Thread:GreenMoriyama/@comment-28254399-20180203215556

Dear friend Moriyama

I think that as you know more about Japanese than I, you can answer these two questions satisfactorily.

According to etymologists (like Robbeets), Nami "wave" can be parsed into two elements:

*Na- denoting possibly a large body of water, whose well-known derivative is 灘 nada "open sea", possibly "large, immesurable mass of water" from *na- +  suffix-ta denoting an uncountable mass.

The other element *mi is more tricky. It is usually found in compounds like:

泉 idumi "spring < outgoing water" with idu- 出づ "to go out" 澪 mio < miwo "canal < water-thread" with -wo 緒 "thread" 水月 miduki "moonlight reflected on water" with tuki "moon"

This is my two questions: given that in Japanese, water is 水 midu.

Is mi the shortened form of midu?

Or midu is actually a compound of mi "cold water" & du < yu 湯 "hot water" (with /y/ hardened into /d/ > /dz/)?

Note: Old Japanese tu & du because modern Japanese つ tsu & づ (d)zu 