g   

gain:   profit, gain, fortune, luck

Widespread borrowing from Malay.

gain:   profit, gain

Borrowing from Sanskrit through Malay, which shows its own loan status in the sequence aba, since in native words this normally became awa.

gambling:   cut of gambling money

Borrowing from Hokkien tông ‘percentage cut of gambling taken from winners’.

game played by children

Probably a Bisayan loanword in Agutaynen.

game played with shells

Apparently a loan distribution, presumably from Tagalog or some other Central Philippine language.

garlic

Borrowing of Sanskrit laśunam ‘garlic’. This comparison was pointed out by Daniel Kaufman.

garter

Borrowing of Spanish liga ‘garter’.

gathering:   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).

gauze, wick of a lamp

From Spanish gasa ‘gauze’.

gaze:   look hard at, gaze, stare at

Borrowing from Javanese, Malay or both.

gem, jewel

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

ghoul, vampire

The essential content of this morpheme is a reference to women who have died in childbirth, and to the culturally perceived vindictiveness and malevolence that their ghosts feel, especially toward men. In Java it is said that the puntianak appears as a beautiful young woman in the twilight of the evening and tempts gullible men to follow her from the village. Once they are alone she turns and flees with a hideous shriek, revealing a hole through the middle of her back, her feet not quite touching the earth.

The forms cited here are conspicuous for their multiple phonological irregularities and apparent morphological reanalyses. This strongly suggests that the form has been borrowed, probably from Malay. According to Alton L. Becker (p.c.) a similar folk belief is found in Burma. If true it is tempting to hypothesize that the puntianak belief was ultimately borrowed by speakers of an early form of Malay from a mainland Southeast Asian source and subsequently disseminated through much of island Southeast Asia.

The problem with this hypothesis is that a similar belief is found among speakers of OC languages. For Nggela in the central Solomons Fox, C. (1955) cites vahuhu 'be born, give birth to', mate 'dead, death; kill, etc.', and vahuhumate '1. goblins that sing when the moon goes down. They have holes in their heads and backs, 2. die in childbirth'. What we have then, appears to be a belief that was present in PMP society, perhaps under the name *m-atay anak (cf. *aCay). For reasons that are unclear, the Malay or Javanese name of this belief was widely borrowed during a much more recent period of history, overlaying an older cultural distribution and presumably replacing the older name in most areas.

gilding, gold-foil

Borrowing. Wilkinson (1959) gives Malay perada as a Portuguese loan, and Richards (1981) appears to have followed Wilkinson in assuming a similar source for Iban perada. In view of the Sanskrit provenance of Old Javanese parada, however, a Sanskrit source for all forms appears more likely.

ginger tea

Borrowing from Tagalog.

girls:   term of address for girls

Borrowing from Malay.

glue

Borrowing of Spanish cola ‘glue’.

gnat

go:   circumambulate, go around the edge

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

go ahead!, O.K.!

From Spanish sigue.

go ahead!:   alright, go ahead!

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

goat

Borrowing. The phonology of this form (with its mid-front vowel and prenasalized initial consonant in several languages) unmistakably indicates a lexical distribution resulting from diffusion. However, unlike most widespread loan distributions in island Southeast Asia it is difficult to attribute this one to borrowing from either Malay or Javanese. The terms in eastern Indonesia almost certainly were borrowed from some language of Sulawesi, most likely Buginese or Makassarese. The origin of the term in the languages of Sulawesi, however, remains unclear. The forms in Minangkabau and Malay suggest that this word, like the similar term for 'duck', is onomatopoetic. An independent term for 'goat' (*kandiŋ) is found in a number of the languages of Borneo and the Philippines, but the domestication of goats is certainly of secondary origin in island Southeast Asia. Perhaps, like the domestication of ducks, it was introduced during the Indianization of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula by the 7th century A.D.

goat

The history of goats in insular Southeast Asia remains to be worked out in detail, but the evidence currently available suggests that they were introduced from South Asia around the beginning of the Christian era (Blust 2002:104-105). What makes this loanword particularly odd is that doublets *kambiŋ and *kandiŋ are both widely distributed in insular Southeast Asia, and only the first of these variants can plausibly be attributed to borrowing from Malay.

gold

A very widespread loanword which Wilkinson (1959) traces to Sanskrit mashaka 'mace', and thence to 'gold', since the latter was measured by the mace. Whatever its origin, it seems clear that the known distribution of this term is largely a product of borrowing from Malay. Lee (1966) reconstructs Proto-Chamic *ʔama-h 'gold', and Mills (1975) reconstructs Proto-South Sulawesi *immas 'gold', but in at least the latter case, and probably in both, the word almost certainly was borrowed from Malay after the proto-language in question had already divided into daughter languages. The glosses of Bikol amás and of such South Sulawesi forms as Tae' ammaʔ and Buginese emmeʔ suggest that the early Malay prototype referred to a unit of measure for gold, probably developed after the initiation of Indian contact in the early centuries of the Christian era. For further discussion cf. Wilkinson (1959:744).

gold

Borrowing from a southern Formosan source into the northern Philippines.

gold:   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).

gold-foil:   gilding, gold-foil

Borrowing. Wilkinson (1959) gives Malay perada as a Portuguese loan, and Richards (1981) appears to have followed Wilkinson in assuming a similar source for Iban perada. In view of the Sanskrit provenance of Old Javanese parada, however, a Sanskrit source for all forms appears more likely.

gone:   past, done, gone

Probably a Malay loan distribution. Dempwolff (1938) proposed Uraustronesisch *lalu ‘to pass by’ (Vorbeigehen).

gong

Dempwolff's (1934-38) attempt to unite a number of these forms under an etymon *eguŋ 'gong' is unconvincing. Although all of the forms cited except Ngaju Dayak geŋ clearly contain the root *-guŋ 'deep resounding sound', the Philippine forms appear to be loans, and the same probably is true of Toba Batak oguŋ. The most likely source language, directly or indirectly, is Javanese.

goods, belongings, things, possessions

Borrowing from Malay. The term *baraŋ apparently was found in PMP as a marker of indefiniteness. The meaning 'things, goods, possessions' evidently was a late innovation in western Indonesia, which, together with the reduplicated form of the word, was widely disseminated through borrowing from Malay.

goods, valuables

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Sanskrit.

goose

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

goose

Borrowing from Javanese

gouge:   curved chisel, gouge

This is presumably a Tagalog or Cebuano loan in Agutaynen.

gourami (fish)

Although this fish reportedly is native to insular Southeast Asia, the distribution and phonology of the name strongly suggests that it has been borrowed from Malay, which in turn appears to have acquired it from an unrelated language (prepenultimate vowels normally merge as schwa in Malay, and the r : r : r : r correspondence between Tagalog, Cebuano, Maranao and Malay is not regular).

government

grain:   dry measure for grain etc.

grains:   shake grains on winnowing tray

Borrowing from Malay. Despite the consistent shapes of the forms cited here Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tiŋtiŋ ‘loosen by shaking’ (durch schütteln losemachen). His inclusion of Tongan sisiŋ-i ‘hit oneself on the head’ (sich auf den Kopf klopfen) is puzzling, as I find no such form in Churchward (1959), and even if it could be found, the semantic connection with the above forms is strained beyond credibility.

grandfather

Borrowing from Southern Min.

grandfather

Said to be from Spanish abuelo ‘grandfather’.

grandmother

Said to be from Spanish abuela ‘grandmother’.

great grandparent

Borrowing from Malay.

grater

Probably a borrowing from Javanese.

graven image, statue

Borrowing from Malay. Based on this comparison Dempwolff (1938) proposed Uraustronesisch *patuŋ ‘portrait, image, likeness’ (Bildnis).

gravy:   broth, gravy

Borrowing from Malay.

gray

Borrowing from Malay.

great grandparent

Borrowing from Malay.

green

Probably a loan distribution that may have been spread by the Sama-Bajaw, although its ultimate source and chronology remain unclear.

greeting:   excuse oneself; greeting

Borrowing, apparently through Malay, but ultimately from Sanskrit kṣantabya ‘to be pardoned; may I be pardoned; pardon me’. Fijian tavi ‘to salute in welcome, give hospitality to’ is assumed to be a chance resemblance.

grip:   seize, grip

Probably identical to PMP *taŋkep ‘to catch, as by covering’, but with the Ngaju Dayak and Toba Batak forms borrowed from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *taŋkap ‘seize, grip’.

grip, hold tightly

Borrowing from Malay. Based on this comparison Dempwolff (1938) proposed Uraustronesisch *pegaŋ ‘hold tightly’ (Festhalten). This comparison has now been replaced by PWMP *pegeŋ ‘hold firmly, concentrate’.

gruel

From Mexican Spanish atole ‘corn flour gruel’.

guard, watchman

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Tamil.

guard:   be attentive, stand guard

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

guava

Borrowing from Spanish into Kavalan and Philippine languages, followed by the southward spread of the introduced plant and name from the Philippines into Indonesia.

guess, approximate

Borrowing from Malay.

gun, rifle

From Spanish fusil ‘rifle’.

gunpowder, medicine

This form appears to be native only in Malay, Sundanese, Balinese and probably Iban. Through borrowing from Malay it has been widely disseminated both in the meaning 'gunpowder' and in the meaning 'medicine'. It is best to regard it as a relatively late innovation in western Indonesia, and more importantly, as evidence that lexical borrowing from Malay affected languages extending from the northwestern Philippines> to the region of the SHWNG-OC language boundary in western New Guinea.

gunwale, side plank on canoe

Borrowing from Sangir.

gurgle, sob

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) proposed *kucak ‘gurgle, sob’, but I cannot find a form with the shape and meaning that he cited in any modern dictionary of either of these languages.