[Mihalic] Amberoi & kaukau etymology

Thomas H. Slone THSlone at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 8 23:29:56 EST 2003


Amberoi is the common (English) name of a commercial timber which is 
found from Burma to PNG:
http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/wood/en/www/stept-am.htm
so the Tok Pisin is probably from the English and ultimately from outside PNG.

I asked Rich Scaglion whether he knew what the etymology of kaukau 
might be. He had written a book chapter that summarized 1700 words 
for sweet potato from 450 languages from PNG and adjacent areas:

Scaglion, Richard & Soto, Kimberly A. (1992). A prehisotric 
introduction of the sweet potato in New Guinea? In: Migration and 
Transformations: Regional Perspectives on New Guinea. Andrew J. 
Strathern & Gabriele Stürzenhofecker, eds. Pittsburgh: University of 
Pittsburgh Press, pp. 257-294.

He did not know of any close matches to kaukau.

--Tom Slone
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