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For borrowed words in the Malay context, your colleague would do better
to make the following work his first stop, rather than Wilkinson:
<dl>
<dd>Jones, Russell (ed.) 2007. Loan-words in Indonesian and Malay.
Leiden: KITLV Press.
</dl>If Indian influence is suspected, the next stop shoud be:
<dl>
<dd>Gonda, J. 1952. <i>Sanskrit in Indonesia</i>. Nagpur: International
Academy of Indian Culture. [2nd edition 1973, reprinted 1998, New Dehli:
International Academy of Indian Culture.]
</dl><font size=2>I don't have access to either in my current location,
but elsewhere I have a note to myself that on page 42, Gonda (1952)
derives both Malay <i>batara </i>and <i>berhala </i>from Sanskrit
<i>bhaTTAra </i>'noble lord' , the latter via Prakrit
<i>bharAla</i> (T = t with underdot, A = a with macron).
<br><br>
</font>David<br><br>
<br>
At 1/21/2009 06:30 PM -0800, Christopher Sundita wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hi Geoff,<br>
<br>
My post may be totally useless, but it reminds me of Tagalog
"bahala" which is used to mean something like "suit
yourself" or simpy responsibility. From my understanding, it
refers to "bhattara" (my spelling is off), which refers to a
deity of some sort in pre-Christian times.<br>
<br>
--Chris<br><br>
--- On <b>Wed, 1/21/09, Geoffrey Wade
<i><geoffrey.wade@anu.edu.au></i></b> wrote:<br>
<dl>
<dd>From: Geoffrey Wade <geoffrey.wade@anu.edu.au><br>
<dd>Subject: [An-lang] Etymology of Malay berhala<br>
<dd>To: an-lang@anu.edu.au<br>
<dd>Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 8:34 AM<br><br>
<dd>Dear AN-Lang list members,<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>A colleague is seeking ideas as to the etymology of the
Malay term "berhala", a term used for "idol, image".
Wilkinson provides no etymology.<br><br>
<dd>He has proferred the possibility of derivation from Sanskrit/Pali
"vihara" and would appreciate any comments on the phonetic
feasibility of this suggestion, and/or the occurrence of the term
"berhala" in other Austronesian languages.<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>Many thanks<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd>Geoff Wade<br>
<dd> <br>
<dd><a href="mailto:geoffrey.wade@anu.edu.au">geoffrey.wade@anu.edu.au</a>
<br><br>
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