sinangag

[Erik Zobel]

Most likely North Halmaheran 'sinanga' originates from the Luwuk-Banggai
area (eastern Central Sulawesi). In Banggai, you have:

man-sanga 'deep fry'
s<in>anga 'fried bananas' with productive passive infix <in>.

Note that literally, 'sinanga' just means 'something deep fried', but in
many areas of this part of Sulawesi bananas are staple food. 'Sinanga' is
also common in Saluan with the same meaning as in Banggai, although I
don't know if there is a corresponding verb **mon-sanga. Another term for
'fried bananas' in Saluan is 'sanggal', which must be a loan from
Makassarese 'sanggaraq'.

The etymology of the Banggai verb 'sanga' is unclear. It is _not_ derived
from PMP *sangelaR, since *R always becomes "l" in Banggai.

---Erik Zobel

On Fri, 11 May 2001, Robert B. Allen, Jr. wrote:

>
> Dear Carl,
>     The reflex in the West Papuan languages of North Maluku appears to be
> monomorphemic.  It is tempting to analyze the form as "si-" causative prefix
> plus a root "nanga".  But there is no "nanga" with a meaning that would make any
> sense.  Also, the word in West Makianese, the most divergent of the
languages in
> the family, is also "sinanga" which could not have been inherited from
> Proto-West Papuan.  So "sinanga" has always look like a borrowing to me except I
> couldn't locate the source.  Perhaps it was borrowed from Tagalog during the
> period of Spanish control in North Maluku.
> Robert Alllen
> University of Pittsburgh