Tibetan So and Chinese Ya ‘Tooth’

THERE would seem little to commend the establishment of an etymological equation between Tibetan so ‘tooth’ and Chinese ya of the same meaning, even after substituting for the northern pronunciation ya of the latter word the Cantonese pronunciation nga, which is identical with Karlgren's reconstruction of the ‘ancient’ Chinese sound, and almost identical with his reconstruction of the ‘archaic’ sound value as nga.1