etymology of Philippines bantay 'guard, watch'

[David Mead]

Dear Geoff,

Thanks very much for your informative reply.  I'd 
very much like to take you up on the offer of a PDF copy of your article.

David


At 1/5/2010 03:40 PM +0800, Geoffrey Wade wrote:
>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  In a 1970s unpublished work, Zorc 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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> > An-lang at anu.edu.au
> > http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang
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