*ñ   

*ñabi to taste

*ña(ŋ)ket sticky, adhesive

Note:   With root *-keC ‘sticky, adhesive’.

*ñaman tasty, delicious

Note:   Also Lindrou ñamman ‘sweet, tasty’.

*ñamit taste

Note:   Also Buginese ñame ‘taste, feeling’, Arosi name ‘to taste, lick’. It is possible that some or all of the Oceanic forms cited here actually reflect *ñamñam through an intermediate POc *ñañam-i, with haplology motivated by the common disyllabic target of many Austronesian languages.

*ñamñam tasty, delicious (?)

Note:   Also Aklanon ma-nanám ‘deliciously sweet, succulent, flavorful’, Cebuano nanám ‘for prepared foods to contain something that makes them unusually tasty’, Mansaka nanam ‘taste’, nanam-an ‘delicious’, Binukid, Manobo (Western Bukidnon), Yakan nanam ‘taste, flavor’, Tboli nóm ‘flavor, zest; sweet, tasty; delicious’, Tiruray nonom ‘the taste or feel of something’, ge-nonom ‘tainted, having a strange taste’. With root *-ñam ‘savory, tasty’.

*ñamu chew

Note:   Also Javanese ñamuk-ñamuk ‘chew on something with the mouth full’ appears superficially to be related, but evidently is the active verb form a base camuk, seen also in di-camuk-camuk ‘be chewed on (with a full mouth)’. Reflexes of Proto-Polynesian *namu ‘odor, flavor’ may be related, but the meanings are fairly distinct.

*ñamuk mosquito

Note:   Also Ibaloy imok ‘generic term for several small, blood-sucking flying insects, specifically the mosquito’, Kapampangan amúk ‘mosquito’, amuk-an ‘be bitten by mosquitoes’, Ma'anyan mamoʔ ‘mosquito’, Malagasy moka ‘mosquito’, Acehnese jamoʔ ‘mosquito’, Tae' katamok ~ katamuk ‘kind of small mosquito’, Motu nāmo ‘mosquito’, Rotuman tɔnɔmu ‘mosquito net’ (probably a borrowing of Fijian tau namu).

*ñamuR dew

Note:   Also Ibaloy amol, Cebuano yámug, Toba Batak nambur, Mailu namu ‘dew’.

*ñañuk speak indistinctly, mumble

Note:   Possibly a chance resemblance.

*ñañuy to sing in unison, as in traditional festivals

Note:   Also Isneg mag-nánay ‘to sing’, Ba’amang ma-ñañi ‘to sing’, Dusun Deyah ma-ñañi ‘to sing’, Samihim ñañi ‘to sing’ (all < Malay), Javanese ma-ñañi ‘to sing (modern style)’, ñañi-an ‘a modern-style song’ (< Malay), Sundanese ma-ñañi ‘to sing’ (< Malay), Sasak bə-ñañi ‘to sing’, ñañi-aŋ ‘to sing a song’ (< Malay), Petapa Taje pa-ñani ‘to sing’, Tetun hananu ‘to sing, to chant’. Despite the clear evidence that Malay ñañi has been widely borrowed in western Indonesia, Tae' nani appears to be native, and if the semantically somewhat divergent Cebuano form is included it can be seen that this form ended with *-uy rather than *-i. Dempwolff (1938) included forms from Tongan, Futunan and Samoan in this comparison that seem best left out.

*ñao widow(er)

*ñaRa brother (woman speaking)

Note:   This and *betaw ‘sister (man speaking)’ are two of the key terms in determining the history of marriage and social organization in PMP society (Blust 1993).

*ñaRo widow(er)

*ñatuq hardwood tree with edible fruit and valuable timber: Palaquium spp.

Note:   Also Thao zasu ‘kind of large forest tree with thorny branches and a small, round yellow fruit which gets sweeter as it grows’, Puyuma ɭaʈuʔ ‘mango, Mangifera indica L.’, Iban ñatuʔ ‘trees yielding gutta’, Mongondow natu ‘kind of tree’. This clearly was an important tree for at least three reasons: 1) its timber was valued as planking material for canoe siding and house walls, 2) its sap was used as an adhesive or caulking material, and 3) its fruit was eaten. Dempwolff (1938) extended this comparison to Polynesian forms such as Tongan kaunatu ‘stick rubbed hard on a log ... in making fire by friction’, but this interpretation is rejected here.

*ñawñaw rinse, wash

Note:   With root *-ñaw ‘wash, bathe, rinse’.

*ñepñep drink, slurp, suck

Note:   Mills (1975:790) assigns Makassarese ñoʔñoʔ to Proto-South Sulawesi *ñoqño(C) ‘to slobber’, citing a number of forms in other languages which appear to belong to disparate cognate sets.

*ñepuq stonefish

*ñeRab yesterday

Note:   Also Chamorro nigap, Palauan e-líseb (< earlier *niRab) ‘yesterday’. The retention of the final consonant in POc is confirmed by Selau norwa, while Duke of York narap ‘before, formerly’, Butmas (New Hebrides) narap ‘yesterday’ suggest a POc doublet *naRap. Bugotu i-ñotha ‘yesterday’ presumably results from sporadic palatalization. Corrects Blust (1980) *neRab, where the palatal nasal in Bugotu was attributed to sporadic assimilation. J.N. Sneddon (p.c.) informs me that Bantik ka-nehab-aʔ ‘yesterday’ reflects *niRab, not *ñeRab.

*ñəñu tree with white fruit and roots that yield a useful dye: Morinda citrifolia

Note:   Also Kapampangan líno, Tagalog níno ‘a tree: Morinda umbellata L., Morinda citrifolia L. (Madulid 2001), Bikol níno ‘shrub possessing roots from which a yellow dye may be extracted: Morinda bracteata Roxb.’, maŋ-níno ‘go to the mountains to collect these roots’, Cebuano ninú ‘small tree similar to bangkúru, but with smaller and lighter-colored leaves: Morinda sp.’, Gedaged nanom ~ nonom ‘a tree: Morinda citrifolia. Scrapings from the root are mixed with lime, which produces a red dye’, Takia nom ‘a tree: Morinda citrifolia’ Milke (1968) proposed POc *nonum ‘Morinda citrifolia’, basing the final consonant on the puzzling Gedaged form. This comparison is discussed thoroughly by Ross (2008), who notes (2008:407-408) that both Gedaged and Takia have lost POc *-VC, and that the final nasal is better interpreted as a reflex of the medial *ñ.

Ross further notes that if the Philippine forms can be compared with those in CEMP languages PMP *ñeñu can be reconstructed. However, Philippine forms point consistently to an etymon with penultimate *i and CEMP forms to an etymon with penultimate schwa. Under these circumstances the earliest form that can be securely reconstructed is PCEMP *ñəñu, although PMP clearly had either a single etymon of indeterminae shape, or doublets differing in the penultimate vowel.

*ñikñik tiny biting insect: gnat, sandfly

Note:   Also Bikol núknúk ‘gnat’, Bisaya keliah niniʔ ‘sandfly’, Manam niniko ‘wasp’, Sa'a niniho ‘hornet’. Kapampangan niknik is assumed to be a Tagalog loan.

*ñikut nest, lair

Note:   Also Kilivila nigwa ‘nest’, Bugotu ñeku-ña ‘bird’s nest’. A variant of this comparison was assigned by Milke (1968:160) to POc *(n)igu(t) ‘nest’.

*ñilu painful sensation in teeth, as from eating something sour

*ñopñop to sip, suck on

Note:   Also Buginese ñəñoɁ ‘to sip’, Makassarese ñoɁñoɁ ‘to slobber, let food or drink run out of the mouth’. Mills (1975) reconstructed Proto-South Sulawesi ñoqño(C) ‘to slobber’, a form that is phonologically incompatible with words in CEMP languages unless *o is admitted into the PMP phoneme inventory on the basis of very tenuous evidence.

*ñoro rough, of a turbulent sea

*ñui growth stage of squid

*ñutñut suck, pull at with the lips