ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical connexions of three word families within the semantic field, which are widely represented in Mon-Khmer languages. The roots concerned all have initial labial semivowel, and as final consonant. The phonaesthetic aptness in territory of the labial semivowel with its frictionless lip-rounding might give proponents of the gesture theory of language a field-day. The chapter shares two features of special interest: they exhibit the phenomenon of vowel variation, within a specific range, which underlies the acknowledged difficulties of reconstructing the proto-Mon-Khmer (PMK) vowel system, in an unusual degree of opulence; and it is noticeable that within the general range of meanings encountered in each of the three series there is limited agreement between the specific meanings assigned to a given variant or derivate in different languages. This implies a marked tendency to semantic shift in phonaesthetic series, a tendency which would explain the retention of variants as distinct lexemes in individual languages.
