query: etymology of Malay sama

[David Gil]

Dear all,

Can anybody help me with the etymology of Malay / Indonesian "sama"
('and', 'with', 'same', object marker, etc.)?  I'd appreciate either
pointers to the literature or your own ideas on the subject.

Adelaar (1992) characterizes it (or, rather, the Betawi cognate) as a
loan from Sanskrit.  However, I am also familiar with "sama" meaning
'accompany' in Tagalog, and it's harder to see how that could have come
from Sanskrit (even via Malay).  But, Zorc (1995) reconstructs PAN *sa-
'one', *ma 'and, with', which, when put together, sound and mean a lot
like "sama" in Tagalog and Malay / Indonesian.  Maybe even PAN *mai
'come' could be part of the same story.

I'd be very grateful for any references or opinions from all you experts
out there.

Thanks, and happy holidays,

David
--
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Inselstrasse 22, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

Telephone: 49-341-9952321
Fax: 49-341-9952119
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage:  http://monolith.eva.mpg.de/~gil/