nanguy 'pig' in Akit

[Sarah Lee]

Hi

In colloquial Malay (in Malaysia at least), 'babi nangui' is a 'wild boar'.  It is also be used metaphorically as a derogatory term. I am not sure where 'nangui' comes from though.


Regards
Sarah

Sarah Lee
Dept of Linguistics
Rice University
Houston Texas



----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Karl & Kristen Anderbeck 
  To: an-lang at anu.edu.au 
  Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:16 PM
  Subject: [An-lang] nanguy 'pig' in Akit


  Greetings,

   

  I'm taking a look at a book on the (Malayic) Akit speech variety (Rupat Island, Riau Coast, Sumatra, Indonesia).  Although it is a fairly straightforward Malay variety, not too weird lexically, phonologically or morphologically, one word really threw me: nanguy 'pig'.  PMP *nanguy 'swim' comes immediately to mind (cf. also PMP *babuy 'pig').  Now Malayic innovated all PMP -*uy diphthongs to i, e.g. babi 'pig', etc.  

   

  I do not see any phonological innovations in Akit which could have produced such a diphthong, but neither can I imagine a semantic path from a possibly pre-Malayic, substratal nanguy 'swim' to 'pig'.  

   

  All that comes to me is Flo in the 70's sitcom Mel, saying, "When pigs fly!"

   

  Any ideas?

   

  Thanks,

  Karl Anderbeck

  National University of Malaysia 

   

  Reference: Umar, Said Mahmud, T. Nontel, Pang Cik, Burhan Yunus. 1991. Struktur Bahasa Akit. Jakarta: Pusat Bahasa.  

   



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