<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>I don't have any first-hand expertise to offer on these, but perhaps these pointers might lead to something interesting. </div><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div><br></div><div>Jean-Paul Potet has this to say à propos of <i>salapî</i> in his recent book <i>Numbers and Units in Old Tagalog</i>:</div><div><br></div><div>«</div><div>① Probably Tag. sálap "fees, salary" + Tag. -î. The suffix -î is evidence by other derivatives such ast Tag. bálot "wrap" ▶ balútì "(leather) armour" (SB 1613:481:peto|N&S 1860:035). ② The derivation sálap ▶ salapî may have been influenced by Ar. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><i>A</i></span>ašrafii ﺍشرفي [ʔaʃrafiː] "gold coin, ducat" (Kaz. 1:1219). </div><div>» (p. 299)</div><div><br></div><div>As for <i>gunting</i>, this word is also used in Malay. It has interesting positional correspondences with Malay <i>runcing </i>'sharp' (e.g. as in <i>bambu runcing</i> 'sharpened bamboo lance'). It seems plausible that the two words might both go back to a proto-form *Runcing: certainly the /g/ is a fairly widespread reflex of *R and /t/ a possible reflex in some language, though my knowledge is too superficial to go beyond these observations. Maybe this will lead to something useful; if so, I would be quite happy. I have been puzzled over the possible etymological relationships between <i>gunting</i>, <i>runcing</i>, and <i>rencong/incung</i> (small knife used among other things to write South Sumatran script, also known as <i>surat incung</i> or <i>rencong</i>). </div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">Christopher Miller</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">Montreal QC Canada</div></div></div></div></div></body></html>