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On Sat, 12 May 2001 10:35:43 +0200, "potet"
<<font color="#0000FF"><u>POTETJP@wanadoo.fr</u></font>>
wrote:<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
<blockquote type=cite cite><blockquote type=cite cite>"Philippine
breakfasts: tapsi- bbq beef (beef jerky) + fried rice (tapa = jerked
beef; sinangag = fried rice); tapsilog- the former with an egg (itlog);
tapsigaw- tapsi with porridge (lugaw).<br>
Filipinos love to create new words in this fashion. I know quite a few
families that name their children from various permutations of the
parents' names.<br>
The National Academy also tried to coin professions with the help of the
root 'dalubhasa'' 'expert'. These have not caught on: dalubwika'linguist;
dalub-aghamtao anthropologist (agham = science, tao - man)"
<br>
Carl RUBINO</blockquote><br>
Dear Carl,<br>
<br>
I have always been dazzled by the easiness with which Tagalogs coin
portmanteaus the way various parts are combined and assembled into
jeepneys, or ingredients into Filipino dishes. There is a striking
behaviorial pattern here. I also noticed these combinations are often
seasoned with a good pinch of humor.<br>
<br>
You say "Filipinos love to create new words in this fashion".
Is<br>
portmanteauing found in all Philippine languages or are there some like
Tagalog, and others which do not have it?<br>
<br>
What about other Austronesian languages?<br>
Has this facility always been there and used or is it a modern <br>
development?</blockquote><br>
I'm surprised Waruno hasn't jumped on this one yet! A strong case
could be made that neologizing through the creation of
"portmanteau" blends is a long-standing feature in many AN (or
at least WMP) languages. The language I work on, Sundanese, is rife
with such blends-- I've collected dozens of examples (usually formed by
combining root-morpheme-final syllables). Interestingly, like
Tagalog, many of the best-known examples are food terms:<br>
<br>
cilok = a<u>ci</u> dico<u>lok</u> 'skewered tapioca'<br>
ciréng = a<u>ci</u> digo<u>réng</u> 'fried tapioca'<br>
colénak = dico<u>col</u>keun, <u>énak</u> 'dipped, it's delicious'
(fermented cassava in palm sugar syrup)<br>
comro = on<u>com</u> di je<u>ro</u> 'fermented peanut cake inside' (fried
cassava filled with spiced oncom)<br>
misro = a<u>mis</u> di je<u>ro</u> 'something sweet inside' (fried
cassava filled with brown sugar)<br>
sukro = <u>s</u>u<u>uk</u> di je<u>ro</u> 'peanut inside' (peanut in
wheat flour)<br>
<br>
This same neologizing process is used to create more humorous words, some
of which have become well-established enough to be cited in Sundanese
dictionaries:<br>
<br>
kérsut = geus né<u>kér</u>, <u>sut</u> disundut 'once lit, goes up in
flames' (palm-leaf rib used as kindling)<br>
pongah = om<u>pong</u> di teng<u>ah</u> 'missing a front tooth'<br>
tongpés = kan<u>tong</u> kem<u>pés</u> 'empty pocket' (flat
broke)<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
tunji = sa<u>t</u>a<u>un</u> hi<u>ji</u> 'one per year' (said of parents
who have one child a year)<br>
<br>
A similar formation is created by compounding two so-called "verbal
anticipators," iconically representing a sequence of two actions
occurring in rapid succession:<br>
<br>
dugker = ari <u>dug</u> ngedeng, ari <u>ker</u> baé kérék 'lie down,
start snoring'<br>
géksor = ari <u>gék</u> diuk, ari <u>sor</u> disuguhkeun 'sit down, get
served'<br>
gungclo = ari <u>gung</u> goong disada, ari <u>clo</u> diuk 'the gong
sounds, sit right down' (said of a child who loves to watch wayang)<br>
rasclok = ari <u>ras</u> inget, ari <u>clok</u> geus aya di dinya 'think
of someone, presto he appears' ("speak of the devil"; magical
summoning)<br>
<br>
A related phenomenon in Sundanese is the creation of pseudo-blends known
as "kirata," in which a pre-existing word is treated as a
portmanteau in order to provide an often humorous gloss. This type
of recomposition can be found in many Indonesian languages. In the
run-up to the fall of Suharto, Indonesian student activists parodied the
government's penchant for bureaucratic acronymy by reanalyzing many New
Order names as pseudo-blends, e.g. Suharto = <u>su</u>dah <u>har</u>us
<u>to</u>bat 'should have repented', Habibie = <u>ha</u>ri-hari
<u>bi</u>kin <u>bi</u>ngung 'confuses daily', Harmoko = <u>har</u>i-hari
o<u>mo</u>ng <u>ko</u>song 'bullshits daily', etc. Last year, and
no doubt this year too, Gus Dur (the nickname for Abdurrahman Wahid) was
reanalyzed by those expecting him not to survive the annual parliamentary
session as: A<u>gus</u>tus mun<u>dur</u> 'steps down in August.'
Surely there must have been similar wordplay in Tagalog deployed recently
against Estrada et al?<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Ben<br>
<br>
Refs: <br>
<br>
Zimmer, Benjamin G. 1999. “Unpacking the Word: The Ethnolexicological Art
of Sundanese <i>Kirata</i>.” In: <i>Proceedings of the Sixth Annual
Symposium about Language and Society - Austin</i>, Texas Linguistic Forum
No. 4 (Austin: Univ. of Texas Dept. of Linguistics). pp. 275-84.<br>
<br>
______. 1998. "The New Dis-Order: Parodic <i>Plésétan </i>and
the 'Slipping' of the Soeharto Regime." <i>Antara Kita: Bulletin of
the Indonesian Studies Committee</i>, 54:4-9.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>___________________</div>
<div>Benjamin G. Zimmer</div>
<div>Ph.D. Candidate</div>
<div>Dept. of Anthropology</div>
<div>University of Chicago</div>
<br>
<div>6022 S. Drexel Ave. #602</div>
<div>Chicago, IL 60637</div>
<div>(773) 643-0134</div>
<div>bg-zimmer@uchicago.edu</div>
<br>
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