Hawaiian meli

[Lyle Campbell]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Ross Clark's example of Hawaiian -meli- 'honey' as a loanword from Greek
via classically-educated missionaries translating the Bible is a very nice
one, as Larry Trask pooints out.  Larry notes that it ruins one of his
favorite examples of chance resemblance, but becomes a particularly
interesting example of borrowing.  I suppose you could sort of raise the
ante on interestaing cases of chance resemblance and borrowing by throwing
Maori -mieri- 'honey' into the mix.  A comparison of Hawaiian -meli- and
Maori -mieri- (bother the -i- vowel difference) might seem to suggest a
Polynesian cognate set (throw in Niuean -meli- 'heney' as well, also
apparently from Greek), but the Maori word is actually a French loanword
(from French -miel- 'honey'), courtesy apparently of early French Catholic
missionizing activities in New Zealand, which soon faded in the country.
(There are not many French loans in Maori, but a favorite is -wi:wi:-
'French' < French -oui- 'yes').  As Larry Traks points out, this -meli- /
-mieri- false cognate is no longer a case of sheer accidental similarity,
in that both are from Indo-European languages, but we still have accident
to thank for it in a way, in that by sheer happenstance Hawiian ended up
with a Greek form and Maori with a French one (which happen to be related
languages), not something that would have been expected.
        Lyle Campbell