Proto Oceanic etc - *kawaRi

[BURTON John]

I saw this and we should certainly widen any etymology to include these
'root with special properties' things.

Another Proto-Austronesian item we were discussing in our office is
'talinga'. I haven't entered anything for this yet, but it's a word showing
up from Taiwan to the Solomons as meaning 'ear'. In Tok Pisin we understand
talinga to be 'mushroom' but here in Torres Strait, it means 'ear' again (in
TS Creole).

Perhaps in *kawaRi's case we will fail to trace at which point in time and
space it hopped into TP, and we will go on assuming it was from Kuanua, but
maybe there's a chance we could do in talinga's case because of the
startling shift in meaning. (I'm assuming it is the same word of course!)

Food for thought, scuse the pun.
John Burton



-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas H. Slone [mailto:THSlone at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 11 September 2002 1:07 PM

This message was posted on ASAONET today, which should enlighten us 
on further etymology on kawawar.  John Burton has the immediate Tok 
Pisin etymology as coming from the Kuanua language.

>>From: John Lynch <lynch_j at VANUATU.USP.AC.FJ>
>>Subject: Re: kava people and betel people


>>I conclude that there was a Proto Oceanic term *kawaRi meaning 'root with
>>special properties - one or more of Zingiber zerumbet (wild ginger), Piper
>>wichmannii (wild kava) and/or fish-poison plants (Derris, etc.)'. This
term
>>has reflexes in a number of New Guinea and Solomons languages, speakers of
>>which also chew betelnut.