Word for "dog" etc.

[Isidore Dyen]

Curiously the Lukep (Umboi and Long Islands in the neighborhood of New
Britain) language has kuyu 'rat' with some likelihodd that a word for
'rat' could be "promoted" to being used for 'dog'. I have no evidence
however that Lukep did so. I am not sure that this comment does little
more than muddy the waters a bit. Good hunting. ID.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2000, Richard McGinn wrote:

>
> Dear all,
>
> 	The Rejang language of southwest Sumatra has a number of common vocabulary
> items that are not shared with any languages known to me.  Are there any
> Austronesian languages with words to match these three?
>
> 	dog		kuyu'     (probably pre-Rejang *kuyuk)
> 	wealthy	sugea'    (probably pre-Rejang *sugiq)
> 	wild pig	jaoa'	   (probably pre-Rejang *jauq)
>
> This last is +conceivably+ related to Malay jauh `far' via semantic change.
>
> 	Thanks for any help you can offer.
>
> Dick McGinn
> Ohio University
>
>