Etymologies of ringgit, satay, tempeh
Waruno Mahdi
mahdi at fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Fri Apr 13 17:48:32 UTC 2001
> on the list: Is the literal meaning of <ringgit>, the Malaysian
> currency, "serrated, notched"? I believe Jim Collins gave me this
> gloss a number of years ago, but I no longer have a copy of his
> original note. To judge from the derivatives <beringgit>, "toothed,
> notched" and <meringgit>, "to notch," it appears probable. I have
Jim, Jim Collins knows his Malay pappenheimers, and that etymology
looks okay to me too. But I looked through dictionaries I had at home.
Leaving out entries that don't contribute to clarifying the question
of etymology, here's what I got:
Wilkinson, R.J., 1901-1902, A Malay-English Dictionary.
Singapore: Kelly & Walsh; there p. 331:
Ringgit - crenelation; milling; a jagged or serrated edge; milling
money; the dollar;
_R. b at sar_ - a Spanish dollar;
_R. burong_, _R. janeK_, _R. rama-rama_ - the Mexican dollar;
_R. k at pala_, _R. t at ngkoraK_ - the 2 1/2 florin piece;
_R. m at riam_ - the so-called pillar dollar piece
where _ at _ is _e_ with breve (upsidedown arch) accent;
_K_ is _k_ with under-dot;
note: 1. the _o_ in ultimate syllable corresponds to _u_,
and _e_ in the same syllable to _i_, in modern
Malaysian and Indonesian spelling, in both of which,
furthermore, the breve accent over _e_ is omited;
2. Malay _besar_ 'big', _burung_ 'bird', _janik_ 'sea
pocupine', _rama-rama_ 'k.o. very large butterfly,
_kepala_ 'head', _tengkorak_ 'skull', _meriam_ 'canon'
(modern spellings).
Klinkert, H.C., 1902, Nieuw Maleisch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek met
Arabisch karakter, 2. druk. Leiden: Brill; there pp.434-435
(note: the 4. druk of 1930 has the same entry contents)
Ringgit I - inkervingen in den rand van iets, b.v. van een muntstuck;
[indentations in the edge of something, e.g. of a coin;]
kartelrand; gekarteld; hiervan: dollar, spaansche mat;
[milled edge; notched; hence: dollar, Spanish dollar;]
_ringgit kipas_, dollar met den pijlenbundel, Sj.Abd.Moel. en B.ramp.;
[..., dollar with bundle of arrows, in Sjair Abdul Muluk and in
H.C.Klinkert (ed.), Bloemlezing uit de Maleische geschriften,
met latijnsch karakter, Leiden: Brill, no year given;]
_r. mariam_, de zogenaamde pilaarmat; [the so-called pillar dollar;]
_r. b at sar_, _r. kaIn b at sar_, spaansche mat met de beeltenis van
den koning van Spanje in romeinsch kostuum;
[Spanish dollar with image of the king of Spain in Roman attire;]
_r. boeroeng_, _r. garoeda_, _r. goerdan_, samentr. van _garoedaAn_,
[contraction of ....,]
de Mexicaansche dollar, zoo genoemd om den arend, die er op
afgebeeld is; [the Mexican dollar, so named because of the eagle
that is depicted on it;]
_r. kapala_, ons Nederl. 2 1/2 Guldenstuck, ook _r. t at ngkoraK
genoemd; [our Dutch 2-and-half Guilder piece, also named ....;]
_r. boenga sambau_ dollar met een kartelrand, die op den bloesem
van het _sambau_-gras gelijkt; [dollar with milled edge resembling
blossom of _sambau_ grass;]
_r. dada oelar_, dolar met een kartelrand, die op slangenschubben
gelijkt; [dollar with milled edge resembling snake scales;]
_r. djaniK_ = _r. boeroeng_.
Ringgit II - Jav. tooneelpop, wajangpop; publieke danseres;
[Javanese. theater puppet, wayang puppet; public female dancer;]
where _I_, _A_, are _i_ and _a_ with dieresis/umlaut respectively;
_ at _ and _K_ as in Wilkinson.
note: 1. Dutch Malay spelling _oe_ is modern _u_,
_dj_ is modern _j_;
2. _a_ where Wilkinson has _ at _ reflects alternative
latinization rendering of identical Arabic-based
Jawi-script original, corresponds to modern _e_;
3. Malay _kain_ 'cloth' (_kain besar_ 'big cloth', perhaps
reference to toga?), _garuda_ 'mythological eagle, also
heraldic', _boenga_ 'flower, blossom', _sambau_ 'k.o.
grass used as cattle fodder (Elucsina indica)',
_dada_ 'breast, chest', _ular_ 'snake'; others same as
above under Wilkinson.
4. Dutch _mat_, which I have renderred as 'dollar', refers
to various gold coinage once in circulation in S. and
S.E. Asia, is more strictly 'matt, touch (of gold)', see
Tamilic etymology in Henry Yule & Arthur C. Burnell,
1903, Hobson-Jobson. London: Murray, under _matt_.
All this substantiates Jim Collins' suggestion quite convincingly, I think,
particularly the names of coins with fancy grass-blossom and snake-scale
milling. Just for the record, I also came up on an alternative suggestion
in one place:
Zain, Sutan Mohammad, 1957, Kamus Moderen Bahasa Indonesia. Djakarta: Grafica,
there p. 638:
Ringgit 1. uang pErak jang terbesar jang memakai gambar (ringgit);
[largest denomination silver coin bearing an image (ringgit);]
_r. besar_, ringgit Sepanyol [Spanish ringgit]
_r. burung_, _r. garuda_, dolar Meksiko [Mexican dollar]
_r. bulat_, dolar Singapura [Singapore dollar]
-r. kepala_, ringgit Hinda Belanda dahulu [ringgit formerly of
Dutch Indies],
2. (Djw.) patung2 atau bonEka2 jang dipertundjukkan pada wajang
kulit atau wajang golEk
[(Jav.) stauettes or puppets emplyed in performances of shadow
theater wayang (with semi-transparent puppets of dry skin) and
puppet wayang (with wooden marionette puppets on sticks)]
3. (Djw.) djogEt atau biduan perempuan [female public dancer]
where _E_ is _e_ with acute accent (omitted in modern spelling),
_dj_ corresponds to _j_ of modern spelling,
_2_ is superscript numeral '2' indicating full reduplication,
replaced by explicit writing out of doubled word with
connecting hyphen in modern spelling;
_bulat_ 'round'.
The suggested derivation from a not further identified _ringgit_ 'image'
does not seem to be borne out by the names of the already mentioned coins
with fancy milling edges. But just in case you are interested in following
the lead to the end for whatever it is worth: Zain is apparently referring
to Old Javanese _ringgit_ , which evidently also underlies the modern
Javanese _ringgit_ Zain refers to under 2. and 3.;
Zoetmulder, P.J., and S.O. Robson, 1982, Old Javanese - English Dictionary.
's-Gravenhage: Nijhof, there p.p. 1552-1553:
riNgit - figure, wayang figure, wayang performer,..
_ariNgit_ - wayang performer/to perform wayang
_aNriNgit_ - to perform wayang
_riniNgrit_ - to depict [note: -in- is an infix]
_riNgitan_ - figure
Where _N_ is the IPA symbol for velar nasal (ng)
There also is a single reference to a Sanskrit origin of the Old Javanese
word:
Mardiwarsito, L., 1978, Kamus Jawa Kuna (Kawi) - Indonesia.
Ende: Nusa Indah, there p. 273:
ringgit - (Sanskrit _ringgi_) gerak [motion]
_haringgit_ pemain wayang/sandiwara, penari
[wayang/theatrical performer, dancer]
_pangringgit_ alat untuk mengukir wayang
[instrument for cutting out wayang puppets]
I looked up the proposed Sanskrit etymon:
Monier-Williams, Monier, 1899, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon, there p. 880:
riNg - root of the verb _riNgati_ 'to move, creep, crawl, advance with
difficulty or slowly'.
riNgi - 'going, motion'.
riNgita - 'motion, surging (of waves)'
where _N_ is _n_ with dot on top (nowadays more usually
transcribed for Sanskrit as _n_ with acute accent,
I think).
The proposed Sanskrit etymology of the Old Javanese item seems
prima facie convincing enough to me, but it is not mentioned either
by Zoemulder & Robson 1982 (see above), or by:
Gonda, J., 1952, Sanskrit in Indonesia, Sarasvati Vihara Series vol. 28.
Nagpur: International Academy of Indian Culture.
I did not have the opportunity to look it up in van der Tuuk's Kawi Javanese
and Balinese dictionary yet (another important source for Old Javanese
etymologies).
But this refers more to the etymology of the Javanese items, and does
not provide further evidence connecting the 'image/figure'-ringgit with
the 'coin'-ringgit, that might somehow offset the quite convincing
evidence supporting the 'notched edge'-reference.
> English <satay>, "meat marinated and grilled on a skewer," is
> presumably from Malay <sate>, from Javanese <sate>, is it not?
......
> etymon is Sanskrit <sakthi:-> or perhaps more likely Prakritic
> <satthi->, "thigh." Not, apparently, from Modern Indo-Aryan, for
> which all reflexes have an extended <-l->, e.g., Hindi <sa:~thal>.
Wilkinson 1901-1902, p. 359, has:
Satai - [Jav _sate_] pieces of flesh or fish cooked on a skewer; kebabs.
Klinkert 1902, p. 461, has:
SatE - Jav., vleesch of visch aan speetjes;
[Jav., meat or fish on little spits]
The spelling _satai_ is standard in modern Malaysian and Indonesian Malay,
but in the latter the spelling _sate_ is very frequent as well (and
prevalent in informal writing). The word seems to originate either in
Javanese Bazaar Malay or in Javanese. There does not however seem to be
a cognate in Old Javanese (nor in the Malay of classical Malay literature),
which lets a derivation from either some Austronesian proto-language or
from Sanskrit or Prakrit appear unlikely. A derivation from Hindi
_sa:~thal_ indeed leaves the l-deletion unaccounted (note also Sanksrit
_sakthan_ 'thigh'). From a purely semantic point of view, a more likely
candidate seems to be Sanskrit _Sakti_II 'spear' (where _S_ is _s_ with
acute accent), if one imagines a skewer or spit as miniaturized spear.
I can't remember where I maybe read this suggestion.
There is however a Javanese and Malay (probably via the former) _sakti_
'[superhuman, abnormal] power', deriving from Sanskrit _Sakti_I
'[divine] power'.
None of the proposed etymologies for _satai_ is mentioned by either Gonda
1952, or by:
Casparis, J.G. de, 1997, Sanskrit Loan-Words in Indonesia, NUSA vol. 41.
Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri NUSA, Universitas Katolik
Atma Jaya.
I wouldn't want to make any conclusions before having checked up
Tamil or Chinese or Mon-Khmer languages as possible source.
Hope this was somehow linguistically entertaining enough for the other
subscribers to excuse this long input to the list.
Aloha, Waruno
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Waruno Mahdi tel: +49 30 8413-5411
Faradayweg 4-6 fax: +49 30 8413-5106
14195 Berlin email: mahdi at fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Germany WWW: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/~wm/
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