Sila[ ]

[Ross Clark (FOA DALSL)]

These all seem formally a bit loose, though not impossible. Would there be a
place for Proto-Polynesian *sana in the big picture? In Samoan at least this
now means "corn" and Job's tears are "sanasana".

Ross Clark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurent Sagart [mailto:Laurent.Sagart at ehess.fr]
> Sent: Wednesday, 16 April 2003 9:55 p.m.
> To: AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
> Subject: Re: Sila[ ]
>
>
> Tsuchida, S. (1977) Some plant names in Formosan languages. CAAAL 7,
> 79-119.) reconstructed "Proto-Hesperonesian" *z at lay 'Coix
> Lachryma-jobi',
> with Formosan reflexes. Verheijen (1984: 14, 48) identifies
> this item as
> Coix lacrima Jobi var. Ma-Yuen., citing further reflexes in
> Bisayan, Roti,
> Tana-Ai, Maranao and Sika.
>
> L. Sagart
> CRLAO
> 54 Bd Raspail
> 75270 Paris cedex 06
> France
> Tel: +33 1 49 54 24 18
> Fax: +33 1 49 54 26 71
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Waruno Mahdi" <mahdi at fhi-berlin.mpg.de>
> To: " AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS" <AN-LANG at anu.edu.au>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:29 AM
> Subject: Re: Sila[ ]
>
>
> > > Paul Geraghty and I are looking for possible cognates of
> Fijian /silaa/
> > > 'Job's tears, Coix lachryma-jobi', which has also taken
> on the meaning
> >
> > The formally PMP form, with numerous attested reflexes in
> WMP and CMP
> > languages of Indonesia, seems to be *qa[n]zel[a]i,  but the
> *z calls for
> > caution, suggesting possible post-PMP horizontal
> propagation. In other
> > words, this is a post-factum reconstruction on the base of what a
> > somewhat mixed process of inheriting and borrowing has left behind,
> > and must not necessarily be an accurate representation of
> the original
> > form. So, Fiji silaa and Anejom nadej might perhaps well prove to be
> > ultimately related after all.
> >
> > The reflexes I have (Mahdi 1994:471 n. 113) are:
> > WMP:
> > Malay h at nj@lay, Sundanese hanj at li, Old Javanese jah at li,
> > Madurese jhAnglE(h), Balinese jali-jali, Ngaju j at lEy.
> > CMP:
> > Roti dele, Haruku sale.
> > (@ = schwa, A = v-rotated, E = epsilon)
> >
> > That's all I have.
> >
> > Aloha,  Waruno
> >
> >
>