kalabaw

[Waruno Mahdi]

> no more different from a  Siamese _kràbyy_ than a Normandy cow from a

Careful, _kràbyy_ is Khmer (if the first of the two _y_s represents an
unrounded back vowel). The Thai word is _khwaai_ (_aa_ = long _a_).
I still tend to think that Spanish _carabao_ (and Tag. _kalabáw_) are
ultimately from Malay _kerbau_ (via some intermediate form _kerebau_).
But whatever the case, you might be interested to note some other
parallel instances of Spanish- or otherwise-mediated borrowing:

Kanakanabu _kraváu_ "carabao" (Northeast Taiwan, under Spanish rule
                                       from 1629 till 1642);
Chamorro _carabáo_ "id.";
Fiji _karavau_ "cow" (not Spanish ruled :-)

Dutch has _karbouw_ "carabao", apparently a direct loan from Malay.

Incidentally, nuclear Malay typically has stress on the penultimate,
except when the penultimate vowel is schwa (as in _kerbau_ /k at rbáw/), in
which case the stress is on the ultimate (I won't go into technicalities
on what kind of "stress" it is in Malay). The stress in Dutch _karbouw_
is also on the ultimate.

> The calves may have been brought directly from Indochina. For some periods,
> ships from Cambodia and Siam are entered in the registries. They are
> recorded for the first time during the 1627-1640 period: 6 from Cochinchina,
> 12 from Cambodia, none from Siam; 1656-1670: 1 from Tonkin, 9 from
> Cochinchina, 4 from Cambodia, 13 from Siam etc.

About ships (and merchants) stated at least in 15th-16th century sources
(about 17th century ones I'm at the moment not so sure) as being "Siamese"
or from "Siam", one must be very careful, because a much greater part of
the Malayan Peninsula belonged to Siam than does to Thailand in our days
(Patani etc.). Thus, when Pigafetta notes with surprise that the Malay
interpretor Henrique in Magellan's expedition could converse freely with
"Siamese" merchants they met in the Philippines, the conversation was
apparently in Malay, with Malay merchants from Patani or some other
Malay port under Siamese rule.

Aloha,   Waruno