talinga

[Ross Clark (FOA DALSL)]

More examples of "ear"/"mushroom" crossover: South Efate (Vanuatu) ntalig
'fungus, mushroom', ntal(i)ge-n 'ear'. 
I also have a note of a Proto-Kimbe (New Britain) *taliNa 'ear, mushroom'.
These are of course both cognate with the term under discussion in TP. In
north Vanuatu a different form *bwero crosses the same line: Mota qero
"fungus,mushroom", Raga bwero "ear".
For *talinga "ear" is pretty obviously the older sense, on distributional
grounds, but a shift in the opposite direction ("fungus" > "ear") doesn't
seem out of the question in general.
 
Ross Clark
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