とえ【遠え】 : toe | define meaning

Cognate to Gunma and Wakayama とわい towai; Yamaguchi (Nagato) といい toii; Fukuoka (Hakata), Saga, Nagasaki (Goto) and Kumamoto (Amakusa) とおか tooka; Kagoshima とえ toe and とわか towaka; Miyazaki (Shiiba) とうぇー towee; Wakayama and Miyazaki とい toi; Amami とぅーさり tuusari; Tokunoshima とーか tooka (attributive) and とぅーあん tuuan (predicative); Okinoerabu とぅーさむ tuusamu; Kunigami (Nago) とーほん toohon; Kunigami (Nakijin) とぅーせん tuusen; Okinawa (Torishima) とぅーさい tuusai (attributive) and とぅーは tuuha, とぅーさ tuusa or とぅーはん tuuhan (predicative); Okinawa (Tsuken) とぅーわん tuuwan; Okinawa (Kumejima, Yomitan) とぅーはん tuuhan; Okinawa (Shuri, Yomitan) とぅーさん tuusan; Tarama とぅーしゃーリ゜ tuushal; Yaeyama (Ishigaki: Miyara) とーほーん toohoon; Yaeyama (Hateruma) とぅさはん tusahan; Yaeyama (Hatoma) とぅーわん tuuwan; Yonaguni とゎん thwan (twan) and たん than (tan); and standard Japanese とおい【遠い】 tooi "far, distant", historically written とをい towoi. Attested as *topo- in Old Japanese. Generally reconstructed as *to₂po₂ (*töpö-, *təpə-) for proto-Japonic.

Historical attestations:

• 万葉集 Man'yōshū (759) records several instances of the root *topo-, glossed as "distant, far". Examples include [MYS.14.3478] 等保斯 toposi and [MYS.15.3734a] 等保伎 topoki.
• Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603), aka Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書), records "touoi" for "far, distant".
• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst, records the forms "tohosi", "toosi", "tobosi", "wo" and a few other words for "far, distant".
• Wayaku Ei jisho = English-Japanese dictionary (1869), published by the Shanghai : American Presbyterian Mission Press, records "トヲキ towoki".
• English-Loochooan Dictionary (1846-1851), by Bernard Jean Bettelheim, records "distant, tōsang" and "far, tūsa" for Okinawan.
• Essay in Aid of a Grammmar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language (1895), by Basil Hall Chamberlain, records tūsang "far" for Okinawan.

Discussion:

• Several Japanese varieties exhibit *towa- instead of *towo-.
• An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language) (1905), by John Batchelor, records the adverb ツ゚イマ tuyma (also written ト゚イマ) "distant, far" in the Ainu language. Later works on Ainu describe it more as a verb root. No connection to Japanese has been established.
• Several southern Ryukyuan varieties (and some northern Okinawan ones) tend to use other words instead of their equivalent Japanese cognate; *aga- being one, *kaama being another.