a   

abuse

From Spanish abuso ‘abuse’.

accept, receive

Borrowing from Malay, perhaps ultimately from Old Javanese. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tarima ‘receive, accept’.

accusation, blame

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic, but with the Bornean and Philippine forms acquired indirectly through the medium of Malay.

accustomed

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

ace

Borrowing of Spanish el as ‘ace’.

acid

Borrowing of Spanish ácido.

acquired:   cloth acquired in trade from Chinese (?)

Presumably a loan from southern Chinese, although a plausible source word is yet to be identified. Thanks to Yen-ling Chen for tracing the history of this form, and drawing my attention to the suggestion that the name may derive from a reduplicated form of Malay kain ‘cloth’: kain-kain > kankan > kaŋkan > kaŋgan.

address:   term of address for girls

Borrowing from Malay.

adept:   skilled, adept

Probably a Tagalog loan distribution.

administrative unit:   district, administrative unit

Apparently a Tagalog loan distribution from a form that must originally have had an intervocalic voiced alveolar stop.

admit fault, confess

Probably a Tagalog loan distribution.

aerial root

afternoon prayer

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic.

age

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic.

agree

Probably a GCPH loan in Casiguran Dumagat and Kapampangan.

agreeable:   pleasant, agreeable

Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *inak 'agreeable', but the comparison in question is best explained as a relatively recent innovation or a loan distribution in western Indonesia.

agreement

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

ailment:   eye ailment

Borrowing from Tagalog.

alcohol, distilled liquor

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic. Dempwolff treated this form as native, but Jones (1978) regards it as a borrowing of Arabic ʔaraq 'strong drink'. This interpretation is supported by the initial consonant of Wolio ʔara 'arrack, brandy (made from sago juice, or the nectar of nipah-palm blossom)', and by numerous irregularities in the sound correspondences, although the appearance of forms of the word in Old Javanese and Malagasy is in need of further study. Such Philippine languages as Casiguran Dumagat, Kapampangan, Hanunóo, and Aklanon appear to have acquired the word through TAGA, but Ilokano and Bikol evidently acquired it directly from speakers of Malay. Throughout much of eastern Indonesia the word appears to have been borrowed through the mediation of Malay, and the same may be true of Chamorro arak, although Ilokano árak is another plausible source.

This term is defined more by the process of distillation, which marks it off from native forms of brewing liquors by simple fermentation, than by any distinctive ingredient. Its wide distribution and integration into the morphological system of some languages shows how easily loanwords can take on the characteristics of native forms. Somewhat ironically, Old Javanese arak must have been borrowed during the earliest period of Islamization, as it is one of the few Arabic loans in the Old Javanese material.

alert:   quick, ready, alert

Presumably a Spanish loan, although the source is yet to be determined.

all at once:   sudden(ly), all at once

Borrowing of Spanish golpe ‘blow, stroke, hit; clash, shock; crowd, throng; accident; surprise’, de golpe ‘suddenly’.

alloy:   copper-gold alloy

Borrowing from Sanskrit. For a detailed account of the complex history of this word, which generally refers to copper in island Southeast Asia, but to a copper-gold alloy in the archaeological cultures of the Andes cf. Blust (1992a).

alms

Borrowing of Spanish limosna ‘alms’.

alright, go ahead!

Apparently a borrowing of Spanish darle/dale ‘go ahead!’.

although, even if

Philippine forms are from Spanish mas que ‘although, even so’, and the Malay form is evidently from the similar expression in Portuguese. Surprisingly, the same expression is also found in Tok Pisin maski ‘although’. Why this particular collocation was so readily borrowed remains unclear.

alum

Probably a Malay loan distribution. Dempwolff (1938) proposed PAn *tawas 'alum'.

ambergris

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic.

amulet, talisman

Probably a GCPh innovation borrowed into Kapampangan. Dempwolff's (1934-38) attempt to relate Tagalog antíŋ-antíŋ 'amulet' to Malay antiŋ-antiŋ 'ear-ring' and similar forms in other western Indonesian languages through a meaning 'pendant' is unconvincing.

animal

Borrowing from Malay. No general term for 'animal' has been reconstructed for any early AN proto-language, and the Malay term binataŋ was thus free to fill a gap in the semantic systems of many languages in Indonesia and the southern Philippines. As is often the case with terms for 'animal' in natural languages, this word functioned both as a category marker and as a term of abuse.

animal:   stomach of an animal

Maranao assumed to be a loan from some dialect of Malay.

Anona:   sugar apple: Anona squamosa

Merrill (1954:152) notes that all members of the genus Annona which are found in Southeast Asia are natives of tropical America. The plant evidently was introduced by the Spanish into the central Philippines, and probably into Guam during the same period. From there it spread southward through borrowing from Austronesian sources, leaving telltale phonological irregularities in Tiruray and the Sangiric languages (Sneddon 1984:122).

answer

Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *sau(dj) ‘to answer’, including Malay saut ‘to answer’. However, the latter word does not appear in Wilkinson (1959), in Moeliono et al. (1989), or in Hapip (1977). This appears to be a late innovation in western Indonesia with possible borrowing from Javanese into Balinese.

appearance:   face, looks, appearance

Borrowing from Malay.

apple:   sugar apple: Anona squamosa

Merrill (1954:152) notes that all members of the genus Annona which are found in Southeast Asia are natives of tropical America. The plant evidently was introduced by the Spanish into the central Philippines, and probably into Guam during the same period. From there it spread southward through borrowing from Austronesian sources, leaving telltale phonological irregularities in Tiruray and the Sangiric languages (Sneddon 1984:122).

appropriate:   becoming, fitting, appropriate

Borrowing from Javanese into Malay, and then diffusion through Malay to a wider set of languages. Dempwolff (1938) positied Uraustronesisch *pantas ‘be successful, effective’ (Erfolgreichsein).

appropriate:   proper, fitting, appropriate

Borrowing from Javanese into Malay, with subsequent wide dispersal via Malay. Dempwolff (1938) compared the Ngaju Dayak, Malay, Javanese and Toba Batak forms with Tagalog patot ‘proper, fitting’ and posited Uraustronesisch *patut ‘proper, fitting’, but I have been unable to find the last of these forms in any modern dictionary. Note the close semantics and probable origin in Javanese with subsequent spread by Malay for both this form and Malay pantas, etc.

approximate:   guess, approximate

Borrowing from Malay.

approximately

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *kira ‘to presume, surmise, suspect’.

arbor

Rubino (2000:150) lists this as a variant of ramada, from Mexican Spanish ramada ‘a shelter’.

areca nut cutter

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Tamil.

argue, blame

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Arabic.

Argus pheasant

Probably early borrowing.

around:   circumambulate, go around the edge

Borrowing from Javanese? Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed PAn *tepis ‘go around the edge’.

around:   turned around, inverted

Probably a Malay loan distribution. Dempwolff (1938) posited *suŋsaŋ ‘turned around’ based on the data considered here minus Karo Batak and Old Javanese.

arrange, put in order

Borrowing from Malay.

arrange, put in order

Borrowing from Malay.

arrogant

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

arrogant:   proud, arrogant

The Ayta Maganchi word probably is an Ilokano loan.

arrow

At first sight this comparison looks flawless, but Saisiyat siwaL can only reflect *Ciwal, and Kavalan siwar must reflect *siwal or *Siwal, making a reconstruction impossible. To date a similar form has not been found in any other Formosan language, and although this forms clearly shows greater similarity than can be expected from chance the conditions under which borrowing might have taken place remain obscure.

artificial cockspur

Borrowing from Malay. The direction of borrowing for this term strongly suggests that cockfighting was introduced into the Austronesian world in western Indonesia, and from there spread northward into the Philippines and eastward to Sulawesi. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tazi ‘artificial cockspur’ (Kunstsporn).

Artocarpus:   jackfruit Artocarpus spp.

Also Malay naŋka ‘a fruit; specifically the jack, Artocarpus integrifolia; but covering also the soursop, another jackfruit, Artocarpus lanceaefolia, and two other plants: Mallotus macrostachyus and Nauclea purpurascens or Sideroxylon malaccense’, Karo Batak naŋka ‘jackfruit tree and fruit: Balinese naŋka ‘breadfruit tree and fruit: Artocarpus integrifolia’, Mongondow naŋga ‘jackfruit: Artocarpus integrifolia’.

The history of this word remains somewhat unclear. Merrill (1954:153) notes that the jackfruit “although now widely distributed in the archipelago and frequently planted, was an early introduction from tropical Asia.” By ‘tropical Asia’ he presumably means India, although no further information is given. Since the word occurs in Old Javanese and has spread into a number of Philippine languages, it is likely that its introduction into the Austronesian family goes back at least a millennium. Its appearance in Chamorro presumably is due to contact with Philippine languages such as Tagalog during the centuries of Spanish occupation of the Marianas.

ascetic

Borrowing, ultimately from Prakrit.

ascetic

aspire:   wish, aspire

Borrowing from a GCPh source into Casiguran Dumagat.

assembly:   meeting, assembly, gathering

Almost certainly a product of borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938), who reconstructed *kampuŋ ‘meeting, assembly, gathering’, included Tongan kapu ‘to surround, etc.’, Futunan kāpu-i ‘encircle’, Samoan Ɂapu ‘a cup or dish made of a leaf’ in this comparison, but there seems to be little reason to treat the similarity of the Oceanic forms to those in western Indonesia as anything other than chance resemblances. For the unexpected Iban gloss cf. Blust (1980b).

astonishment

Probably a Malay loanword that has since disappeared in Malay.

attack suddenly, fall upon

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *tempuq ‘fall upon, attack’.

attentive:   be attentive, stand guard

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) posited ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tuŋgu ‘be attentive’ (aufpassen).

aunt

average:   medium, average, intermediate

Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *sedaŋ ‘middling amount’, leaving the last-syllable vowel of the Javanese form unexplained. Since the same problem is found with several other languages, it appears more economical to assume that Malay borrowed Javanese səḍəŋ, with subsequent spread of the loanword into other languages after the merger of last-syllable schwa and *a.

awareness:   understanding, awareness

Probably a Tagalog loan in Itbayaten.

axe

Borrowing. Ilokano palakól is almost certainly a Tagalog loan. Similarly, Schlegel (1971) gives Tiruray felakul as a borrowing from Tagalog. Whatever the source of the Tiruray word, it is clearly a loan, and the remaining languages all belong to the Central Philippines subgroup.

axe

Borrowing of Hokkien pú-thâu ‘axe’. This comparison was pointed out by Daniel Kaufman.