[fwd from A. Grant] "towee" origin

[Ross Clark (FOA LING)]

Good point. This is Proto-Polynesian *toki, which by regular sound change
would become /to?i/ in (inter alia) Samoan, Tahitian, Southeast Marquesan
and Hawaiian. Standard written Hawaiian of course reflects a further change
of t > k, but there seem to have been plenty of t-speakers around in Cook's
time, particularly in the west, and it can still be heard today.

Ross Clark

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Robertson
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Sent: 27/01/2002 6:55 a.m.
Subject: [fwd from A. Grant] "towee" origin

[This message got lost in the server at first! -- Dave]

From: "Anthony Grant" <Anthony.Grant3 at btinternet.com>
To: "The Chinook List" <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>

Dave et al:  Re: toes/towees:  The tewrm COULD be Hawai'ian but
acqyuired at
a time before Hawai'ian /t/ had become /k/ (something it still hasn't
done
in Ni'ihau, I think), although original /k/had already become glottal
stop.
Or it could also be Marquesan, I think - this being an area visited by
Europeans often enough for them to have at least some knowledge of the
names
of culturally salient items.

Anthony

--
"Asking a linguist how many languages she knows is like asking a doctor
how many diseases he has!" -- anonymous



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