occurred to me that kha-chhng in Minnan could be 尻臀. I also googled and found some people also had the same idea.

What do you guys think about it?

Tim

http://www.chaofeng.org/article/detail.asp?id=10113

脚仓潮汕话叫屁股为“脚仓”，普通话和其他方言都没有这种叫法。我认为“脚仓”是从古汉语的“尻臀”转音而来。“尻臀”的读音为kāotún，有如潮汕话的“敲吞”二字，与“脚仓”相似，与闽南话更相近。“尻臀”是古汉语，识字的和不识字的念来转去，慢慢变成了“脚仓”的读音。

不知道tim是怎么來解釋。

My take is as follows:

First 尻臀 is an established term in Classical Chinese, especially in the medical literature. This term is also used in Japanese.

Second, regarding 臀, it's possible that the initial t- sound became palatized to to render a ch- like sound. As to the -n to -ng change, it is also very common to sounds with little mouth opening. Words like 村 and 穿 are good examples.

Finally, on the tone part, they are all in the 平 tones. The upper and lower 平 difference is also quite common in many dialects.

Tim

In Foochow the term for buttocks is Gū-chuŏng ([ku ʒuoŋ]), written by scholars as 股川. I see no connection between Gū-chuŏng and 尻臀. Can someone shed more light on this subject?

不知 閩北講 ㄑㄩ"ㄎㄨㄟ ts'y4 k'ui2