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<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: FR">Greetings to
all:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: FR"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: FR">This is a summary of
responses received after I posted a query on this list concerning one of
Dempwolff's reconstructions: *kapas 'cotton'; I asked whether the Oceanic forms
adduced by Dempwolff in support of his reconstruction </SPAN><SPAN
lang=EN-AU>(Fidji kava 'string', Tonga, Futuna kafa 'string', Samoa ava
'string' ) </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: FR">were convincing. I
received replies from Robert Blust, Paul Geraghty, Frederic Plessis and Stan
Starosta. I thank all of them. A couple of references on cotton in the Pacific
were provided:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: FR"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging; mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN
lang=EN-AU style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Johnson, Rubellite K., and Bryce
G. Decker. 1980. Implications of the Distribution of Native Names
for Cotton(gossypium spp.) in the Indo-Pacific.
249-307.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ideograph-numeric; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; punctuation-wrap: hanging; mso-vertical-align-alt: auto"><SPAN
lang=EN-AU style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=HTMLPreformatted><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Robert
Langdon (1982) New World cotton as a clue to the Polynesian past. In: Siikala,
Jukka (ed.). 1982. Oceanic Studies: Essays in honour of Aarne A. Koskinen Suomen
Antropologinen Seura (The Finnish Anthropological Society).
Helsinki.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=HTMLPreformatted><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Robert
Blust indicated that he thought the Oceanic forms cited by Dempwolff are not
clearly related, and the forms in insular SEA could very well represent a loan
distribution. Paul Geraghty pointed out that the Proto Polynesian
reconstruction is *kafa and it only applies to sennit, ie coconut-fibre cord.
Fijian kava means 'roll (of sennit)'. He suggested that a MP word reconstructed
by Blust: *ka(ng)ba(Ct) 'to tie, wrap up' (#184 in Blust's Austronesian
Etymologies of 1971, OL IX, 2:127):) on the basis of forms in Malay, Maranao and
Ilocano, might be related. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=HTMLPreformatted><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=HTMLPreformatted><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">I
personally find Geraghty's suggestion attractive. The semantics of 'bind' >
'sennit string' seem to me preferable to Dempwolff's 'cotton' > 'sennit
string' (name of instrument out of corresponding verb, a well-established
semantic process, whereas the evolution 'cotton' to 'sennit string' seems to
require the not obvious assumption that strings were made out of cotton fibre at
some point in Austronesian history. At the very least, Blust's *ka(ng)ba(Ct)
'tie' looks like a viable alternative to Dempwolff's etymology.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoCommentText></FONT><FONT size=2>L. Sagart<BR>CRLAO<BR>54 Bd
Raspail<BR>75270 Paris cedex 06<BR>France<BR>Tel: +33 1 49 54 24 18<BR>Fax: +33
1 49 54 26 71</FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>