rat and buffalo

[Robert Blust]

Jean-Paul,

You got it right when you said your imagination is running wild.  Tagalog
/kalabaw/ is a Malay loanword, ultimately from a Mon-Khmer source.  You
can find the evidence for PMP *balabaw in my Austronesian Comparative
Dictionary.  There is no connection, and certainly no corroboration for
Dyen's quite independent remark, which needs to be evaluated on its own
merits.

Bob Blust

On Tue, 15 Aug 2000, potetjp wrote:

> If you remember, Isidore Dyen once made the very important remark that the
> word for rat might have been "promoted" and used for dog in Lukep (e-mail
> dated Feb. 1, 2000).
> I think I have found another curious case.
> In Puyuma (Formosa), the word for rat is _kurabaw_ and the word for water
> buffalo is _ siugu_.
> (source: CAUQUELIN, Josiane (1991). _Dictionnaire puyuma-français_.
> Paris/Jakarta: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient.)
> Puyuma _kurabaw_ "rat" sounds very much like Tagalog _kalabáw_ "water
> buffalo", Tausug _ka:baw_, Malay _kerbau_ "do."  and Siamese _kràbyy_ "do."
> (HAAS 1955: 221) ("y" in Haas's spelling stands for the IPA symbol [Ø], e.g.
> French _noeud_ "knot, node", German _böse_ "bad",  not the IPA symbol [y],
> e.g. French _rue_ "street", German _Glück_ "happiness")
> Among the Philippine minor languages, the Binukid, Kalagan, Mamanwa,
> Sarangani-Manobo, Mansaka and Tausug term for rat is _ambaw_. It is _babaw_
> in Samal. These terms have the root *bau in common with Puyuma _kurabaw_.
> Could the root for rat have been also "promoted" and used for buffalo?
> >From this point my imagination is running wild. If such is the case there
> may have been some magic reason: you take a rat, call it a dog and offer it
> to a god - a classical case of sacrifice by substitution. The operation is
> even more economical if you can make a rat pass for a buffalo.
> What do you think of all that?
> Jean-Paul G. POTET. B. P. 46. 92114 CLICHY CEDEX. FRANCE.
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