Proto-Altaic: *sīĺa
Meaning: sharp stick; tooth
Russian meaning: острая палочка; зуб
Comments: EAS 108, VEWT 424, Doerfer TMN 3, 325-326 (with quite unjustified doubts), MT 240 (Turk.-Tung.), Miller 1970, 129, Street 1980, 300, АПиПЯЯ 288, Дыбо 13, Мудрак Дисс. 41-42, Лексика 228. The comparison with Kor. and Jpn. seems very probable, although here we have a rather rare case of tonal irregularity: one would expect a low tone in Kor. and a high tone in Japanese. In Jpn. the tonal irregularity could be explained by a contamination with some different root - e.g., with the root reflected in PT *sanč- 'to pierce' (ЭСТЯ 7); but the Kor. high tone is still unexplained. It is interesting to note the common Turkic-Mongolian derivative meaning "2-year-old sheep or camel": Turkic *siĺek / *diĺek (see VEWT 424), MMong. šilegu, Khalkha šilbe, Bur. šülge (certainly not a loan in Mong. < Turk., despite Róna-Tas 1970, 215 with a detailed analysis of the words, see Poppe 1974, 123). The variant *diĺek (attested in MK tišek and in Yak. tisege, see EDT 563) is an obvious innovation in a part of Old Turkic dialects, following the replacement of *siĺ 'tooth' by *dīĺ q. v., just like WMong. sidüleŋ "2-year-old sheep" is an innovation following the replacement of original *sil 'tooth' by the suffixed formation *sil-dü > sidü.
