*R   

*RabiS small knife

*Rahap seeds for sowing

Note:   Also Seediq (Truku) gəxak ‘seeds for sowing’. This comparison was first proposed by Tsuchida (1976: 136).

*RameC root

Note:   Also Amis lamit ‘root (with literal and figurative meanings). Possibly identical to PMP *Ramut ‘root’, with an irregular change of the last vowel.

*RamiS root

Note:   Also Atayal gamil ‘root’, Amis (Central) lamit ‘root’.

*Ribawa swell; swelling, tumor

Note:   Also Amis (Kiwit) ma-lu-vawa (= ma-luvawa?). Saisiyat bawaʔ probably is a product of analogical wrong division which resulted from reanalyzing the prefix *ma + stem-initial *R as the common active verb prefix maL-.

*Rimeja sword grass: Imperata cylindrica

Note:   This comparison was first pointed out by Li (1994).

*RiNaS long feathers used for personal adornment

Note:   Given the clear morphological connection between these forms it is reasonable to assume that *RiNaS referred in particular to the tail feathers of the male Swinhoe’s blue pheasant, since these are particularly long and striking, with their peacock-like patterns of ocelli. Within historical times such feathers were highly valued in the traditional cultures of several Formosan aboriginal groups. This term is striking in that the name of the animal from which the natural product comes is derived by suffixation with *-an ‘locative’ (male Swinhoe’s blue pheasant lit. = ‘source of long tail feathers’). The correctness of this interpretation is confirmed by a parallel usage with *waNiS ‘tusk of wild boar’ : *waNiS-an ‘wild boar’, where the name for the wild boar is literally ‘source of tusks’, another natural product that was traditionally valued for its decorative uses among the Formosan aborigines.

*Ritu loquat tree and fruit: Eriobotrya deflexa

Note:   This comparison was first noted by Li (1994).

*Rubu nest, lair

Note:   Also Kavalan Rupu ‘pen, corral (as for pigs), enclosure; pigpen, chicken house; bird nest, ant nest’.

*RuSRuS to scrape smooth, to plane a surface