t   

table

Borrowing from Spanish.

taboo:   forbidden taboo

Apparently a Malay loan outside Malayic.

taboo:   forbidden, prohibited, taboo

Borrowing from Tagalog into Casiguran Dumagat and Agutaynen.

take with fingers:   pick up, take with fingers

Also Ngaju Dayak sumput ‘pick up, take’. Tagalog dampót cannot be reconciled with the Ngaju Dayak or Javanese forms, and the latter cannot be reconciled with Malay jemput. Moreover, Dempwolff (1938) included Fijian covu-ta ‘to break or cut food small; to peck at’, which appears to be unrelated. All things considered, then, this comparision is most likely to be a product of borrowing from Malay.

talisman:   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.

talisman, protective charm

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic, but through the medium of Malay. Ironically, Kayan gimet is described as part of a pagan practice, although it was acquired through contact with Malay, which is the source of Islam for all native peoples of Borneo.

tamarind:   fruit tree, tamarind, Tamarindus indica

The tamarind tree is native to Africa, and is believed to have reached western India via human transport several millennia before the Christian era. It presumably was introduced to insular Southeast Asia during the Indianization that began some 1,800-2,000 years ago. Madulid (2001) reports that forms related to Tagalog sampálok are found in “many languages” of the Philippines, but I have found only a few examples in the available dictionaries. The Itbayaten term is almost certainly a loan from Tagalog.

tang of a knife or bolo

Probably an Ilokano loan in the Batanic languages.

taro variety

Probably a Malay loan, although it is unclear if this is true why a loanword from far south of the Philippines would be concentrated only in the region of Palawan and Mindoro.

taste

Borrowing from Malay.

tattle, tell on

Probably a Tagalog loan in Ayta Abellan.

taut

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) proposed *kenceŋ ‘taut’.

tax, toll

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit vyaya. This item has the same historical source as the various forms of biaya cited under 'monetary support' (cf. Old Javanese byaya 'expenses, contribution'). The attested distribution of both sets of forms almost certainly is the result of borrowing from Malay, which in turn acquired the word twice, the first time directly from Sanskrit with relatively minor phonetic modifications, and the second time through Javanese. The two words so acquired were then transmitted, probably as a linguistic by-product of Islamic proselytization, from Malay into various other languages of Indonesia and the Philippines.

teak

A Malay loan in Philippine languages.

tear into pieces

Probably an Amis loan in Puyuma.

teens

Borrowing from Malay, probably associated with the expansion of trade during the period of the Sriwijaya empire (7th-12th centuries AD).

tell:   divine, find by divination, tell fortunes

Borrowing from Malay.

tell on:   tattle, tell on

Probably a Tagalog loan in Ayta Abellan.

temptation; to tempt

Probably a Tagalog loan distribution, although in this case the agreement of the final glottal stop in widely separated languages is unexplained.

tent

term of address for girls

Borrowing from Malay.

thick (of fluids), viscous

Also Balinese hentel ‘thick, close, dense, solid’. Given its distribution only on Java, Bali and Lombok and in Malay, but not in the Batak languages or other languages of northern Sumatra, or in Borneo, this is most likely to be a loan from Javanese. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *kenTel ‘viscous’.

thief:   bandit, robber, thief

Probably a Tagalog loan distribution.

thief

Also Balinese paliŋ ‘to steal, rob, take away’. Borrowing, probably from Javanese into Malay and then from Malay into other languages. Dempwolff (1934-1938) posited ‘Uraustronesisch’ *maliŋ ‘to steal’.

thimble

From Spanish dedal ‘thimble’.

thin, slender, skinny

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Sanskrit. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *ku(r)us ‘slender’.

thin (of materials)

Presumably a back-formation from *ma-nipis, with borrowing from Malay into Javanese. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tipis ‘thin’ (dünnsein).

thin cover to sleep on:   quilt mattress thin cover to sleep on

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tilem ‘mattress’ (Matratze), basing the last vowell on Javanese tiləm ‘to sleep, go to bed’, but the latter form differs from reflexes in all other languages, including Old Javanese.

things:   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.

thirst, thirsty

Borrowing from Malay.The relation of the Chamic forms to those in other languages probably is convergent.

thoughts, mind

A late innovation in western Indonesia, with borrowing from Malay into some Philippine languages. Aklanon aŋán-aŋán 'wait a little while, spend some time idling', and similar forms in some other Greater Central Philippines languages, appear to be distinct.

thread:   spin cotton thread

A relatively late innovation in western Indonesia, with probable borrowing from Malay into some of the other languages cited here.

threshold

Borrowing from Malay.

thrifty

Borrowing from Tagalog.

through:   bore through

Apart from Iban the western Indonesian forms are likely Malay loans, and the resemblance of the Fijian form to the others cited here is best attributed to chance.

tickle

Borrowing into Bintulu from Malay (possibly from Malay (Sarawak)).

tie:   fasten or tie to

Dempwolff (1938) posited *si(r)at ‘fasten or tie to’, but support for this reconstruction is limited, and until stronger evidence is found, the comparison is best attributed to a borrowing from Malay.

tied:   drawn, tied, even in score

Borrowing of Spanish tablas ‘stalemate, draw’, with irregular loss of -s. David Zorc has noted in a personal communication that although -s is commonly added to Spanish words borrowed in Philippine languages (e.g. Pangasinan apáyas, Bikol tapáyas, Manobo (Western Bukidnon) kepayas < Spanish papaya), it is also sometimes dropped, as in the present case. It is likely that borrowing of this word from Spanish took place directly only in Tagalog, and that it then spread to other Philippine languages from this secondary source.

tight-fisted:   stingy, tight-fisted

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

tightly:   bind tightly

Probably identical to PWMP *tambej ‘tie up, bind tightly’, but with borrowing of the Malay form tambat into the other languages cited here. Dempwolff (1938) posited ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tambat ‘bind tightly’.

time limit:   deadline, time limit

tin can

From Spanish lata ‘tin plate; can; tin’.

tired

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff cited the first three forms and posited Uraustronesisch *lelaq ‘tired’ (Müdesein).

tired of

title, yield, results

Borrowing, ultimately from Arabic.

title of rank

Borrowing ultimately from Sanskrit.

title (to land)

toast (in drinking)

Borrowing from Tagalog.

tobacco

toll:   tax, toll

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit vyaya. This item has the same historical source as the various forms of biaya cited under 'monetary support' (cf. Old Javanese byaya 'expenses, contribution'). The attested distribution of both sets of forms almost certainly is the result of borrowing from Malay, which in turn acquired the word twice, the first time directly from Sanskrit with relatively minor phonetic modifications, and the second time through Javanese. The two words so acquired were then transmitted, probably as a linguistic by-product of Islamic proselytization, from Malay into various other languages of Indonesia and the Philippines.

tomato

Since it is a native of Mexico the tomato was almost certainly first introduced into Southeast Asia through the Spanish presence in the Philippines, and more specifically through the annual Manila Galleon voyages that connected Manila, a source of Chinese silks, with Acapulco, a source of Mexican and Peruvian silver, from 1565-1815. The tomato would then most likely have made its landfall in the Philippines in one of the returning galleons that brought its cargo into Manila Bay, where the native population was Tagalog-speaking. Presumably the name was misheard and bruited about in the form kamátis, in which form it eventually spread throughout the Philippines, but not beyond (note that Chamorro, spoken in Guam, which was a regular galleon stopover, does not show this sporadic change).

The Tetun word almost certainly derives from Portuguese, and the same may be true of the word in various languages of Sulawesi. By contrast, the Malay/Indonesian word appears to derive from Dutch tomaat, itself a loanword from Spanish or Portuguese. Needless to say, the sporadic prenasalization in Western Bukidnon Manobo, SUBAN, Mapun and Tiruray is part of a much larger phenomenon of ‘pandemic irregularity’ characteristic of sound change in hundreds of the languages in insular Southeast Asia (Blust 1996a).

tombstone

Borrowing of Spanish lápida ‘memorial stone, tablet’.

tomorrow:   morning, tomorrow

Borrowing from Javanese.

tool:   handle of a tool

Dempwolff (1938) posited *saŋkal ‘handle of a tool’, but this form appears to be confied to Malay and a few languages of western Indonesia that have borrowed from Malay.

tool for sawing:   saw, tool for sawing

Borrowing of Malay gərgaji ‘a saw; to saw’, ultimately from Sanskrit krakaca.

toothless

Borrowing from Tagalog.

torment, torture

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

tortoise, land turtle

Borrowing from Malay, where it evidently replaced PAn *qaCipa. However, this explanation assumes that borrowing took place in both Lampung and Sundanese before the distinctive sound change *R > y (from *kuRa). Somewhat enigmatically, Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *ku(r)a ‘milt, spleen, land turtle’, combining two very distinct senses in a single gloss.

tortoise shell

Probably a Malay loan based on trade in the shell of the hawksbill turtle.

torment, torture

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

trade

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.The semantic developments in some Philippine languages provide an interesting commentary on the atmosphere in which trade apparently was conducted between Malay merchants and the local population.

trade:   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.

trade cloth (bright red)

Presumably borrowing from Tagalog.

transport ship

Borrowing from Javanese or Old Javanese. This comparison was first noted by Dempwolff (1920).

trap:   deadfall trap

Thao danar is a loan, possibly from Atayal or Bunun, although lexicographic resources for the latter language are inadequate to determine the matter with certainty.

tray

Borrowing from Malay, ultimately from Arabic.

tray:   serving tray

Borrowing from Tamil through Malay. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *talam ‘dish, bowl’ (Schüssel).

tray:   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.

tray of low table.

Borrowing from Malay.

tread:   step, tread

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) included Tagalog tindak ‘to tread’, tirak ‘to tread’, and Malagasy tsindzaka ‘dance in which one stamps’, but neither form appears in any dictionary I have consulted. With root *-zak ‘step, tread’.

tree sp.

Borrowing, ultimately from Sanskrit.

tree sp.

Borrowing. The Rennellese word probably is a survival from the aboriginal Southeast Solomonic "Hiti" language of the island (Elbert 1987, Blust 1987).

tree sp., Cananga odorata

Borrowing from some Philippine language into Palauan.

tree sp., Casuarina equisetifolia

Dempwolff (1934-38) assigned these two forms to *eRu 'name of a tree'. However, Malay eru regularly reflects *aRuhu (q.v.), and Toba Batak oru clearly is a borrowing of the Malay form with the normal phonological adjustment made in the assimilation of non-native words with shwa.

tree with edible fruit Sandoricum indicum or Sandoricum koetjape

Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *se(n)tul ‘name of a tree’, but all Philippine forms appear to be loans from Malay, and this may be true of some forms in western Indonesia as well.

tree with edible hairy brown fruit: Diospyros discolor

Evidently a commercial name in the Philippines reflecting *ma- ‘stative’ + *bulu ‘hairy’. For what is presumably the original name cf, *kamaguŋ.

tree and its fruit: Lansium domesticum

The history of this word is problematic. Western Indonesian languages point clearly to *laŋsat, but many Philippine languages have forms such as Bikol lansónes ‘small edible fruit growing in bunches, possessing a leathery yellow skin and a white segmented inside: Lansium domesticum’. The plant is native to Southeast Asia, but variants of the names duku and laŋsat (cf. Malay) are found in Thai and Burmese, as well as Austronesian languages. This leaves little doubt that it is a loanword, but the source remains unknown. Dempwolff (1938) posited Uraustronesisch *lansat ‘name of a tree and its fruit’.

tree with yellow fruit: Lucuma nervosa

Apparently from Spanish, as this fruit is native to Peru and Ecuador, and must have been introduced to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period.

tree: Shorea spp.

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1934-1938) proposed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *ma(r)anti ‘kind of tree’.

trees:   bare (of trees)

Chance, or borrowing from Malay.

trick, ruse, scheme, wits

A Malay loanword, ultimately from Arabic. Note how the positive features of the meaning in Malay assume a more negative cast in most other languages.

tricked:   induced, tricked

Borrowing from Tagalog into Casiguran Dumagat.

trickery:   deceit, trickery, fraud

Borrowing from Malay into Tagalog, and then from Tagalog into Hanunóo, and perhaps other languages.

trim:   prune, trim

Borrowing of Spanish labrar ‘to work, fashion; carve’.

trivet

Given its meaning one would not expect this to be a loan distribution. However, three independent pieces of evidence show that the words in Tagalog, Ngaju Dayak, Malagasy and Javanese are almost certainly Malay loans. First, Tagalog shows -Ɂ corresponding to Malay final vowel. Second, the word is unknown in any language of the Philippines apart from Tagalog. Third, PMP *dalikan is a far better candidate for the meaning ‘trivet, three stones of the hearth’.

Zorc (1996) took the correspondence of final glottal stop in Tagalog to final glottal stop in Iban to be evidence for *-Ɂ, and so presumably would posit *tuŋkuɁ. However, as shown in Blust (2013; sect. 8.2.2.4), there are serious problems with the proposal that *-Ɂ existed in PAn, PMP, or any early Austronesian proto-language.

The agreement between Iban and Tagalog in this case appears instead to be entirely fortuitous: Iban added -Ɂ to many words that originally ended in a vowel (or, in some cases a -VC sequence that first monophthongized), and Tagalog acquired a final glottal stop in loanwords from Malay (mostly Brunei Malay). Many Malay loanwords entered the Philippines through a trading colony in Manila Bay, where Tagalog was spoken natively (Wolff 1976), and in the present case this loan evidently got no further.

Finally, *dalikan ‘trivet’ is unquestionably native, and is found from the Batanes islands, to northern Sumatra, to southern Sulawesi, to the Mariana islands, to Timor in the Lesser Sundas, showing that a better candidate exists for this meaning. A loanword of this kind suggests that Malay contact with the Philippines was rather intimate rather than distant. Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed ‘Uraustronesisch’ *tuŋku ‘trivet’ (Dreifuss).

trouble, worry, difficulty

Dempwolff (1938) posited this form as ‘Uraustronesisch’, but its distribution is restricted to Malay and other languages of western Indonesia that have borrowed from Malay. It is therefore best considered a Proto-Malayic innovation that has been borrowed over much of the area that it is found, and is indicated as such in at least two of the sources cited here. In addition, Dempwolff included Malagasy usa ‘cowardly, timid, faint-hearted; feeble, weak’ in his comparison, but this appears to be unrelated.

true

Borrowing from Malay.

trunk

Borrowing of Spanish baúl ‘trunk (for clothes)’.

trust, confidence (in lending money)

From Spanish confiar ‘trust’.

tuber

Borrowing from Malay. Dempwolff (1938) posited *kenTaŋ ‘Erdfrucht’ (‘tuber’), without further specification of the type of tuber intended, which clearly could not have been the Peruvian potato.

tuck something in at the waist

Also Bikol hukbít ‘wear a gun, bolo, etc.’. Probably a Tagalog loan in Ayta Maganchi.

tuna:   fish sp.: tuna

The Oxford English Dictionary gives wahoo (origin unknown) 'a large marine fish, Acanthocybium solandri, belonging to the family Scombridae and found in tropical seas'. The citations which follow this definition suggest that the word was widely used in the western Pacific in the nineteenth century. Borrowing from some local language into Spanish or English,with subsequent borrowing from Spanish or English into other local languages seems to be the most likely source of transmission.

tune

Apparently from Spanish punto ‘point, dot’.

turbid

KOM butéʔ is assumed to be a Javanese loan. The resemblance of FIJ butō to these forms is attributed to chance.

turkey

A borrowing of Spanish pavo ‘turkey’.

turmeric: Curcuma longa:   plant sp., turmeric, Curcuma longa

Borrowing from Tagalog. The PMP and PPh term for ‘turmeric’ was *kunij.

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.

turnip:   Mexican turnip, Pachyrrhizus erosus

This native of Mexico, known in English as the ‘Mexican yam’, the ‘yam bean’, or the ‘Mexican turnip’, was introduced during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, along with its name (jícama), ultimately from Nahuatl xīcamatl. Given the importance of the Manila Galleon trade, which connected Manila and Acapulco by annual voyages from 1572 to 1815, the introduction of this plant and its name almost certainly took place through Tagalog, with subsequent borrowing into other Philippine languages from the region of Manila Bay. It is noteworthy that it evidently was not introduced into Guam despite this island being a regular stopover in the Galleon trade. The borrowing of nouns in their plural form is common to many Spanish loanwords in both Philippine and Mexican Indian languages (Lopez 1965).

turnip bean: Pachyrrhizus erosus

Borrowing of Spanish jícama. This Mexican plant must have been introduced to the Philippines during the period of the Manila galleon (1565-1815).

turtle:   tortoise, land turtle

Borrowing from Malay, where it evidently replaced PAn *qaCipa. However, this explanation assumes that borrowing took place in both Lampung and Sundanese before the distinctive sound change *R > y (from *kuRa). Somewhat enigmatically, Dempwolff (1938) reconstructed *ku(r)a ‘milt, spleen, land turtle’, combining two very distinct senses in a single gloss.

twins

A loan from Malay, which itself acquired the word from a Mon-Khmer source.