[An-lang] papa

[Ross Clark (FOA DALSL)]

As others have pointed out, vowel length is important here. The word for
"board" or "flat surface" or the name of the mythical mother has two short
vowels.
Papa 'father' occurs in Deighton's Moriori vocabulary, but vowel length is
not reliably recorded.
The Maori word is /paapaa/, and Williams apparently considers it indigenous.
He associates it with /paa/ 'a term of address to a male elder or superior'
(e pa).
On the other hand, Milner gives Samoan /papa/ as children's language
'daddy', but again without suggesting it's from English.

Ross Clark

-----Original Message-----
From: David Gunn [mailto:dagunn at email.uophx.edu]
Sent: Monday, 20 October 2003 3:48 p.m.
To: An-lang at anu.edu.au
Subject: [An-lang] papa


Hello - I'm interested in the word "papa".  I read recently that this word
means "father" in Maori and Moriori.  I know "papa" means rock or a board in
some Polynesian languages. I just want to know how far the word "papa" is
used throughout Polynesia in the sense of "father" or having something to do
with geneology.  I also want to know if the word is definitley of Polynesian
origin as opposed to being a European loan word.

If you'd like to answer straight to my email, you can reply to
dagunn at uophx.edu <mailto:dagunn at uophx.edu>

Thanks!

David Gunn

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