LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.23 (07) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 23 March 2006 * Volume 07
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From: Ben J. Bloomgren <Ben.Bloomgren at asu.edu>
Subject: LL-L "Levity" 2006.03.23 (02) [E]

All right, but that's rather veiled and obscure, and only on TV.  Wouldn't
you say so?  I expect something more official and regal, involving a sword
and all the usual pomp and circumstances.

Alright, you Big Kahuna, you want something regal and pompous? Try to give a
nonnative animal a name! Yep? That's right, a Hawaiian name for a house cat!
Ben

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Mahalo, Ben!

This may seem like a big deal for a _kahuna iki_ (< iti 'small').  But for a 
_kahuna nui_ (nui 'big', 'great')?  `A`ole pilikia (no problem).  No, it 
ain't, sirry!

Hawaiian:
(house) cat : pōpoki

And here comes the Lowlandic twist (yes, you heard me right) and the 
phonological rub -- both very interesting:

Since cats are not native to the Pacific Islands, and house cats (or rather 
"ship cats") were brought in by Europeans in the late 18th or early 19th 
century, a specific word for "cat" being recorded in one of the earliest 
vocabulary lists must be due to one of these: (1) pre-European contacts 
(with whom?), (2) ancient memories of ancestral Southeast Asia, or (3) 
spontaneous lexical creation.  Or is it?

Well, remember that Hawaiian _`_ (glottal stop) came from Proto-Polynesian 
*_k_, and Hawaiian _k_ came from Proto-Polynesian *_t_ and _s_ (both being 
labio-dental, though _s_ sometimes became _h_).  And whaddaya get?  _Pōpoki_ 
<- /poopoki/ < /poopoti/ or /pooposi/.  So it is fairly widely assumed that 
the origin is English "poor pussy" (pronounced in the way of Southern 
England)!

If this is correct -- and it very well may be -- this brings up the problem 
that the shift *_t_ > _k_ had already taken place in Hawaiian by the time 
Europeans arrived on the scene.  This would mean that Hawaiians still 
thought of their _k_ as being a /t/ and they associated foreign [s] with it. 
In other words, they heard someone say [po:"pUsi] and converted it to 
[po:poki].  Indeed, this is fairly consistent in early English loanwords. 
Furthermore, there are indications that the shift *_k_ > _`_ occurred later, 
fairly recently, and did not last all that long; e.g., "Christmas" > 
_Kalimaka_ (not *_`Alimaka_), Castillian _Pascua_, Portuguese _Páscoa_, 
Italian _Pasqua_ > _Pakoa_ 'Easter', "book" > _puke_ (not *_pu`e_), 
"captain" > _kāpena_ (not *_`āpena_).  In recent loanwords, foreign _k_ and 
_g_ are rendered as _k_ and American flapped _-t-_ as _l_; e.g., "computer" 
 > _kamepiula_.

Back to "cat" ... there are two related alternative Hawaiian words: _`oau_ 
and _`owau_.  I assume they are native onomatopoetic creations.

Not surprisingly, Tongan has _pusi_ (< "pussy") for 'cat'.

Maori has derived words for "cat" from English as well: _puihi_ ~ _poti_ (< 
"pussy"), and _tori_ (< "dolly"?).  However, there appears to be a native 
word as well: _ngeru_.  Hmmm ... this would have to be *_nelu_ in Hawaiian, 
and Hawaiian _nelu_ and _nenelu_ mean 'soft plumpness' ...  Could it be?

Interestingly, Rapanui (the language of Easter Island) has _kurî_ for 'cat'. 
Onomatopoetic for purring?  Well, this would have to correspond to Hawaiian 
*_`ulī_.  There *is* such a word, and it means 'to rattle' (e.g., a fine 
rattling such as that of seeds in a gourd) and 'to gurgle' ...  Hmmm ... 
Could it really be linked with purring?

Was this regally and pompously kahunic enough for you, Ben?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron 

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