shark

[Danny Long]

I checked the two meanings of "wani" in Japanese.  The "shark" meaning goes back
much further; the crocodile meaning is more recent.  Yes, wani is a "crocodile"
these days, but it didn't used to be.
I tried to make it brief since this is the Austronesian list.

Danny

potetjp wrote:

> Danny, I agree with Joel, the primary meaning of _wani_ does seem to be
> "crocodile", not "shark".
> Did you infer this from the fact that the kanji is has the radical "fish"?
> These may have been marine crocodiles, similar to the Australian species,
> living in the southernmost islands of Japan in a remote past, although this
> theory is not even necessary in so far as in European languages we have
> terms to refer to exotic animals.
> Best
> Jean-Paul POTET
>
> Loosely related incidental remarks
> 1) There is a tale involving the "crocodile shark" in Okinawa (# 69 in
> Maurice COYAUD (1984), Contes japonais, Paris: PAF). A blind old fisherman
> is left to drown in high tide by his three sons.  He is saved by a
> crocodile-shark. He and his daughters thank the shark with a calf. The shark
> eats the calf, and the old man recovers his sight.
> 2) Wani (Nelson # 2922 "sovereign"+ # 349 "virtue/humanity") was a Korean
> scholar who came to Japan in 285, and was the preceptor of prince Uji no
> Waki-iratusko. (E. PAPINOT (1910). Historical and geographical dictionary of
> Japan)

--
Daniel Long, Associate Professor     tel  +81-426-77-2184
Japanese Language and Literature Dept.    fax  +81-426-77-2140
Tokyo Metropolitan University
1-1 Minami Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo  192-0397 Japan
mailto:dlong at bcomp.metro-u.ac.jp
http://nihongo.human.metro-u.ac.jp/long/