Reconstruction:Proto-Kartvelian/loḳ-

According to most scholars, this root has an onomatopeic origin (Klimov, 1998; Fähnrich, 2007). The phonosemantic nature of the action of licking is visible in a large number of languages across the globe, which have the proto-type *lVp ~ *lVk ~ *lVt for the verb “to lick” and the noun “tongue”:

• Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”)

  > English lick

  > Ancient Greek λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick up”)

  > Latin lingō (“to lick, lap”)

  > Sanskrit रिहति (riháti, “to lick”) (Vedic), लिहति (lihati, “to lick”) (Classical)

• Proto-Semitic *laqq- (“to lick”)

  > Hebrew לִקֵּק (likék, “to lick, lap”)

  > Arabic لَعِقَ (laʕiqa, “to lick”)

• Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s/g-ljak (“to lick; tongue”)

  > Old Chinese 食 (OC *ɦljɯɡ, “to eat”), 舐 (OC *ɦljeʔ, “to lick, lap”), 舌 (OC *ɦbljed, “tongue”)

  > Tibetan ལྡག (ldag, “to lick”), ལྗགས (ljags, “tongue”) (formal)

  > Burmese လျက် (lyak, “to lick”), လျှာ (hlya, “tongue”)

  → (likely) Proto-Hmong-Mien *mblet (“tongue”)

  > White Hmong nplaig (“tongue”)

• Proto-Mon-Khmer *liət ~ lit (“to lick”)

  > Khmer លិទ្ធ (lɨt, “to lick”)

• Proto-Dravidian *nakk- (“to lick”)

  > Tamil நக்கு (nakku, “to lick, lap; licking”), நக்கல் (nakkal, “food taken by licking”), நாக்கு (nākku, “tongue”)

  > Malayalam നക്കുക (nakkuka, “to lick”)

  > Telugu నాకు (nāku, “to lick”)

• Proto-Austronesian *dilat ~ *dilap ~ *dilaq (“to lick”)

  > Paiwan djilaq (“to lick”)

  > Malay jilat (“to lick up”), lidah (“tongue”)

  > Tagalog dila (“tongue”), mandila (“to stick out the tongue”)

*loḳ-

1. to lick

• Proto-Georgian-Zan:
  • Georgian: ლოკვა (loḳva); (possibly) ლოკოკინა (loḳoḳina, “snail”)
  • Zan:
    • Laz: ო-ლოსკ-უ, ო-ლო(ს)ქ-უ (o-losǩ-u, o-lo(s)k-u)
    • Mingrelian: ლოკუა (loḳua), ლოტკუა (loṭḳua)
• Svan: ლილო̂კე (lilôḳe)

• Fähnrich, Heinz (2007) Kartwelisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch [Kartvelian Etymological Dictionary] (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.18) (in German), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 270
• Klimov, G. A. (1998) Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages (Trends in linguistics. Documentation; 16), New York, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, page 110