[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] The origins of oranges

[Nathan Straub 曹內森]

Here's a little puzzle for you...

Where did the word for 'orange' or 'tangerine' in Rawang come from?
According to my understanding, the first major cultivation of citrus trees
in the Putao area of northern Burma was introduced by J. Russell Morse in
the 1950s. (Although, come to think of it, he did a lot of grafting of
imported orange shoots onto wild tree stock, so there may have been a word
for 'orange' in Rawang before the Morses arrived.)

The Mvtwang dialect of Rawang has [gɯm³¹ziʔ] 'tangerine', and the Rvmøn
dialect has [kʰa.lɨm.gəm.tziʔ (si)] 'orange (fruit)', from [kʰa] 'chicken',
[lɨm] 'egg', [gəm.tziʔ] 'tangerine (?)', and [si] 'fruit'. (I guess it
means an orange the size of a chicken egg?)

The STEDT database shows the following similar forms, falling into three
sets:

*kom-la 'orange' (Apatani)
ko-ma-la à-ji 'orange' (Apatani)
komla 'orange' (Rongmei/Nruanghmei)
komola 'orange' (Tangkhul)
komla 'orange' (Meithei)
nareŋ komla 'orange' (Bodo) (nareŋ < Sanskrit नारिङ्ग nāriŋka)
ko-mil-a 'orange' (Garo (Bangladesh))
róʔkhyɯsɨ́ 'tangerine' (Sak)

kōpeng shei 'orange' (Darang [Taraon])
sohosi-kemupfü 'orange' (Angami (Khonoma))
sühi-küngu 'orange' (Chokri)

jemben 'orange' (Ao (Chungli))
champen 'orange (Ao (Mongsen: Longchang))
auko-champan 'orange' (Chang)


On top of this, I'm spending the night with a family in Yunnan, and the
father calls oranges  *chéngzi* [tɕʰəŋ³⁵tzɿ³¹] (Mandarin Chinese) (tzɿ
'son, seed, individualizer').

My first suspicion was that the Rawang root [kɯmziʔ] (Mvtwang) or [kəmtziʔ]
(Rvmøn) is derived from the Chinese word *chéngzi*, because otherwise I
have no gloss for [ziʔ], which doesn't appear in the other Tibeto-Burman
ostensible cognates. The problem is that [kom] appears in so many other TB
languages, and is phonetically closer to the Rawang root than the Chinese
form is.

Another possibility is that [ziʔ] is derived from PTB *sey
FRUIT/ROSE/ROUND.OBJECT, like [ji] in the second Apatani form shown above.
If this is the case, then it is fossilized, with [si] 'fruit' is appended
on top of it, both of them deriving from the PTB *sey at different times. I
don't really think this is likely, though, because [ziʔ] doesn't appear at
the end of any other fruit names in Rawang that I know of. ([si] 'fruit' at
the end of the Rvmøn form is optional.)

Any ideas on this etymology, or the spread of orange cultivation
historically in the Tibeto-Burman area?

Thanks,
Nathan

-- 
We are sent into this world for some end.  It is our duty to discover by
close study what this end is & when we once discover it to pursue it with
unconquerable perseverance.
JQA at age 12 to his brother Charles (June 1778)
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