penguin

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)]

Proto-Oceanic *kanawe probably referred to a tern. I believe there are
extra-Oceanic cognates, but I don't have the information at hand. This
certainly looks like one.
Compared to Polynesian and Micronesian languages, some other AN languages
seem shockingly vague in their terminology for sea birds. And of course
"penguin" got transferred from an auk to a penguin, which is pretty rough as
well.
I wonder if "pajaro bobo" could refer to a booby? My suggestion would be
that the lexicographers are using "pinguino" with customary looseness, and
that nobody had ever actually seen a penguin anywhere near the Philippines.
Of course Maori has words for "penguin", but they don't look like *kanaway.

Ross Clark



> -----Original Message-----
> From: potet [mailto:POTETJP at wanadoo.fr]
> Sent: Tuesday, 3 April 2001 2:06 a.m.
> To: AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
> Subject: penguin
>
>
> We associate penguins with the Antarctic, yet some species
> can be found in
> as tropical places as the Galapagos. They even dwelt farther
> up north; I
> read somewhere that there used to be penguins on the coasts
> of Provence,
> France, and that they became extinct there in the 18th
> Century [reference
> lost]. This must be a discovery by modern scholars because
> the fact is not
> mentioned in Diderot & d'Alembert's _Encyclopédie_ (1751-1772).
>
> Besides, the discovery of the bird seems to be attributed to
> Magellan in so
> far as it was then known as "_pengouin, pinguin, oie de Magellan_
> [Magellan's goose] (Batavorum, seu anser Magellanicus Clusii,
> Wil.)". They
> say the bird was thus called because it was very fat without
> explaining in
> what language penguin means "fatty". Modern French
> dictionaries say the term
> was borrowed from Dutch (_pinguyn_ 1598). Today's French spelling is
> _pingouin_. The OED has a different view: the penguin was
> "found by Drake at
> Magellan's Straits in 1578" and the origin of the name is
> obscure, being
> first used to refer to another bird, the great auk of Newfoundland.
>
> Whatever ...
>
> Classical Tagalog (Luzon, Philippines) had a term for
> penguin: _kanáway_
> (Noceda & Sanlucar 1860: 81). The corresponding Spanish term
> is _pájaro
> bobo_ "bird stupid > stupid bird". Its synonym is _pingüino_.
>
> No penguin can be seen nowadays in the Philippines. Today's
> Tagalog have no
> term for this bird, and probably use the English term should
> they want to
> refer to it.
>
> The bird must have been fairly well known in the past for its
> name was used
> as a reproach or an insult (ibid.)
> kumanáway ang X nang Y / kanawáyin nang X ang Y "X to call Y
> 'a penguin'"
> Kanáway ka. "You, penguin."
>
> _Payápay_ (Noceda & Sanlucar 1860: 250) could also mean
> "penguin", but the
> term is ambiguous for it is also synonymous to_ palangá_
> (ibid. 228), a
> synonym of _palakáw_ (ibid. 227), itself a synonym of _páhat_
> (ibid. 226)
> "bird of prey". [Cross-references without glosses in Noceda &
> Sanlucar can
> be a source of great confusion.]
>
> Now, are there terms for "penguin" (whatever the species) in other
> Austronesian languages?
>
> Jean-Paul G. POTET. B. P. 46. 92114 CLICHY CEDEX. FRANCE.
>