penguin 3

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: potet [mailto:POTETJP at wanadoo.fr]
> Sent: Tuesday, 3 April 2001 10:13 p.m.
> To: AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
> Subject: penguin 3
>
>
>
> 1) "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." Ross CLARK
>
> Thanks a lot, Ross, for this precious piece of information.
> It supports the
> theory that Tag. _kanáway_ originally referred to a bird.
> There is no doubt that, as with plants (remember John U.
> WOLFF's paper),
> names for birds and other animals were loosely used by
> Austronesians during
> their expansion .
> If or when you get them, could you please quote a couple of
> terms from which
> *kanawe was reconstructed?

POc *kanawe is supported by forms such as Kwaio /'anakwe/, Tawala /kanawe/,
Tolai /kanai/,all referring to terns. Blust cites a number of extraOceanic
cognates in one of his published papers (sorry I'm not sure which),
including Ilokano kannaway (heron), Cebuano kanaway (small sea bird) and
Brunei Malay kenawai (large white bird).

>
> 2) "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."
> Ross CLARK
>
> The Spanish lexicographer glosses  _kanáway_ as _pájaro bobo_
> = penguin"
> (Noceda & Sanlucar 1860: 81). He doesn't use the term
> _pengüino_ that is
> entered in modern Spanish dictionaries along with _pájaro bobo_ . The
> Spanish-Tagalog part, that reflects the states of both
> languages in the
> middle of the 19th Century, has no entries for _pájaro bobo_
> or _pengüino_,
> which means that the bird had been extinct long ago.
>
> Now, I suppose that the Spanish lexicographer wouldn't have
> used the term
> _pájaro_ with _bobo_ if he only meant "moron". At least the Spanish
> dictionaries I have do not gloss _pájaro bobo_ as _bobo_, but
> as _pengüino_.
> So I am pretty sure that _kanáway_ refererred to the bird,
> and that it was
> used figuratively in Tagalog - not in Spanish - to refer to a moron.

?I don't quite follow you here. English "booby" is apparently from Spanish
"bobo", and has two senses: (i) stupid person; (ii) bird of genus Sula
(tropical counterpart of gannet). The birds were supposedly so called
because they allowed themselves to be approached and caught by hand. I
suggested that _pájaro bobo_ might have referred to this bird, in earlier
Spanish even if it may not now.


[snip]


> Interestingly enough, French makes a distinction between
> _manchot_ that
> refers to the antarctic bird and _pingouin_ that refers to
> the arctic bird.
> [Both are translated as "penguin" in my French-English
> dictionaries. What is
> the proper term for the arctic bird?]

Here's what my Petit Robert says:

PINGOUIN: Oiseau marin palmipède (Alcides), à plumage blanc et noir,
piscivore, habitant les régions arctiques. (Cour.) Tout oiseau de la famille
des Alcidés: pingouins proprement dits, macareux, guillemots, et (abusiv)
manchots.

In other words, if I've got my translations right, strictly speaking it
means an auk, but in casual usage it can refer to other birds of the family
Alcidae, such as guillemots and puffins, and is sometimes (erroneously) used
to refer to penguins (Spheniscidae).

Ross Clark


> Now, the original meaning of _manchot_ is "one-armed or
> armless", and its
> figurative meaning is "awkward", often used in the negative:
> Il n'est pas
> manchot. = He is not armless / awkward. > He is quite clever
> with his hands.
>
> Best regards
>
> Jean-Paul G. POTET. B. P. 46. 92114 CLICHY CEDEX. FRANCE.
>
>
> P.S. I may have sent Ross CLARCK's message back to the list
> by mistake. If
> so, please accept my apologies.
>