etymology of Philippines bantay 'guard, watch'

[Geoffrey Wade]

David,
 
 Perhaps also consider the possibility that these terms derive from the Khmer term 'Banteay' meaning "citadel", "fortress" or "garrison".  The fact that the lexical items you cite are apparently restricted to the Philippines and Sulawesi furthers the possibility of a Khmer origin.
 
There are at least 8 places in  the Philippines named Bantay, 11 places named Bantayan, 10 named Bantigue, 8 named Bantigui and some 9 including the initial element Pantay. Some of  these might be seen as place names equivalent to Banteay in Cambodia.
 
I have investigated the possibility of some mainland (Cham/Khmer) script/linguistic borrowings into the Philippines in a 1993 article. 
On the Possible Cham Origin of the Philippine Scripts, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 24, 1993, 44-87.
 I can send a PDF of this to anyone interested.
In passing, wang-tai (Mandarin) = bang-tai (Hokkien) is a term used in Chinese for a watchtower. The "wang" in this case means to look or watch, rather than to hope.
 
Best wishes
 
Geoff Wade
Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre,
ISEAS, Singapore
 
 


----- Original Message -----
From: David Mead <mead2368 at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 1:21 pm
Subject: [An-lang] etymology of Philippines bantay 'guard, watch'
To: an-lang at anu.edu.au


> A number of Philippine languages (Tagalog, Ilonggo, etc.) have a root bantay 'guard'.  Compare for example Cebuano bantay �watch s.th., keep watch over�, bantayan �guardhouse, guard post� (Wolff 1972 Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan p. 110)
> 
> I have seen two etymologies for this stem, and I am wondering whether specialists in Philippine languages consider one to be more likely than the other.
> 
> 1.  In a 1970s unpublished work, Zorc proposed a Proto-Philippines etymon *baNtay 'guard, watch'.  However, I have not seen this reconstruction (or any higher level reconstruction) proposed in a published work.  
> 
> 2.  Prior to this, in 1948 Arsenio Manuel (Chinese Elements in the Tagalog Language) proposed Philippines bantay < Hokkien bang-tai 'watchtower, lookout, watch'.  I do not have direct access to Manuel's work.  However I have looked in the Barclay & Douglas Amoy dictionary and supplement, and have not found the compound bang-tai listed anywhere, only the roots bang (vowel a with macron) 'hope, expect' and tai (vowel a with circumflex) 'platform, pedestal'.  So is bang-tai a bona fide Hokkien compound, or something which Manuel 'constructed'?  
> 
> Thanks much.  Some languages of central and southeastern Sulawesi, Indonesia, have a form bantaya or bantea (see data below) which I think can be traced back as a borrowing from the Philippines. I was just wondering where it goes from there.
> 
> David Mead
> 
> 
> 
> Wolio bantea "guesthouse for patrolling officials".(Anceaux 1988)
> Kulisusu bhantea "1. guard post; 2. small house for holding traditional ceremonies"
> Muna bhantea "temporary forest hut, shed, storing place, shelter".(Van den Berg 1996)
> Moronene bantea "hut, tent" 
> Pamona bantaya, bantayangi "feast hut, temporary shelter for guests at a feast" (Adriani 1928)
> (Note that all these languages reflect only the derived form bantay-an as an unanalyzed whole, they do not have a corresponding stem bantay or bante.  Paragogic vowel in Pamona bantayangi is also highly suggestive of borrowing.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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