query: etymology of Malay sama

[Waruno Mahdi]

> Can anybody help me with the etymology of Malay / Indonesian "sama"
...
> 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).

David,

a Sankrit > Malay > Tagalog borrowing would not be impossible, I think.
De Casparis (1997) also assumes a borrowing from Sanskrit.
There may however be two "sama"-s, the one from Sanskrit, the
other set together from *sa and *ma as you suggested. This latter
might very likely have taken place in the Moluccas and entered
Malay via Melayu Ambong. In that case, _sama_ "equal" perhaps
from Sanskrit, and _sama_ "with (colloq.)" from M. Ambong.

I think Aone van Engelenhoven <A.van.Engelenhoven at let.leidenuniv.nl>
did some work on this (he's not listed in the last AnLang phonebook I
archived, so he's perhaps not subscribed).
Hope that's any help.

Aloha,  Waruno