[An-lang] kasih again

[John Ulrich Wolff]

To the many thoughtful and sensible comments made in connection with this form  I would like to add a couple of facts that might fill out the picture and pose a further question:


(1) on the issue of the connection between the meanings of "love, pity" and "give", I would like to point out that Zoetmulder already has  both meanings (among others) in his listing for Old Javanese: namely, angasihi, sinasihan, kinasihan 'bestow a gift on' and pangasih 'gift (as token of love)'. The notion of 'give' probably was part and parcel of the semantic range of the form kasih that spread from Old Javanese via Malay to other languages of Island SE Asia. This is supported (a) by Uri Tadmor's citations from Onya Darat (a Dayak language) and (b) by the very fact that it is an affixed form (*ka- + *sih) that is widely attested, and not the root.


(2) On the history: as indicated above, it is assumed that the trajectory of the form is Indonesian (and Philippine) languages from Malay, and Malay from Javanese, like so many other forms found throughout the languages of Indonesia and the Philippines (I say that this is an assumption and not a certainty because it is not inconceivable that this form was borrowed directly from Javanese into some or all of the other languages). The Javanese root is sih? and a- is a prefix (from earlier *ma- which comes from PAn *magx- [or *maR-]).There is no evidence to my knowledge for a proto-Austronesian provenience of the Javanese form sih. Perhaps there is someone out there who has some ideas where this form originates.


John




John Wolff, Professor Emeritus
Linguistics and Asian Studies
Cornell University
145 Honess Lane Ithaca 14850
Cellphone (607) 229-7627
home: (607) 257-7889
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