まいすん : maisun | define meaning

Cognate with Amami (Naze) もりすん morisun; Amami (Imazato) mooris(ï)-; Amami (Yuwan) もーしゅい mooshui; Tokunoshima もーいせぃ mooisï; Okinoerabu もいしゅん moishun; Okinawan (Shuri) まーすん maasun; Miyako まーすｽﾞ maasɿ ~ maasz; Tarama-Minna まーらすん maarasun; Yaeyama (Funauki) maaras-; Yaeyama (Shiraho) maroor-; Yaeyama (Kuroshima) mairas-; Yaeyama (Hatoma) まーらすん maarasun; Yonaguni まいるん mairun and まいすん maisun "to pass away, to die". Likely cognate to standard Japanese まわる【回る】 mawaru "to turn" and まわす【回す】 mawasu "to [go] around, to turn, to rotate".

In Shuri Okinawan, the compound けーまーすん keemaasun "to pass away, to die" is also recorded.

Reconstructions:

• Zachary Read (2023) tentatively reconstructs *mawari 'turn' + *s- 'to do', but notes that some varieties may reflect *mawas- instead.
• The Hatoma dialect database (鳩間方言音声語彙DB) suggests, for Hatoma, a connection to Old Japanese まかり【罷り】 makari, which was used as a euphemism for dying, and proposes the sound change *makari → * mahari → *maari and the addition of the verb すん sun "to do".

Discussion:

• The vowel difference in Northern Ryukyuan suggests *Cawa-. The connection to Japanese まわる【回る】 mawaru "to turn" and まわす【回す】 mawasu  is based on Yuwan Amami and Miyako, where the verb "to turn" is phonologically the same.
• The reconstruction of *mawari 'to turn' + *s- 'to do' is enticing based on the number of varietal forms with -r-. However, further research is needed to determine (1) why certain varieties like Okinawan don't result in *maaisun, (2) whether the different forms represent different reflexes of both *mawar- and *mawas-, and (3) what the transitive and intransitive forms of 'to turn' in each variety look like.
• In The Honorific Forms of the Imazato Dialect in Amami, Northern Ryukyuan (2017), Hiromi Shigeno notes that the Imazato equivalent moori "to pass away" is never used on its own, but requires the auxiliary verb s(ï)- "to do".