*q   

*qa₂ interrogative particle

Note:   Given the brevity of this form and the fact that the comparison is currently confined to just two languages the similarity between Thao qa and Kavalan i may be due to chance. However, the sound correspondences are regular, the meaning and distribution are identical, and there is no other competitor that has been reconstructed in this meaning or function.

*qadiS hawk sp. (harrier?)

Note:   Also Kavalan Rzis ‘crested goshawk’. This term clearly referred to some type of hawk, but the exact referent remains uncertain. PAn *kuaw may also have designated a kind of hawk, so it is very likely that lexical distinctions existed for at least two types of hawk in PAn. Unlike the description given for Paiwan qaḍis, most harriers are small to middle-sized birds of prey, which would fit the description of Saisiyat ʔæris, although no further information is given about its meaning.

*qanus₁ a plant: Begonia aptera (Hay)

Note:   Also Kavalan ʔenus ‘a plant: Begonia aptera’. This comparison was noted by Li (1994).

*qaNa stranger; enemy

Note:   Because PAn *pajiS ‘enemy’ can be reconstructed on the basis of Formosan-only data, and none of the glosses in published sources mention ‘stranger’, I assume that *qaNa and *pajiS differed in meaning, the former meaning essentially ‘stranger, someone not from our group’, and the latter ‘enemy’. Given the insecure conditions in which tribal societies often lived it is hardly surprising that the notion ‘stranger’ would easily include that of ‘enemy’, and the delicate ambivalence between guest and enemy (the positive reception of the outsider vs. the negative reception of the outsider) that is so penetratingly discussed in the Indo-European context by Benveniste (1973:71-83) is also reflected in various forms of this term, which include ‘enemy’, ‘stranger’, ‘guest’ and ‘one’s own villagers’.

*qaRidaŋ bean, pea (generic)

Note:   Also Amis kalitaŋ ‘string beans, green beans’. This comparison was first noted by Li (1994).

*qaRiw dry

Note:   Based on its limited geographical spread this may be a loan distribution, but there is nothing in the sound correspondences that would lead us to this conclusion.

*qeCeŋeN black

Note:   This comparison is somewhat problematic in that Paiwan has a trisyllabic base corresponding to a disyllable in Kavalan and the Rukai languages. Since the initial CV- in Paiwan qetseŋel cannot be explained as a product of morphology it is assumed that the PAn base was trisyllabic, and that both Kavalan and Proto-Rukai have lost the initial syllable. This would not be surprising, since *q regularly disappeared in both Kavalan and Proto-Rukai, and this change would have left a schwa in prepenultimate initial position, where it would have been exceptionally vulnerable to elision. Because color terms regularly take the stative prefix *ma- it is possible that the Proto-Rukai form should be *ma-iceɭeŋe, and that the *i is an irregular reflex of the prepenultimate schwa.

*qelqel chew, gnaw on

*qelud housepost, pillar

*qemu sticky rice cake

*qiNaS moon, month

Note:   Possibly a loan, although the chances of this seem slight. This term is in competition with PAn *bulaN for the meaning ‘moon, month’. Since there is no obvious basis for distinguishing the meanings they represent this apparent synonymy remains puzzling. Only *bulan survived in PMP.

*qubiS pubic hair

Note:   This term was replaced in PMP by *bulu.

*qudaS gray hair

Note:   Also Thao qutash ‘gray hair’, qutash-in ‘to have/get gray hair’, Tsou (Tsuchida 1976:194, fn. 69) ŋtosə ‘gray hair’. Both *qubaN and *qudaS can be reconstructed with the meaning ‘gray hair’ in PAn, and the distinction between them remains to be clarified. This comparison was first recognized in print by Tsuchida (1976:153).

*qulas dewdrop

*quyaS to sing; song, tune, melody