This chapter treats the terms used by Proto Oceanic (POc) speakers to denote parts of plants.1 It complements the chapters that follow, which deal with plant names.
For presentation purposes plant part terminologies are divided into the following twelve categories:
| fāmātua | (N) Mature coconut frond. Used traditionally for important taboo sign on vere (Barringtonia) or voia (Canarium) only by chiefs. |
| fāŋoŋo | (N) Coconut shell (used dried as a receptacle, grater, fuel to kindle fire, source of tattooing black pigment). |
| kaka | (N) Fibre of base of coconut palm (not sago palm) used traditionally to make filter sheet in turmeric extraction, bag for flour etc. |
| pararafa | (N) Stem of coconut frond, used traditionally to provide small stirrer for liquids, tiny mallet in tattooing; also used ritually in healing, smoothing temple sand etc. |
| puru | (N) Husk, primarily of coconut (puru niu), since no other palm nut husk of economic interest; a fibrous dense material used as fuel or for domestic purposes such as cleaning wooden bowls, but mainly as lashing or after special treatment, for preparation of sinnet cord. |
| roro | (N) Bud or shoot of coconut palm near flower bract; masticated with lime and betel leaf when areca nut scarce. Also possibly other buds. |
| sakilo | (N) Immature coconut leaf, of pale colour; used traditionally as decoration for some ritual objects, as a shelf in Resiake temple, or sign of taboo on orchard. |
| taume | (N) Spathe or sheathing-leaf of flower of coconut palm; when dry used for fuel. Traditionally supplied fire for the ritual dancing in Marae. |
It is not claimed that such categories are necessarily salient in Oceanic societies, but they are based to some extent on the lexical distinctions found in modern Oceanic languages. For example, the category ‘stems of woody plants’ is based on the fact that a number of modern Oceanic languages appear to have distinct terms for woody and non-woody plant stems (e.g. Wayan gai ‘woody stem or trunk of a shrub or tree’ vs. kasa ‘stem of a shrub or small plant, leaf-stalk or petiole stem of a leaf, flower or fruit’). The single category ‘outer coverings’, including meanings such as bark, skin or peel and husk, is based on the fact that many Oceanic languages appear to have one term that denotes the outer covering of fruits (peel, rind) and of stems (bark, soft leaf-like skin). For example, Wayan taba can refer to any sort of outer covering or layer, including the bark of a tree and the rind or husk of fruit. For each of these twelve categories Oceanic languages tend to have a general term, though this is not the case in all languages. Thus, while Oceanic languages tend to have a single term that can refer to the outer covering of different parts of a plant, there are languages in which there is no such general term, but rather several terms with a much narrower semantic range. For example, Nduke has three specific terms: tutupa- ‘bark of a tree’, poko- ‘husk or covering of grain’ and pululu ‘cover of fruit found on some palms’, but does not appear to have a general term that refers to all outer coverings of plants. Languages which do have a general term for a particular category may also have more specific terms within the category, as we see in the cases of Wayan and Tikopia in §2.1.
Modern Oceanic languages also tend to have terms for parts of particular types of plants, usually those which are of some cultural or economic importance. Thus in Tikopia there is a term, fetī, that denotes turmeric roots, reflecting their importance as the source of turmeric pigment (reŋa) that was traditionally used for the decoration of people and objects and was a highly valued item (Firth 1985: 393-394). In Wayan there is a specific term for the sap of the kauri tree, a tree which does not actually grow in Waya Island, but whose sap is important for the glazes of pots (Pawley & Sayaba 2003). The cultural importance of the parts of particular kinds of plants that are labelled in Oceanic languages can be shown by the names and uses of different parts of the coconut palm in Tikopia, given in Table 4.1.
| Lou (Adm) | Iduna (PT) | Gela (SES) | Marshallese (Mic) | Waya (Fij) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘banana’2 | mun | galo 3 | vudi | — | vudi |
| ‘hand’ | sɛt, turɛt, topʷan | ihina | — | ācɛn | bā |
| ‘bunch’ | pɔrɔk | waʔaina | ɣaiɣai,4 ɣaibala 5 | yāc, wiṛᵚweṛᵚ6 | |
| ‘sucker, shoot’ | supu | wakaiya | duli, nanaŋa | — | soba |
| ‘last fruit’ 7 | ŋɔrɛn | — | kukuru, loiloki | — | kalikali |
| ‘flower’ | — | buhihi | lualako 8 | — | tido 9 |
| ‘stem, stalk’ | — | aina (galo) | iti, kulo | pɛrwaŋ10 | — |
| ’leaf | — | hineguli | — | — | — |
| ‘stem sheath’ | — | — | — | — | basili |
As the same types of plants are often culturally and economically important in Oceanic societies, languages tend to have specific plant part terms for the same types of plants, including coconuts, bananas, pandanus, breadfruit, yams and taros. For example, (Ross 1996d: 183-185) reconstructs *pudi as a general term for bananas in POc and a number of terms that denoted particular types of bananas. Alongside terms for types of bananas modern Oceanic languages tend to have terms for certain parts of the banana plant, such as the suckers, flowers and bunches of fruit as demonstrated by Table 4.2.
The remainder of this chapter examines the terms for the parts of plants (both general and specific) which can be reconstructed for POc. The chapter is organised using the twelve categories listed above, each section beginning with some comments on the way in which the semantic category is lexified in modern Oceanic languages. Data from three languages, Nduke (MM), Wayan Fijian and Tikopia (Pn) are presented to demonstrate the lexical distinctions that occur in modern Oceanic languages, before the probable POc lexemes and their meanings are discussed.
In many modern Oceanic languages part-whole relationships, including the parts of plants, are expressed by direct possessive constructions, such that the nominal denoting the part takes the possessive suffixes. For example, in the Kwaio (SES) phrase lama-na ʔai ‘the tree’s flowers’, the nominal lama- ‘flower’ takes the 3SG possessive suffix -na indexing the person and number of the whole (i.e. the tree) of which it is a part (Keesing 1985: 107). Part-whole relationships were probably expressed by the same type of construction in POc, and so many of the nominals denoting the parts of plants that are reconstructed here would have often (or always) occurred with a possessive suffix.
| Nduke | |
| bokolo- | The scar marks left along the trunk of palm trees as the leaves fall off (e.g. of a coconut, sago palm, pandanus or betel nut). |
| buli- | Trunk of a tree. |
| lolaŋa- | Soft material inside a tree trunk, e.g. the pith of palms and pandanus, or soft heartwood of trees. Variant: leleŋa-. |
| tuŋu- | A rotten or unsound knot in a tree. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| gai | 1. Woody stem or trunk of a shrub or tree. cf. ŋau, tula; 2. Leg (esp. of a person). |
| gina | 1. Base of a tree-trunk or woody stem. cf. ŋau, gai, vū; 2. Stump, remnant of trunk or stem cut off close to the ground; 3. Root stem, part of a plant growing below the ground. |
| vū | 1. Base, bottom; 2. Root, taproot, bulbous root. cf. waka fibrous root, tū root, bulb, tuber; 3. Origin, source, root; 4. Cause. |
| golo | (obsolescent) 1. Top section of a tree trunk or of woody stem. contr. gau, main or centre section of trunk; sō, crown; vū, base; 2. Piece or section of bamboo or sugarcane, between one node and the next. syn. buku; 3. Branch of a tree. syn. tula. |
| drau | 1. Top end of a post, highest part of a tree. near syn. sō; 2. Tip or blunt end of any long object. near syn. dū. |
| kai | 1. Wood; 2. Generic for trees and shrubs (and occ. low bushy plants); 3. Used in certain compounds as a generic for all plants; 4. Piece of wood, stick; 5. (vulgar) Penis. |
| buku | 1. (sub. cord or thing that is tied.) Be tied in a knot, fastened by a knot, secured by a knob; 2. Be conspired against, be target of a plot or war plan. (N) 1. Knot, made by tying string, etc; 2. Knob, node, protruding lump in wood, bamboo, sugarcane; 3. Hinge, or place where two things are joined, as the hinge of a bivalve shellfish. |
| doa | Heartwood, mature wood, the hardest and darkest wood in a mature tree. cf uto. |
| ŋau | 1. Middle part, central section; the main component, the body of a thing. contr. dolo, dū, mua, ends, tip; dronu, bottom. 2. Trunk or body of an animal. contr. lā, leg, ulu, head. 3. Piece or section. |
| iso | Pith or soft tissue forming the centre of stems of certain plants, e.g. tree fern, pawpaw; the core of a pineapple. |
| Tikopia | |
| tUI)i | (N) Knot in wood; also sharp stump left when shrub or tree cut down. |
| ufJa.fi | (N) Firewood oflarge size, a big log or two to keep fire going. |
| kanofi | (N) 1. Flesh; solid part, as sap wood of tree trunk. |
| tai | (ADJ) Very hard; (N) Hard timber; heartwood. |
| kuaŋa | (N) Waist; trunk (e.g. kuaŋa o te rakau trunk of tree). |
| tafito | (N) 1. Base; basis; origin; reason; cause. Tafito o te rakau bole, base of trunk. |
| uru | (N) 1. head; crest, top 2. principal part, source etc. Uru o te rakau bole, base of trunk. |
The main stems or trunks of woody plants are of considerable importance within Oceanic societies for the construction of houses and other buildings, and canoes, as well as for making bowls and various other wooden artefacts. Ivens (1927: 149-150, 375-377) describes the construction of and materials used for houses and canoes on Mala Island in the southeastern Solomon Islands, including the use of two types of hardwood trees, hata and mamahuʔe, for the posts which support the ridgepole of houses, and another two hardwood trees, mawa and iola, for the keel and hull of canoes, respectively.11 Woods would have had equal importance in POc society in building houses (vol.1, ch.3), and making household artefacts (vol.1, ch.4) and canoes (vol.1, ch.7). For example, Green & Pawley (vol.1, ch.3, §3.4) reconstruct three POc terms that referred to the posts of a house, namely *aRiRi ‘post’, *turu(s) ‘post’ and *bou ‘(?) main bearers supporting raised floor or roof structure, or centre post supporting ridge pole’, and based on ethnographic evidence such posts were likely constructed from the trunks of hardwood trees.
Many modern Oceanic languages have a general term denoting the main stem or trunk of a woody plant, alongside a number of more specific terms relating to woody stems (see Table 4.3).12 For example, Wayan gai ‘woody stem or trunk of a shrub or tree’ and Tikopia kuaŋa ‘waist; trunk’ are general terms that are used alongside more specific ones denoting different sections of a trunk, such as Wayan gina ‘base of a tree-trunk or woody stem’, ŋau ‘main or centre section of trunk’ and golo ‘top section of a tree trunk or a woody stem’. Modern Oceanic languages typically also have terms for different kinds of wood within a tree trunk. Thus Tikopia has a contrast between tai, the heartwood or dense inner wood of a tree trunk and kanofi, the sapwood or soft outer layers of wood between the heartwood and the bark, while Nduke has a specific term, lolaŋa, for the soft inner part of palms or pandanus.
An apparently general term for tree trunk can be reconstructed for POc, namely *pata(ŋ). It seems likely that POc *pata(ŋ) referred to the main stem of plants denoted by *kayu ‘tree or shrub’. As mentioned in ch.3 (§4.3) palms were probably not considered to be *kayu by POc speakers, but there is no evidence to suggest that the trunks of palms were labelled differently from the trunks of woody trees. Palm trunks seem to be of considerable importance for construction in Oceanic societies, although the different properties of palm trunks and trunks of woody plants may result in different uses.
| PMP | *bataŋ | ‘stalk, trunk’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| POc | *pata(ŋ) | ‘tree trunk’ (Bender et al. 2003) | |
| Adm | Lou | pata- | ‘stem or trunk’ |
| Adm | Titan | patá- | ‘trunk, stem’ |
| NCV | Paamese | vat(i-āi) | ‘trunk of tree’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | (nee-)fasaŋa | ‘torso, trunk’13 |
| Mic | Pulo Annian | ðāta, ðata- | ‘tree trunk’ |
POc *pata(ŋ) is not reflected widely in modern languages, and has been replaced by innovative forms in most.
As mentioned above, Oceanic languages have terms denoting different parts of woody stems. POc *puqu(n) denoted the base or bole of a woody stem and apparently also ‘base’ more generally, including the base or source of other concrete items and more abstractly the base, source or origin of stories etc.14
| PMP | *puqun | ‘base of tree, source, origin’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *puqu(n) | ‘base of tree; source, origin’ | |
| NNG | Bing | fuw | ‘base of tree’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | fu- | ‘origin, beginning, start’ |
| NNG | Takia | fu- | ‘originator, host; base, as in base of a tree’ |
| NNG | Mengen | pu- | ‘base, source of s.t.’ |
| NNG | Wampur | hugu- | ‘base, trunk’ |
| PT | Misima | pú- | ‘(tree) base; (axe, knife) end; (its) cause’ |
| PT | Muyuw | wowu- | ‘(tree) base’ |
| MM | Nakanai | vuhu- | ‘(tree) trunk or base, (leaf) stem, (pearl shell) base; first part of story; reason; origin (story of one’s ancestry)’ |
| SES | Lau | fū | ‘stock, root, origin’ |
| SES | Sa’a | hū | ‘real, permanent’ |
| SES | Arosi | hū | ‘the beginning, origin’ |
| NCal | Xârâcùù | pū | ‘source, origin, beginning’ (cf. pū-kʷãã ‘base of tree’) |
| Fij | Bauan | vū- | ‘bottom, basis, root (tuberous, bulbous)’ |
| Fij | Wayan | vū | ‘root, tap root, bulbous root, base, basis, cause, origin’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | hū | ‘(tree) lower end’ |
| Pn | Tongan | fuʔu | ‘complete tree or plant’ (as in fuʔu niu ‘coconut tree’) |
| Pn | Niuean | fū | ‘trunk of a tree near the root, base of a mast’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | pū | ‘heart or centre of tree’ |
| Pn | Marquesan | pū | ‘tree trunk’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | pū | ‘tree, cluster of several stalks, as of banana, pandanus or kava; clump, as of sugar cane’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | pū | ‘stem; chief, root, origin, source, cause’ |
| Pn | Māori | pū | ‘bunch, bundle, anything growing in a bunch, tuft, heap, stack’ |
Terms with similar meanings to Wayan ŋau ‘main or centre section of trunk’ and golo ‘top section of a tree trunk or of woody stem’ are more difficult to reconstruct. The POc body part term *qulu- ‘head’ may also have denoted the top part or crown of a tree including the foliage, as such a meaning is reflected in a few widely scattered modern languages. In some Nuclear Polynesian languages the terms for the top of a tree look to be a reduced compound of *kayu ‘tree’ and *qulu ‘head’ (e.g. Maori kauru ‘the head of a tree’). However, it is possible that reflexes of *qulu denoting the crown of a tree represent the independent extension of a body part term, particularly as in Takia (North New Guinea) many of the terms for plant parts appear to primarily denote body parts. For example, ai pata-n ‘sap (lit. tree its kidney)’, ai lua-n ‘tree trunk (lit. tree its stomach)’ and ai sukulo-n ‘bark (lit. tree its skin)’. Of note, however, is that in Takia the body part term ‘head’ is gurma-, and the reflex of POc *qulu is restricted to denoting the top part of a tree.
| PMP | *qulu | ‘head; top part; leader, chief; headwaters; handle of a bladed implement; prow of a boat; first, first-born’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *qulu- | ‘head, top part, hair of the head’ (ACD) | |
| Adm | Nauna | kulu-n (kıy) | ‘(tree) top’ |
| NNG | Takia | ulu- | ‘top part of tree’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | wɨl | ‘budding leaf, top of tree’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | ulu(ŋa) | ‘(tree, house, hill) top, summit’15 |
| Pn | Pukapukan | (ka)ulu | ‘the top or crown of a tree’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | (a)uru | ‘top ends of small twigs or branches’ |
| Pn | Māori | (ka)uru | ‘the head of a tree’ |
A term specifically denoting the centre or main part of the trunk does not appear to be reconstructable for POc.
Terms for different types of wood or tissue in woody stems are present in Wayan, Tikopia and Nduke. Tikopia tai denotes the heartwood or dense inner wood of a tree trunk and kanofi the sapwood or soft outer layers of wood between the heartwood and the bark. PPn terms for these two types of wood are reconstructable. The cognate set of Tongan tahi, Samoan taia and Tikopia tai attest to PPn *tahi ‘(heart)wood’ (POLLEX), but I have not found any non-Polynesian cognates of this form. A corresponding term for sapwood, *taitea, is reconstructable for PNPn only and is a compound of *tai ‘heartwood’ and *tea ‘white’. Again I have found no non-Polynesian cognates.
| PPn | *tahi | ‘(heart)wood’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | tahi | ‘hard wood or solid centre of certain kinds of trees’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tai | [N] ‘hard timber, heartwood’; [ADJ] ‘very hard’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taia | [N] ‘hard core, heartwood of (exogenous) trees’; [v] ‘(of exogenous trees) be mature enough to have a hard core (and therefore be used as timber)’ |
| PNPn | *tai-tea | ‘sapwood’ (*tea ‘white’; POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tokelauan | taitea | ‘the soft white wood of Cordia subcordata’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | kaikea | ‘sap, sapwood’ |
| Pn | Māori | taitea | ‘white wood, sapwood’ |
POc *uso ‘umbilical cord, core’ may also have been used to refer to the core or heartwood of woody stems or tree trunks, as are its reflexes in Sa’a, Wayan and Maori.
| POc | *uso | ‘umbilical cord, core innards or digestive organs of a shellfish’ (Pawley forthcoming) | |
| PT | Motu | udo | ‘navel’ |
| SES | Lau | uto | ‘core’ |
| SES | Sa’a | uto | ‘pith, core’ |
| Fij | Wayan | iso | ‘innards, especially digestive organs of mollusc; pith, soft inner tissue of e.g. tree ferns; core of certain fruits (e.g. pineapple, breadfruit)’ |
| Pn | Tongan | uho | ‘navel, cord pith, core, core-like centre’ |
| Pn | Māori | uho, iho | ‘umbilical cord, heart (of a tree), pith, inside, kernel’ |
Modern Oceanic languages also often have one or two terms denoting the stems of leaves and sometimes of non-woody plants. For example, Wayan bābā ‘stalk or stem of leaves of certain large-leafed plants, especially stem of taro, banana, coconut’ and Tikopia fā ‘leaf stem of a fleshy plant’. Table 4.4 gives the range of terms for non-woody stems that occur in Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia.
POc seems to have had a general term *baRa-baRa that referred to stems of non-woody plants, like taros and bananas, and it seems likely that this form was also used to refer to the soft stem of leaves. Other POc terms for non-woody stems are more specifically either fruit stems or leaf stems and are described in the following sections.
POc *baRa-baRa is a well-supported reconstruction, both in terms of form and meaning. Since widespread reflexes are reduplicated, unreduplicated forms in Micronesian languages are assumed to represent an innovation (see also discussion of POc *paRara in footnote 21 of ch.9, p.280).
| POc | *baRa-baRa | ‘stem or stalk of non-woody plants, such as taro and banana, probably also the soft stems of leaves’ | |
| PT | Tawala | palapala | ‘(plant) main stalk, stalk of mustard leaf eaten with betel nut’ |
| SES | Bauro | parapara | ‘stalk of flowers; involucre of flower, sheath of leaves’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | ba | ‘leaf, palm, midrib of palm leaf’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | pᴂ | ‘stalk (of taro or banana), stem’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | pap | ‘coconut frond, midrib of frond’ |
| Mic | Satawalese | -pᴂ | ‘counting classifier for coconut or taro leaves’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | -pā | ‘numeral classifier for chained or strung objects such as palm fronds, leis, shell belts’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | pā | ‘leaf of any large-leaved plant such as taro’ |
| Fij | Bauan | bā | ‘stalk of taro leaves (only)’ |
| Fij | Wayan | bābā | ‘leaf-stalk (petiole) or stem of certan single-stemmed plants whose leaves unfold from the stalk, especially taro, banana and leaf-stalk of palms’ |
| Fij | Yasawa | bābā | ‘stalk or stem of certain large-leafed plants, especially taro, banana, coconut.’ |
| Nduke | |
| kamu- | The rings in the stem of bamboo, palms and grasses (like sugar-cane). |
| soyoto | The stem of a flower. |
| baɣutu- | Stem that supports the flowers, and later the fruit, of the coconut. |
| kilikava- | Stem of coconut frond, especially at thick end, used e.g to lay on ground to ɣotolo mola |
| (push up a canoe at landing). | |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| kasa | Stem of a shrub or small plant, leaf-stalk or petiole stem of a leaf, flower or fruit; new shoots or suckers growing out from trunk or branch of a tree or from main stem of a banana plant. near syn. gau, rovuvaci. |
| bābā | Stalk or stem of leaves of certain large-leafed plants, esp. stem of taro, banana, coconut. |
| bālotu | A coconut leaf stalk stripped of its leaflets; the stem of the coconut leaf. Used for firewood and torches. |
| Tikopia | |
| kau | (N) Stalk, stem supporting bunch of fruit, e.g. bananas, handle of implement. |
| fā | (N) Leaf stem of a fleshy plant. |
| safe | (N) Flower stem or fruiting bunch of banana. Tao ma tona safe (banana fruit) bake it in the oven on its stem (ritual procedure). |
| pararafa | (N) Stem of coconut frond, used traditionally to provide small stirrer for liquids, tiny mallet in tattooing; also used ritually in healing, smoothing temple sand etc. |
Table 4.5 gives terms for branches in Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia. Nduke has a term kapaha- that denotes branches of any plant, alongside a couple of more specific terms, vuŋu- ‘a branch or stem bearing nut clusters or fruit’ and buru- ‘the fruiting branch (vuŋu-) of coconuts or canarium trees’. Wayan and Tikopia, on the other hand, have terms for large major branches and smaller minor branches. Thus Tikopia maŋa ‘major branch’ versus ra ‘stem, twig, minor branch’. A number of different terms for branches are also reconstructable for POc, but the functional differences between them are not so clear.
| Nduke | |
| kapaha- | A branch of a plant. |
| buru- | The vuŋu (fruiting branch) of pevu (coconut) or koke or haoro (the canarium trees), that is plentiful, producing many nuts. |
| vuŋu- | A branch or stem bearing fruit, e.g. a bunch of coconuts or betel nut or bananas still attached to the stalk. Particularly this means a cut-down stem that has fruit attached. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| tula | 1. Branch or twig of a woody tree; 2. An alternative way of doing or saying s.t., a paraphrase or different method or expression. |
| kāsalu | 1. Small branch, minor branch of a tree:. contr. tula; 2. (metaph.) Person of no account, of low rank; unimportant person. |
| Tikopia | |
| maŋa | 1. (N) Segmentary division in generaL, e.g. subsidiary tuber or corms in root vegetables, 2. branch (of tree, coral etc), 3. offshoot, bifurcation, 4. abstract sense of variation (e.g. in language). |
| rā | (N) Stem; twig; minor branch of tree, as opp. to maŋa, a major branch. |
| potunea | (N) A small stick or branch. |
| kaŋokaŋo | (N) Twigs; small dead branches. |
Three apparently different, but quite similar, forms can be reconstructed with the meaning ‘branch’ for POc, namely *raqan, *rako(q) and *raga(q). On the basis of the modern reflexes it is not clear what the functional differences among these terms would have been. Each of these POc forms reflects an older Austronesian term, but the differences in meaning among them at earlier stages are also unclear.
Proto Austronesian *daqan ‘branch’, continued as POc *raqan ‘branch (of a tree)’, is the most widely reflected ‘branch’ term in Oceanic languages. POc *raqan was probably the general term for branches of trees and other plants as the meanings in modern languages denote both major branches of trees and small branches or twigs.
| PAn | *daqan | ‘branch’ (Blust 1993) | |
| POc | *raqan | ‘branch of tree or other plant’ (Ross 1988) | |
| Adm | Drehet | (i)ⁿra | ‘branch’ |
| PT | Misima | la | ‘(tree) branch’ |
| PT | Motu | raɣa | ‘fruit-bearing palm branch’ |
| MM | Siar | rakan | ‘(tree) branch’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | rəkən | ‘(tree) branch’ |
| SES | Arosi | rā-na | ‘(tree) branch’ |
| PNCV | *raa, *ra-ra- | ‘branch’ (Clark 1996) | |
| NCV | Raga | ra-ra- | ‘branch’ |
| NCV | Kiai | ra-ra- | ‘wing’ |
| NCV | Nguna | a-raa | ‘branch’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | nra- | ‘branch’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | læ | ‘(tree) branch, twig, limb’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | z̧aa | ‘(tree) branch, bough, twig’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | rǣ | ‘(tree) branches’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | rǣ | ‘branch (with leaves)’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | rã | ‘branch, bough’ |
| Pn | Niuean | lã | ‘(tree) branch; carries connotation of being small or the smaller part of a whole’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | rã | ‘stem; twig; minor branch of tree, as opposed to maŋa, a major branch’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | laʔa-laʔa | ‘small branch’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | gaʔa | ‘branch’ |
| Pn | Samoan | lãlã | ‘branch’ |
POc *rako(q) ‘branch, twig’ is supported by reflexes in two Papuan Tip languages and by cognates in non-Oceanic languages that suggest PMP *daŋkeq ‘branch’.
| PMP | *daŋkeq | ‘branch’ (Blust 1986) | |
| POc | *rako(q) | ‘branch, twig’ | |
| PT | Gumawana | lao | ‘a branch’ |
| PT | Motu | rako- | ‘a twig’16 |
| PT | Motu | rako-rako | ‘young, small wood’ |
Similarly, POc *raga(q) ‘branch’ is supported by reflexes in a small number of Papuan Tip and Meso-Melanesian languages and by non-Oceanic cognates that suggest PMP *daŋkaq ‘branch’.
| PMP | *daŋkaq | ‘branch’ (Blust 1986) | |
| POc | *raga(q) | ‘branch’ | |
| PT | Gapapaiwa | raga- | ‘branch; limb’ |
| PT | Tawala | laga- | ‘branch’ |
| PT | Iduna | laga(ni-) | ‘branch’ |
| MM | Marovo | raga (hae) | ‘branch’ (hae ‘tree’) |
| MM | Vangunu | raga | ‘branch’ |
POc also had two morphologically related forms *saŋa and *ma-saŋa that denoted branching or forked structures. POc *saŋa, a reflex of PMP *saŋa ‘bifurcation, to branch’, appears to have been a nominal form referring to a fork in a tree or stick, as well as the crotch. The verbal reflex in Kosraean seems to be an innovation.
| PMP | *saŋa | ‘bifurcation, to branch’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *saŋa | ‘fork (in tree), forked stick or post, crotch’ | |
| Adm | Lou | saɛ-n | [N] ‘lower branch’ |
| Adm | Titan | cáŋa | ‘fork in tree, crotch; straddle, climb straddling’ |
| Adm | Titan | cáŋa-n(key) | ‘fork of a tree’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | saŋa-n | ‘crotch, groin, bifurcation, fork’ |
| SES | Lau | taŋa | ‘the V -shaped groove in a mainpost’ |
| SES | Kwaio | taŋa-na | ‘groin’ |
| SES | Arosi | taŋa-na | ‘a crotch; fork of the legs’ |
| NCV | Mota | saŋa | ‘a fork, crotch, forked stick or post’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | ṣeŋ | [N] ‘(spearhead, fishhook) barb, prong, fish fins appearing above the surface of the water’; [VI] ‘to fork, branch out, bifurcate’ |
| Fij | Bauan | saŋa | [N] ‘a crotch’; [ADJ] ‘crotched, especially of a branch which forms a crotch with a tree’ |
| Fij | Wayan | soŋa-soŋa | ‘fork or joint between two protruding things; point or end of a protruding object; have many branches (e.g. tree, coral)’ |
POc *ma-saŋa is reconstructed with both verbal and nominal functions. Its morphological structure, that is, the prefix *ma-, suggests that it was an intransitive verb with an Undergoer subject, as it appears to still be in Lou, Lau, Arosi and Sye. However, the range of reflexes of *ma-saŋa with nominal meanings in modern Oceanic languages suggests that it perhaps also had nominal uses in POc. A number of modern languages which reflect both *saŋa and *ma-saŋa support the reconstruction of nominal and verbal functions, respectively. For example, in Lau and Arosi reflexes of *saŋa now have quite specific nominal meanings and reflexes of *ma-saŋa have the general meaning of ‘branching, forked’ and look to be verbal. In Kwaio, on the other hand, the reflexes of both *saŋa and *ma-saŋa have nominal meanings.
| POc | *ma-saŋa | ‘to be branching or forked (vi); branch (of tree, river, path), fork, crotch (N)’ | |
| Adm | Lou | mosa, mosoŋa-n | ‘crotch; place where branch divides’ |
| MM | East Kara | məsaŋe-na | ‘fork of tree’ |
| SES | Tolo | masaŋa-na | ‘branch or fork of a road, river or tree’ |
| SES | Lau | mataŋa | ‘forked; to spread fingers or limbs; (tree) branch; branch in road; the middle’ |
| SES | Lau | mataŋa-na | ‘(frog) legs’ |
| SES | Lau | mataŋā | ‘branching; growing together, of two or more things; starfish’ |
| SES | Kwaio | mataŋa-na | ‘crotch, branching place’ |
| SES | Arosi | mataŋa | ‘doubled, forked’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | masaŋa | ‘branch’ |
| NCV | Araki | nᫀasaŋa | ‘forked’ |
| SV | Sye | ne-msoŋ | ‘fork in tree’ |
| Pn | Tongan | mahaŋa | ‘branch, fork, crotch’ |
| Pn | Niuean | mahaŋa | ‘forked (of a path)’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | masaŋa(saŋa) | ‘road fork, branching’ |
PPn *maŋa ‘branch, fork; branching, forked’ is a well-supported reconstruction. A possible non-Polynesian cognate is Kiribati mʷāŋa ‘branch, limb of tree’, but Harrison (1994: 345) suggests that this may be a Polynesian loan. It is possible that PPn *maŋa ‘branch, fork’ is historically related to POc *ma-saŋa ‘to be branching, branch’ with irregular loss of *s, but this is not certain. Most Polynesian languages reflect one or other form, but not both. However, Niuean reflects both forms and with very similar meanings, and in Tongan both forms have similar nominal meanings, but the reflex of *maŋa also has a verbal meaning.
| PPn | *maŋa | ‘branch, fork; branching, forked’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | maŋa | [vi] ‘fork, branch out, branch off, become divided into two or more branches; to step across s.t.’; [N] ‘branch, fork, crotch, bifurcation; stride’ |
| Pn | Niuean | maŋa | ‘forked’ |
| Pn | West Uvea | maŋa | ‘branch’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | maŋa | ‘segmentary division, e.g. subsidiary tuber or corm in root vegetables; (tree, coral +) branch; offshoot, bifurcation’ |
| Pn | Samoan | maŋa | [N] ‘(tree, road +)fork’; [v] ‘divide into two, fork’ |
| Pn | Luangiua | maŋa | ‘branch’ |
| Pn | Rapanui | maŋa-maŋa | ‘bifurcation, branching off’ |
| Pn | Māori | maŋa | ‘(tree) branch’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | mana | [N] ‘(tree, road, stream) branch, limb, crotch; crosspi1ece, as of the cross; a line projecting from another line’; [vi] ‘variant, version, as of a tale; branch out, spread out’ |
Blust (ACD) also reconstructs Proto Austronesian *paŋa ‘fork of a branch; any forked structure, bifurcation’ (which is reflected in Roviana as paŋa ‘fish spear with several prongs’), and *paŋaq ‘forked, pronged, birfurcation’, which appears not to have Oceanic reflexes.
Blust (ACD) reconstructs Proto Austronesian *taŋay ‘branch’, and a possible irregular reflex in Sa’a, akeake ‘a strand of rope, a twig, a sprig’, suggests the reconstruction of POc *take ‘small branch, twig’, but it is not well-supported.
Oceanic languages tend to have a term for roots of plants in general and a number of more specific terms for kinds of roots such as buttress roots, aerial roots, taproot, fine hair-like roots. For example, we see from Table 4.6 that Nduke has a general term for roots aɣara-, alongside doɣoro- ‘aerial roots’ and baɣere- ‘buttress roots’. Another NW Solomonic language, Maringe, on the other hand, appears to lack a general term for roots but distinguishes between bakla ‘buttress roots’, grabu ‘small underground roots’, glathi ‘taproot of trees or tubers’, and grebu ‘short hair-like roots’ .
Besides a general term for roots, *wakaR-, POc had at least three other more specific terms, *lali(t,c) ‘buttress roots’, *Ramut ‘fine, hair-like roots’ and *waka(t) ‘mangrove roots’ . POc *wakaR is a well-supported reconstruction with reflexes in a wide range of Oceanic languages.
| Nduke | |
| aɣara- | General term for the root of any plant. |
| baɣere- | Buttress roots of a tree. |
| doɣoro- | Aerial roots, e.g. those found on some species of Ficus trees. cf. doɣoro eana banyan roots. |
| rosu- | The root of a tree or plant. This applies to underground roots only, not aerial roots or buttress roots. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| suku | Knobby growth protruding from trunk or branch of tree. near syn. vura; Buttress roots of a tree. syn. ribi. |
| ribi | Shin, shinbone; buttress root, projecting flank in lower trunk of certain trees. Timber good for handles; Projecting growth sometimes found in yam tubers. |
| nia | Flesh or main substance of s.t. Thus: Flesh of an animal body, including meat, fat and marrow, in contrast to skin (taba) and bones (tua); Flesh or main edible part of fruit or root excluding the skin or rind; Tuber of root crop, e.g. taro, yam, sweet potato; Mature inner part of a tree, heartwood. near syn. doa; Lower part of stem of the kava plant (aqona) in contrast to the root (waka) and upper stem (qai); Substance or main content of a speech, book, etc. |
| vū | Base, bottom; Root, taproot, bulbous root. cf. waka fibrous root, waka tū taproot; Origin, source, root; Cause. |
| waka | Roots of a plant. contr. vū, root in sense of base, origin. Kava root, not yet ground. |
| draya | Roots or root-hairs of any plant. near syn. waka, which is now more common in this sense. |
| Tikopia | |
| aka | (N) Aerial rootlet, as of banyan. |
| vaiaka | (N) Rootlet; spreading roots; aerial root. |
| raparapa | (N) Flange; buttress (cf. raparapa rakau tree trunk buttress; bulging tree roots) |
| fosa | (N) Root, esp. taro corm and other root vegetables. |
| futi | (N) Base. Futi o te rakau roots of tree |
| fetī | (N) Turmeric root |
| PMP | *wakaR | ‘root’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *wakaR | ‘roots (in general)’ | |
| Adm | Mussau | oa | ‘root’ |
| NNG | Numbami | woka | ‘root’ |
| MM | Bali | vakara | ‘root’ |
| MM | Nakanai | ua | ‘radial roots of a tree’ |
| MM | Nduke | aɣara- | ‘general term for roots of any plant’ |
| MM | Kusaghe | aɣoro | ‘root’ |
| SES | Gela | oɣa | ‘small roots’ |
| SES | Bugotu | oɣa- | ‘root’ |
| SES | Kahua | vaɣa-na | ‘root’ |
| SES | Santa Ana | waɣa-na | ‘root’ |
| NCV | Lewo | yaka | ‘kind of root, edible’ |
| SV | North Tanna | nokə- | ‘root’ |
| SV | Lenakel | nukə- | ‘root’ |
| NCal | Xârâcùù | kwɛ̄- | ‘root’ |
| NCal | Nemi | wā- | ‘root’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | okæ | [N] ‘root’; [vi] ‘begin to have roots’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | ɔkaṛ | ‘root’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | wār | ‘(tree) root’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | wāra-n | ‘its root’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | wexaẓ | ‘root’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | wār | ‘roots of a tree or plant’ |
| Fij | Bauan | waka- | ‘root of a plant (fibrous)’ |
| Fij | Wayan | waka- | ‘root or roots of plant, fibrous roots’ (cf. waka-tū ‘taproot’) |
| Fij | Rotuman | vaʔa | ‘(fibrous) roots’ |
| Pn | Niuean | vaka | ‘(plant) root; be woody, stringy; grow roots’ |
| MM | Label | wakir | ‘tree root’ |
Blust associates Label wakir with PCEMP *wakir ‘kind of root’. However, there being no other Oceanic reflexes of this etymon, it seems likely that this is an irregular reflex of *wakaR. Some Micronesian languages including Marshallese ɔkar, Chuukese wār, wāra-n, Carolinian wār and Woleaian wexaẓ point to a PMic variant *wakara- (Bender et al. 2003: 104), presumably inalienably possessed and reflected in Chuukese wāra-n.17
Blust (ACD) also reconstructs a PEMP term *wakaR-i ‘root’, which is reflected in a number of Oceanic languages. Although Blust (ACD) posits an apparent morpheme boundary between the root *wakaR and an ending *-i, he comments that the morphology of the longer form remains obscure, and does not suggest any meaning difference between *wakaR and *wakaR-i. It was probably an alternant inalienably possessed form.18
| PEMP | *wakaR-i | ‘root’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *wakaRi- | ‘root’ | |
| NNG | Dami | warei | ‘root’ |
| NCV | Tambotalo | uari- | ‘root’ |
| NCV | Aore | wari | ‘root’ |
| NCV | Araki | xuari | ‘root’ (metathesis) |
| NCV | Nduindui | ka-kwari | ‘root’ (metathesis) |
| Mic | Nauruan | awori-n | ‘root’ |
Dempwolff (1938) reconstructs PMP aka(r) ‘root’ as a doublet of wakaR ‘root’. Blust (ACD) notes that all non-Oceanic cognates with an initial a- are in languages which regularly lose word-initial *w-, thus providing no evidence for the presence or absence of *w-. Several Oceanic languages have forms which do suggest a POc doublet form *aka(r,R). None of the forms below are regular reflexes of *wakaR ‘root’.
| POc | *aka(r,R) | ‘root’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| Adm | Lou | akɔ-n | ‘root’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | akar | ‘root’ |
| Pn | Tongan | aka | ‘root, have roots; send out roots’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | aka | ‘(banyan) aerial rootlet’ |
| Pn | Samoan | aʔa | ‘root’ |
Thus POc apparently had three very similar forms, *wakaR, *wakaRi- and *aka(r,R), all ‘root’. If *wakaRi- is an altemant inalienably possessed form, then only *aka(r,R) requires explanation. No modern languages have been found to retain more than one of the four forms, suggesting that there was no semantic difference among them. POc *wakaR ‘root’ is the most widely reflected in modern Oceanic languages and reflects a Proto Austronesian form.
The POc term for ‘buttress roots’ was *lali(c,t). This is a more or less regular reflex of PMP *dalij, reconstructed by Blust (ACD ). The expected POc initial liquid is †*r-, but it has undergone assimilation to the intervocalic liquid, giving *lal- rather that †*ral-. The same change is found in POc *lalom ‘inside’, reflecting PMP *Dalem (vol.2, ch.8, §2.3.1). The expected final consonant is POc *-c. The only languages to reflect a final consonant are Tolai and Ramoaaina, in both of which the expected reflex is zero, but instead we find -t.
| PMP | *dalij | ‘buttress roots’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *lali(c,t) | ‘buttress roots’ | |
| Adm | Lou | lil, lila-n | ‘exposed root or vein’ (vowel metathesis) |
| MM | Tolai | lalit | ‘space between the buttresses of a tree’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | lalit | ‘buttresses of trees’ |
| SES | Gela | lali | ‘buttress roots of some trees’ |
| SES | Bugotu | lali-(ña) | ‘buttress of tree’ |
| SES | Kwara’ae | lali | ‘root’ |
| SES | Kwaio | lali | ‘big tree root’ |
| SES | Arosi | rari-na | ‘root’ |
| SES | Bauro | rari-na | ‘buttress root’ |
The POc reconstruction *Ramut ‘fine, hair-like roots’ is a revision of Geraghty’s (1990: 69) PEOc reconstruction *Ramu- ‘hair, fibre’.19 Extra data suggest that this form had a primary meaning ‘hair-like roots’ and in a number of languages has been extended to refer to other fine fibrous things. Data from the Meso-Melanesian languages support the reconstruction of a final consonant in POc. In Papuan Tip languages *Ramut appears to have become the general term for roots.
| POc | *Ramut | ‘fine, hair-like roots’ (Geraghty 1990: 69) | |
| NNG | Lukep | rami | ‘roots’ |
| PT | Gumawana | lam | ‘root’ |
| PT | Saliba | lam | ‘root’ |
| PT | Motu | ramu | ‘root’ |
| MM | Tolai | ramu- | ‘feele:rs of a lobster’ |
| MM | Mono-Alu | lamutu-na | ‘root’ |
| MM | Varisi | ramutu-na | ‘root’ |
| SES | Gela | (lau)lamu | ‘hairs on mango; fibre of coconut’ |
| SES | Ghari | lamu-na | ‘root’ |
| SES | Tolo | lamu-na | ‘(plant, tree +)root’ |
| SES | Arosi | ramu-ramu | ‘small fibrous aerial roots; loose ends of a bag, hanging string etc.’ |
Finally, there is some evidence that POc also had a term that denoted mangrove roots. Blust (ACD) reconstructs PMP *wakat ‘mangrove root’ along with a possible doublet *waket. He notes that the loss of final consonants in most Oceanic languages makes it difficult to distinguish between reflexes of PMP *wakaR ‘root’ and *wakat ‘mangrove root’, but states that close attention to semantics suggests that only *wakaR ‘root’ survived in POc. Although I have found no reflexes of *wak[a,e]t in Oceanic languages which retain word-final consonants, the presence of both *wakaR ‘roots (in general)’ and *wako(t) ‘mangrove root’ in POc is suggested by the apparently distinct reflexes in Kosraean, namely ɒkɒk ‘mangrove root’ and okᴂ ‘(N) root’; (vi) ‘begin to have roots’. Tawala wakoya ‘mangrove’ supports the reconstruction of POc *wako(t) with an *o, reflecting PMP *waket.
In English ‘mangrove’ refers to a variety of trees and shrubs that grow in coastal swamps and tidal estuaries and are characterised by their ability to tolerate salt water and their possession of different forms of aerial roots (OED). Species of the genus Rhizophora which grow in the wetter outer areas of the mangrove swamp have interlacing prop-roots, whereas those of the genus Bruguiera tend to grow in drier areas with pneumatophores (breathing roots) projecting upward above the surface of the mud. Non-Oceanic cognates suggest that PMP *wak[a,e]t ‘mangrove root’ probably referred to the prop-roots of Rhizophora mangroves. A few Western Malaya-Polynesian reflexes specifically denote prop-roots of mangroves and Central Malaya-Polynesian reflexes, which mostly refer to the mangrove tree rather than the root, tend to denote Rhizophora mangroves too. Thus it seems likely that POc *wako(t) also referred to the prop-roots of Rhizophora mangroves and not simply the aerial roots of mangroves in general. Ross (ch.6, §2.1) suggests that POc *wako(t) may also have served as a generic term for Rhizophora, citing the glosses below which refer to the tree and not just the roots.
| Nduke | |
| vuvuru- | Leaves on any plant. vuvuru ɣae ‘tree leaves’. |
| kakati- | Variegated, of leaves, e.g. zazala ‘croton’ leaves. |
| kava- | A frond or leaf that attaches directly to the trunk or stem of the plant, i.e. of plants (other than grasses) that don’t have branches. Examples are the leaves or fronds of coconuts (kava pevu), sago palms (kava goe) and other palms, bananas (kava lukata), paw-paws (kava manioko) and treeferns. |
| midi- | The stiff mid-ribs of fronds, e.g. of goe (sago-palm) or coconut fronds. midi goe sagopalm broom ‘straws’; midi letu coconut broom ‘straws’. Brooms (nenepo) are made of bundles of sago palm midi tied together at their thick end. |
| zaro- | The dead leaves of certain types of plants, e.g. banana and pawpaw leaves. |
| hahau- | Dead coconut fronds that fall to the ground. |
| letu- | Coconut palm leaflet (i.e. those arranged along the midi stem of the frond). Does not apply to goe ‘sago’, which has vuvuru ‘leaves’ along the kava ‘frond’. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| susuluka | Dry pandanus and banana leaves. contr. botata, dry breadfruit leaves. |
| rau | 1. Leaf. 2. A hair, hairs of the head. contr. vulu, head hair (as a whole). |
| belebele | Young leaves of any plant. |
| tōrau | 1. Soft, white young leaves at the top of a coconut tree. Edible; 2. Soft, young leaves of any plant. |
| tua | (N) 1. Bone. 2. Rib of a leaf. |
| tuabou | 1. Spinal column, backbone; 2. Rib of a leaf. |
| sāsā | Dry coconut leaf. syn. basilele samasama. |
| basilele | 1. Coconut leaf, whether dry or still green and growing on the tree. syn. rō ni niu (lit. ‘leaf of coconut’). cf. sāsā. 2. Broom made of coconut leaf ribs. |
| botata | Dry breadfruit leaves. |
| Tikopia | |
| rau | Classifier for flat objects; hence leaf, sheet etc; also often used alone for sago leaf thatch sheets, and for thatch generic. |
| tauru | (N) Foliage, esp. collectively, as a mass ofleaves on a tree, spray of fern fronds etc. |
| siŋano | (N) Immature leaf of pandanus or coconut palm, used as decoration (manoŋi). |
| firoi | (N) Leaf base of palm. |
| mariŋa | (N) Small pinnules at base of palmate leaf etc. (e.g. mariŋa rau niu, mariŋa rau ota small coconut, sago pinnules). |
| sukusuku | (N) Tail, ending. Sukusuku o te rakau top, crest of tee, mass of leafage. Also tauru o te rakau ‘foliage of tree’. |
| fāmātua | (N) Mature coconut frond. |
| sakilo | (N) Immature coconut leaf, of pale colour; used traditionally as decoration for some ritual objects, as a shelf in Resiake temple, or sign of taboo on orchard. |
| ŋausala | (N) Midrib of sago pinnule, used as pin for leaf thatch, leaf pads for oven cover; bundle used traditionally as ū seru for beating rhythm in funeral lament. |
| PMP | *waket | ‘mangrove root’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *wako(t) | ‘mangrove root’ | |
| PT | Tawala | wakoya | ‘mangrove’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | ɒk-ɒk | ‘mangrove root’ |
| Mic | Mokilese | ak | ‘mangrove’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | ak | ‘generic for mangroves’ |
As well as a general term for leaf, Oceanic languages tend to have more specific terms referring either to leaves of particular kinds of plants, leaves at different stages of growth, and/or parts of leaves. For example, Wayan has a general term rau, three terms that specifically denote coconut leaves sāsā, basilele and tōrau, a term that refers to dry banana or pandanus leaves, susuluka, a term for young leaves, belebele, and two terms for the midrib of a leaf, tua and tuabou. Table 4.7 gives the different terms for leaves from Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia.
A generic term for leaf, POc *raun, is clearly reconstructable and reflects an earlier Proto Austronesian term with a similar meaning. As some reflexes of *raun denote hair or fur, it seems likely that in POc *raun referred not only to broad surface leaves, but also to the needle-like leaves of casuarinas, but the glosses of most reflexes are not specific enough to determine if this is the case.
| PAn | *dahun | ‘leaf’ (Blust 1993) | |
| POc | *raun | ‘leaf, general term for leaves of all types of plants’ | |
| Adm | Titan | laú-n | ‘leaf, hair, feathers’ |
| Adm | Lou | rɛi-n | ‘leaf’ |
| NNG | Manam | dau | ‘leaf; (temporary) dwelling’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | ðioŋ | ‘leaf, feather’ |
| NNG | Mengen | lau | ‘leaf; paper; (roof) tin; grass roof; letter’ |
| NNG | Lukep | rau | ‘paper, leaf, kina notes’ |
| NNG | Lukep | raunu | ‘leaf, hair’ |
| NNG | Sissano (Arop) | royn | ‘leaf, cloth’ |
| NNG | Hote | ŋauŋ | ‘hair; leaf’ |
| PT | Gumawana | yao | ‘leaf’ |
| PT | Motu | rau | ‘leaf’ |
| SES | Gela | rau | ‘a leaf’ |
| SES | Gela | rau-rau | ‘leaves, foliage, leafage’ |
| SES | Tolo | rau | ‘(plants, tree +) leaves’ (generic) |
| SES | Longgu | rau-i | ‘leaf’ |
| SES | Arosi | rau | ‘leaf; prefix to names of trees’ |
| NCV | Mota | nau-i | ‘a leaf, flake’ |
| NCV | Mota | nau-nau-na | ‘its leaves’ |
| NCV | Ambae | rau | ‘leaf’ |
| NCal | Xârâcùù | nɛ̃ | ‘leaf; ornamental feather’ |
| NCal | Paicî | doo-e | ‘(its) leaf’ |
| NCal | Iaai | lã- | ‘leaf’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | rau | ‘thatch made of pandanus leaves’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | ṣa | ‘leaf’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | ṭṣə̄ | ‘leaf, sheet’ (cf. ṭṣə̄ ɾii ‘coconut leaf, as distinct from frond’) |
| Mic | Woleaian | ṣø | ‘leaf, foliage, leafage’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | ṣə̄ | ‘leaf with broad surface, as a banana or taro leaf’ |
| Fij | Bauan | drau | ‘leaf of a tree, a hair of the head’ |
| Fij | Wayan | rau | ‘leaf; a hair (of head); page, leaf of paper’ |
| Fij | Wayan | raurau | ‘leaves; greens, leafy vegetables’ |
| Pn | Tongan | lau | ‘leaf; sheet, layer of paper or board’ |
| Pn | Niuean | lau | ‘leaf’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | rau | (classifier for flat objects, hence ‘leaf, sheet’ etc); ‘sago leaf thatch sheet’; ‘thatch (generic)’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | rau (rakau) | ‘(tree) leaves; vegetation, vegetable food’ |
| Pn | Samoan | lau | ‘leaf; blade; thatch’ |
More specific leaf terms are not so easily reconstructable for POc. Modern languages tend to have a number of terms denoting the leaves of different types of plants. Table 4.8 shows the different leaf terms in Iduna (PT), Arosi (SES), Anejom (SV) and Niuean (Pn). As well as representing different regions of Oceania, these languages seem representative of the different ways leaf terms are lexicalised. Some languages, like Iduna, have distinct terms for the leaves of each of a number of different plants, including coconut, pandanus, sago, taro and tobacco. These include terms for leaves used for different purposes. The Niuean dictionary, on the other hand, lists a number of terms for different leaves, but they are mostly compounds containing the general term for leaf, lau. Thus launiu, comprising lau ‘leaf’ and niu ‘coconut’ denotes ‘coconut frond’, laufā consisting of lau ‘leaf’ and fā ‘pandanus’ denotes pandanus leaf’ and laumamanu comprising lau ‘leaf’ and mamanu ‘a common fern, Phymatodes scolopendria’ denotes ‘fern leaves’.
Anejom is in between these two extremes with some compound terms, such as neri-neañ ‘coconut frond’ comprising neri- ‘leaf’ and neañ ‘coconut’, neri-neto ‘sugarcane leaf’ consisting of neri- ‘leaf’ and neto ‘sugarcane’, and nerintal ‘taro-leaf’ consisting of neri- ‘leaf’ and intal ‘taro (generic)’, and some distinct, synchronically unanalysable, lexical items for different leaf types, such as nilev ‘dry coconut-leaf used in making house-walls’, nevak ‘dry pandanus leaf ready for weaving’ and narico ‘leaf of sugarcane or wild cane (white and itchy)’. Other terms in Anejom, such as inmatinɣat ‘dry fallen pandanus leaf’ and inmatito ‘dry leaves of sugarcane’ are compounds consisting of inmati- ‘dry leaf of’ and contracted forms of the plant names; inmatiθve ’dry coconut leaf looks to be a similar compound although the second element is not clear. For other languages there are only a few leaf terms that denote leaves of specific kinds of plants. For example, Arosi has terms for the leaves of coconut, pandanus and taro.
| Iduna | |
| lukumi- | leaf |
| didi- | coconut frond |
| tafa | dried coconut fronds used as a torch |
| belobelo | pandanus leaf |
| kʷalala | sago frond |
| lafilafiya | sago fronds used in house construction |
| hewakabu | taro leaves |
| lokʷahi | taro leaves for making a soup |
| yawai | tobacco leaves |
| Anejom | |
| neri- | leaf |
| neri-neañ | coconut frond |
| inmatiθve | dry coconut frond |
| nilev | dry coconut-leaf used in making house-walls |
| inmatinɣat | dry fallen pandanus leaf |
| nevak | dry pandanus leaf ready for weaving |
| incetmī | pandanus leaf used for weaving |
| neri-ntal | taro leaves |
| neri-neto | leaf of sugarcane |
| narico | leaf of sugarcane or wildcane (white and itchy) |
| inmatito | dry leaves of sugarcane |
| inmehei | Heliconia leaf |
| Arosi | |
| rau | leaves |
| roboatari | coconut fronds |
| buroŋa | dried coconut leaf hanging ready to fall |
| sara | pandanus leaf used as sling for baby |
| bʷara- | taro leaf |
| waroamadi | leaves of asp. resembling Piper betle |
| Niuean | |
| lau | leaf |
| launiu | coconut frond |
| piupiu niu | young leaf of growing coconut |
| laufā | pandanus leaf |
| lū | young taro leaves used for food |
| laumamanu | fern leaves |
Also of note is that many languages have distinctive labels for leaves of the same sets of plants. So the languages in Table 4.8 all have names for coconut fronds, for pandanus leaves, and for taro leaves, while with other types of plants, such as betel pepper or sago, only one or two of the languages have specific terms. It is apparent that the types of leaves which have distinctive names in a language are those which have some cultural use or other significance. Thus many Oceanic languages have several terms for coconut leaves, apparently reflecting the different uses of different growth stages of them within Oceanic societies. Firth (1985: 92-293) writes of the great variety of uses of parts of a coconut palm in Tikopia, including ‘fresh leaves for floor mats (tapakau) and rough baskets (popora); dry leaves for torches (afi); and immature leaves (sakilo) for decoration’. Lewo has three terms that denote coconut leaves, namely mamaru ‘leaf of coconut (green)’, masuge ‘coconut leaf dry’ and purukupi ‘coconut frond’, distinguishing between green and dry coconut leaves. This distinction is one that is often lexicalised in Oceanic languages. Thus Wayan basilele ‘coconut leaf, dry or green’ versus sāsā ‘dry coconut leaf, Lou liɛn ’unopened coconut leaf versus sulan ’dry coconut leaf and Chuukese pāyiɾɨ ’coconut leaf and wupʷut ’young coconut leaf (still light in colour)’. In other languages, such as Takia, the different terms for coconut leaves seem to directly reflect different uses, thus bombom ‘coconut leaves (used for roofing)’ and luŋ ‘coconut leaf (used for perpetual fire)’. The significance of the terms for dry coconut leaves also seems to be related to usage, for torches (e.g. Ramoaaina ulu ‘leaf of coconut palm, (coconut leaf) torch’) or for various woven items, including mats, baskets and the roofing and walls of houses (e.g. Manam rigina ‘coconut fronds (plaited), used as mats and roofing and siding for houses’, Lukep sal ‘coconut leaf fence/enclosure’ and Sursurunga ber ’coconut leaf; mat made from coconut leaf).
Pandanus leaves are often more important than coconut leaves for weaving in Oceanic societies. Firth (1985: 105-106, 186) describes the use of the leaves of different types of pandanus for weaving in Tikopia. Thus the leaves of fara ‘pandanus, narrow stiff leaves, single tall trunk’ are used for coarse mats and sewing coconut fibre bags and the leaves of kie ‘pandanus (sp. similar to Pandanus odoratissimus)’ are used for fine mats. However, it seems that languages tend to only have a single term for pandanus leaves, if they have one at all. The situation with sago leaves is somewhat similar. Most dictionaries have terms which denote sago leaf thatch, and sago leaves are clearly the most used leaf for making thatch amongst Oceanic societies, but a term for sago leaves is found in only a scattering of languages (e.g. Titan kaliŋat ‘sago leaf (shingles)’, Mapos Buang ngemŋ ‘sago leaves (used for making grass skirts)’, Mangap ram ‘new leaves of sago (used for decoration)’ and Tolo hatsira ’sago palm leaf).
Names for types of taro leaves, on the other hand, are apparently distinguished in Oceanic languages on the basis of their value as food. For instance, Kaulong has three terms pasu ‘taro leaf (mature)’, sulak ‘taro leaf (young)’ and talan ‘taro leaves that are not suitable for eating’. In other languages there will be a single term for taro leaves (e.g. Arosi bʷara ‘leaf of taro’ and Drehet moruŋ ’taro leaf).
How many terms for specific types of leaves can be reconstructed for POc? Across the languages in Table 4.8 it can be seen that not many of the terms are cognate. Thus while all the languages have terms for coconut and taro leaves, none of the terms are cognate. This is in part not unexpected as the terms in Table 4.8 often refer to coconut leaves of different growth stages. So while Anejom has terms for dry coconut leaves, one of the Arosi terms and the Niuean term denote coconut leaves in general. But even looking at just the terms for dry coconut leaves in Table 4.8, there are still no forms that are cognate (e.g. Iduna tafa ‘(dry) coconut leaves used as torch’, Arosi buroŋa ‘dry coconut leaf, Anejom inmatiθve ’dry coconut leaf’ and nilev ‘dry coconut-leaf used in making house-wall’). Table 4.8 seems to typify a general trend across Oceanic languages, such that while languages have terms with similar meanings they are not often cognate. Certain terms associated with coconut fronds are nonetheless reconstructable, and their meaning also includes a function for which they are used: POc *sulu(q) ‘dry coconut leaf torch; dry coconut leaf and POc *ramaR ’coconut leaf used as a torch when fishing’ (ch.12, §5.1.2), and POc *no(k,g)o ‘midrib or spine of coconut leaflet; broom made therefrom’ (ch.12, §5.1.3).
Pandanus and sago leaves were apparently as important as coconut leaves in many traditional Oceanic societies. A POc term *qatop ‘thatch, roof can be reconstructed (see vol.1, ch.3, §3.4), with reflexes in many languages that refer specifically to sago-leaf thatch. In SE Solomonic and North-Central Vanuatu languages reflexes of this term denote the sago palm, as well as sago-leaf thatch. In Arosi that ao ’sago palm’ can refer to the leaves is evident from compounds such as adodo ao ‘to lay together the leaves in bundles’, susuʔi ao ‘layers of sewn leaves put ready for thatching’ and taba ao ‘to go out and cut sago palm leaves’. However, reflexes of POc *qatop that refer specifically to sago palm leaves are not widespread, and so unlike POc *sulu(q), a secondary ‘leaf’ meaning does not appear to be reconstructable. In fact, there does not seem to have been a distinctive term for sago leaves, although a number of modern languages do have such terms. The same is true for pandanus leaves. They appear to be much used for weaving in many regions of Oceania and known for finer weaving than coconut leaves, but a distinctive term does not appear to be reconstructable for POc. Bender et al. (2003: 52) reconstruct a Proto Micronesian form *maŋu ‘pandanus leaf, but the etymology of this form is unclear. Geraghty (1990: 64) suggests it is a reflex of POc *maRaŋo ’to be dry, withered’, supported by the formal correspondence and the fact that in a number of Micronesian languages the meanings are restricted to dry pandanus leaves and in Ponapean mɛŋ has the meaning ‘withered, dry, dead vegetation’. Ross (ch.11, §2.5) suggests that Marshallese māŋ ‘pandanus leaves’, Chuukese məŋ ‘pandanus leaf, especially when softened by a shell’ and Woleaian maŋɨ ‘pandanus leaf are reflexes of POc *mʷaŋa’Pandanus sp., perhaps Pandanus conoideus’ supported by Kosraean mʷeŋ ‘pandanus’. It seems likely that there has been a conflation of these two POc terms in Proto Micronesian. Ross reconstructs several POc terms for different types of pandanus and it is possible that these terms could be used to refer to the leaves as well as the tree, especially as only the leaves of certain kinds of pandanus would have been valued for weaving.
POc *gal(a,o) ‘taro leaves’ is tentatively reconstructed by Ross (this volume, ch.9, §2.2.1), supported by the cognate set below.
| POc | *gal(a,o) | ‘taro leaves’ (Ross 1996d: 190) | |
| Adm | Baluan | gal | ‘taro’ |
| NNG | Labu | ka | ‘taro’ |
| MM | Nakanai | gala-gala | ‘taro leaves’ |
| MM | Vitu | galo | ‘taro leaves’ |
| SES | Kwaio | gala- | ‘taro shoot’ |
Ross (1996d: 175) also reconstructs POc *was(i,a) ‘edible greens, Abelmoschus manihot (syn. Hibiscus manihot)’ that apparently denoted edible green leaves, as well as the most salient member of the class, Abelmoschus manihot.
As can be seen from Table 4.9 Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia all have several terms for the new growth of plants. Wayan, for example, has ðuli ‘sucker of plant’, sō ‘young, tender leaves at the top of a plant’, gau ‘suckers’, tubu ‘new growth, young shoot or sprout’ and bēbē ‘suckers or shoots of taro or tobacco plant’. Wayan also has a more specific term, soba, that denotes banana suckers. Tikopia also has a number of general terms for the new growth of plants, and a term roro that specifically denotes the new growth of a coconut palm. In the data for Nduke, on the other hand, there are a number of general terms for suckers and shoots, but none that denote the new growth of particular kinds of plants only.
The number of terms for shoots and suckers in modern Oceanic languages reflects the importance of these parts in the propagation of food crops. French-Wright (1983: 193) notes that taros, yams, bananas and breadfruit ‘are fairly easily generated by means of suckers’ and that ‘today many daughter communities rarely use seeds, although the gourd, which is grown from seed, is an exception’. He also writes that ‘the POc gardener probably relied to a large extent upon seedlings, cuttings and seed tubers for the propagation of food plants’, and he reconstructs a number of POc terms that provide evidence for such horticultural practices.
The most general term for shoots or suckers in POc appears to have been *[s,j]uli(q), reconstructed as *suli(q) by French-Wright (1983: 78). Ross (1996d: 179) reconstructs POc *[s,j]uli(q) with a general meaning of propagation material (e.g. cutting or shoot), as well as the more specific meaning of banana or taro shoot, as it is this more specific meaning that is reflected in many modern Oceanic languages. The Mota, Wayan and Tongan glosses suggest that this term could be used figuratively to refer to one’s children or offspring.
The initial consonant is uncertain because Manam and Tawala reflect *s and not *j, but Numbami, Lukep and Gela reflect *j and not *s. In the other languages the initial consonant reflects both *s and *j.
| PAn | *suliq | ‘runner, sucker, shoot’ (Blust 1972a) | |
| POc | *[s,j]uli(q) | ‘banana or taro sucker, slip, cultting, shoot (i.e. propagation material)’ (Ross 1996d: 179) | |
| Adm | Lou | sili-n | ‘(banana, pineapple) sprout’ |
| Adm | Loniu | cili | ‘sprout, especially banana shoot’ |
| NNG | Tami | jili | ‘taro sucker’ |
| NNG | Numbami | duli | ‘taro sucker’ |
| NNG | Manam | suli | ‘banana slip, cutting’ |
| PT | Tawala | huni | ‘taro’ |
| PT | Kilivila | uli | ‘taro’ |
| PT | Motu | dui | ‘banana plant’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | ul-ul | ‘put forth new leaves; of tan (tree sp.) only’ |
| SES | Gela | duli | ‘a sucker, of banana’ |
| NCV | Mota | suliu | ‘sucker from roots of a plant, shoot from tubers’ |
| NCV | Mota | sulu-i | ‘sucker, met. children, offspring’ |
| SV | Sye | nelye- | ‘sucker, shoot’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | nisci- | ‘(plant) shoot’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | sulu-n | ‘young shoot of, sprout of’ |
| Fij | Wayan | ðuli | ‘(plant, esp. banana, taro) sucker’ |
| Fij | Bauan | suli | ‘(plant, esp. banana, taro) sucker’ |
| Pn | Tongan | huli | ‘shoot, sprout, twig, or sucker; scion, descendant’ |
| Pn | Niuean | huli | ‘shoot, young plant’ |
| Pn | Samoan | suli | ‘(obsolete) sucker of a banana plant, heir’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | huli | ‘taro top, used for planting’ |
| Nduke | |
| kihe- | A sucker of a banana or taro, or pineapple tops, or the germinating fruits of goe ‘sago’ or hea ‘betelnut’. These have in common that these growing shoots are used for planting back. Growing coconuts (nogoro or zizira) are not kihe. |
| liho- | New growth or young shoots on a plant, including coconut, betelnut, yam, gingers and grasses but not hololu ‘mangrove’. |
| pisoɣata | New growth, of coconuts, potatoes, etc.; to sprout, of a germinating seed, etc. |
| soɣoɣo | Newly growing flowering shoot of a palm tree, e.g. of a coconut or sago palm. |
| togo- | To germinate, of seeds, or ‘newly shoot’, of plants. A general word that can refer to a germinating seed, a sucker (kihe) or any new leaf growth (liho). In a more general sense, it can mean any growth occuring of a plant. This is the only word that applies to germination of seeds. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| ðuli | 1. Sucker of a plant, esp. banana or taro, but also used of kava and other plants. syn. gaugau. 2. (slang) offspring, kids. |
| sō | 1. Highest part; top or tip. 2. Young, tender leaves at the top of a plant. 3. Source of a river or stream. syn. sō ni wai (lit. ‘source of water’). |
| gau | (N) Suckers, young plants set down by taro or bananas, or growing roots of a tree. |
| tubu | (N) 1. Increase, growth. 2. Profit, interest (monetary), financial return on a business or investment. 3. New growth, young shoot or sprout. |
| bēbē | (N) Suckers or shoots of taro or tobacco plant. syn. gaugau, bēbē ni doko, (N) Suckers of taro bēbē ni sawasawa, (N) Suckers of tobacco plant. |
| rovu | (v) (sub. e.g. teeth, new leaves, shoots.) Sprout, germinate, shoot up, appear. (N) Sucker, new shoot growing from root of a plant. |
| rovuvaði | 1. (sub. fruit.) Start to form. 2. (sub. a tree, shrub.) Sprout new leaves, bud. (N) 1. New fruit, just starting to form. 2. Bud, new shoot growing from a branch. |
| soba | 1. Banana sucker. cf. gau, ðuli, vura, which are more general terms for suckers. 2. Fruit-head of a banana bunch, consisting of a circular red pod containing flowers and immature fruit. |
| Tikopia | |
| purapura | (N) Seedling (archaic, ritual form). |
| pupura | (N) 1. Seed material; seedling; planting material. |
| muko | (N) Young shoot of plant. |
| sakare | (N) Shoot of plant (e.g. sakare o te ufi shoot of yam, sakare o te niu shoot of coconut, sakare kaula areca shoot, sakare futi banana shoot). |
| tapuna | (N) Shoot of plant (generally prefaced by tau relational particle, indicator of linkage) (cf. tautapuna (N) shoot of plant). |
| uri | (N) Shoot or sucker of plant; tiller (e.g. te uri taro the shoots (tillers) of taro). |
| vaemanu | (N) Shoot (of root food crop); side tuber. |
| karekare | (N) 1. Very young plant, animal etc. |
| roro | (N) Bud or shoot of coconut palm near flower bract; masticated with lime and betel leaf when areca nut scarce. Also possibly other buds. |
French-Wright (1983: 60) also reconstructs a very similar term with the meaning ‘to transplant’. Again there is variation in the initial consonant with Roviana reflecting POc *j and Arosi reflecting POc *s. He suggests (1983: 61-62) that *(s,j)uli could be used in POc to denote the practice of growing taros from suckers which are left in the ground when the mature taro is harvested and then transplanted when a new garden has been prepared, and to the transplanting of fruit trees grown initially from seeds, but replanted to a carefully chosen spot when still small. However, the POc reconstruction with this meaning is not well supported, as it is reflected in only one NW Solomonic and one SE Solomonic language.
| POc | *(s,j)uli | ‘to transplant’ (French-Wright 1983: 60) | |
| MM | Roviana | zuli | ‘to transplant seedlings etc’ |
| SES | Arosi | (u)suri | ‘to transplant’ (source of u- not known) |
From the fact that modern languages tend to have several forms that denote new growth of plants, we would expect the same to be true of POc, but other terms with similar meanings are not easily reconstructable. However, there are two nominal terms which appear to be candidates. Bender et al. (2003: 28) reconstruct Proto Oceanic *qili ‘sprout, shoot’ supported by reflexes in Micronesian languages and Nakanai. The combination of the lack of an initial consonant in the Micronesian languages and an initial h- in Nakanai support the reconstruction of an initial *q in POc, and neither the Micronesian forms nor the Nakanai form are plausible reflexes of POc *[s,j]uli(q).
| POc | *qili | [N] ‘sprout, shoot (esp. of banana or taro)’ (Bender et al. 2003) | |
| MM | Nakanai | hili | ‘sprout of banana or something similar’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | yil | ‘taro sprout; immature taro plant’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | ili | ‘(banana, breadfruit, taro) sucker’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | iɾi | ‘(banana, taro, bamboo) shoot, short sucker, runner’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | iɾi | ‘young shoots surrounding an old plant; a young plant’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | il-il | ‘young taro shoots which develop from the mature taro root’ |
A third possible POc term for the new growth of plants is *rama. This is not a very well-supported reconstruction, but is suggested by the Lou form rɔmɔn ‘taro shoot’ and a few terms from North New Guinea languages, including Sissano (Arop) raman ‘seedling, shoot, plant’. As Lou and Sissano (Arop) are not languages which reflect final consonants, it seems likely that the final -n in these languages reflects the 3SG possessive suffix.
| POc | *rama | ‘shoot, new leaf, seedling’ | |
| Adm | Lou | rɔmɔ-n | ‘taro shoot’ |
| NNG | Mangap | ram | ‘new leaves of sago, used for decoration’ |
| NNG | Lukep | lam | ‘sago palm leaf decoration made from top shoot’ (for †ram) |
| NNG | Sissano (Arop) | rama-n | ‘seedling, shoot, plant’ |
Taro is propagated by planting either the tops of large corms or the small suckers which grow from the side of the corm, and POc *up(e,a) denoted this planting material. Its reflexes sometimes denote propagation material for plants other than taro.
| POc | *up(e,a) | ‘taro seedling’ | |
| NNG | Mutu | (do)uwe | ‘seed’ |
| NNG | Tami | uwe | ‘taro seedling’ |
| NNG | Yabem | ʋwı | ‘seedling’ |
| PT | Are | ube | ‘taro tops for planting’ |
| PT | Gapapaiwa | uve | ‘taro tops for planting’ |
| PT | Tawala | uwe | ‘taro seedling’ |
| PT | Motu | uhe | ‘the end of yam, kept for planting, any seed for planting’ |
| SES | Arosi | uha | ‘taro sp.’ |
| NCal | Nyelâyu | (uk)owe | ‘taro seedling’ |
| NCal | Yuanga | uva | ‘taro seedling’ |
| NCal | Pwapwâ | upe | ‘taro seedling’ |
POc also appears to have had a couple of verbal terms that denoted new growth, including *tupul ‘to send out new growth’ (French-Wright 1983: 78) and *pʷer(e) ‘to sprout, grow’ (see vol.1, ch.5, §9 for the reconstruction of other terms denoting growth).20
| POc | *tupul | ‘to send out new growth’ (French-Wright 1983: 78) | |
| PT | Motu | tuhu-tuhu | ‘young shoot’ |
| MM | Roviana | tuvulu | ‘send out new growth, of trees that have been cut down’ |
| Fij | Bauan | tuvu | ‘shoot up, as of a tree’ |
| POc | *pʷer(e) | ‘to sprout, grow’ | |
| Adm | Lou | pʷe-pʷer | [v] ‘sprout’ |
| PMic | *pʷere | ‘to sprout, blossom’ (Bender et al. 2003: 74) | |
| Mic | Kiribati | pʷe-pʷe | [v] ‘give off shoots’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | pʷɛr | ‘appear, blossom (of fruit and flowers)’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | pʷær | [v] ‘emerge, sprout; go all the way through a hole or tunnel’; [N] ‘sprout’ |
| Nduke | |
| havoro | The general term for flower; to flower, blossom. |
| pelara- | 1. Wide open, of eye. 2. Any flower that closes at night and opens in the morning, e.g. hibiscus flowers. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| sē | Blossom, bloom, flower. (N) Flower, blossom of s.t. |
| sei | Flower of the vadra pandanus tree. Yellow. vadra sei, (N) Tree (kai) taxon: Pandanus tectorius syn. vadra. Timber used for rafters; old leaves used to wrap cigars and for thatching. |
| waluwalu | Flower of the breadfruit. The fruit grows when the long thin flower drops. |
| Tikopia | |
| sei | Flower, especially as in decoration, e.g. in ear lobe, hence any ear ornament’ Poss. occ. uttered as sē, sē rakau flower of plant. Cf. sesei flower (poss. plural of sei, archaic sēsē) |
| rāsei | (N) Flower, flower ornament |
| kalokalo | (N) Bright red flowers of coral tree (ŋatae ‘Erythrina sp.’). Appearance in July/August taken as traditional sign for start of turmeric extraction. |
| viro | (N) Sago flower. |
Oceanic languages tend to have a general term that refers to blooms of any kind, like Nduke havoro ‘the general term for flower’ and Wayan sē ‘blossom, bloom, flower’. Some languages also have names for the flowers of specific types of plants, such as Tikopia kalokalo ‘bright red flowers of coral tree (ŋatae’Erythrina sp.’)’ and viro ‘sago flower’.
POc appears to have had two general terms for flower, *puŋa, which continues PMP *buŋa, and *sē, and it is not clear how they differed. Both forms are reflected most widely in Eastern Oceanic languages; in fact I have found no Western Oceanic cognates of *puŋa and only one of *sē.
| PMP | *buŋa | ‘flower, blossom; to flower, bear flowers; first-born child; skin rash, prickly heat; speckled (offish)’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *puŋa | ‘flower, blossom’ (ACD) | |
| SES | Longgu | vuŋa | [vi] ‘to bud, blossom; to flower’; [N] ‘a bunch’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | wuŋi- | ‘flower of’ |
| NCV | Paamese | huŋe- | ‘flower; tiny immature fruit on plants with no flowers’ |
| NCV | Sesake | na-vuŋa | ‘flower’ |
| SV | Lenakel | nouŋə- | ‘flower’ |
| NCal | Xârâcùù | pũ | ‘flower’ |
| NCal | Iaai | vʌŋo | ‘flower’ |
| Pn | Samoan | fuŋa | [N] ‘flower, blossom’; [V] ‘be in bloom’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | fuŋa | ‘flower, blossom’ |
| Pn | Luangiua | puŋa | ‘coconut flower, coconut seeds’ |
The Fijian, Polynesian and Nakanai forms below suggest the reconstruction of *see ‘flower’ with a long vowel, but no contrast between short and long vowels is reconstructed for POc. Possibly the POc form was *seqe as loss of *q is a regular change in all the languages which reflect it. But this raises a further phonological question. POc *e reflects PMP *-ay which only occurred word-finally. It is possible that the first vowel of the POc form was not *e, and that in Nakanai and Proto Central Pacific a sequence of unlike vowels, perhaps resulting from the loss of medial *q, merged as ee. However, without further cognates, these comments are purely speculative and it can simply be noted that POc *see ‘flower’ is a non-canonic form which may need revision if additional reflex1es are found.
| POc | *see | ‘flower’ (Geraghty 1983) | |
| MM | Nakanai | se-sē | ‘flower; blossom; (tobacco) seeds’ |
| Fij | Bauan | sē- | [N] ‘flower’; [v] ‘flower, be in blossom’ |
| Fij | Wayan | sē | [N] ‘flower, blossom’; [v] ‘blossom, bloom, flower’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | sē | ‘occasional pronunciation of sei (flower) in possessives, e.g. sē rakau (flower of plant)’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | sē | ‘to flower, blossom; a flower’ |
| Pn | Sikaiana | sē | ‘flower, bud’ |
A very similar form, *sei, appears to be reconstructable for Proto Central Pacific, although the original meaning is not entirely obvious. In Fijian reflexes refer to the flower of the pandanus and in Polynesian languages reflexes refer to flowers that are used as ornaments behind the ear or in the hair.
| PCP | *sei | ‘flower, especially as an ornament’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | sei | ‘flower of the vadra or balawa (pandanus)’ |
| Fij | Wayan | sei | ‘yellow flower of the vadra pandanus tree’ |
| Pn | Tongan | sei | ‘ornamentation (e.g. flower) placed behind the ear’ |
| Pn | Niuean | hei | [N] ‘floral decoration for bride’; [v] ‘place a flower in hair or behind ear’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | sei | ‘ornament in the lobe of the ear’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | sei | ‘flower, especially as in decoration, e.g. in ear lobe, hence any ear ornament’ |
| Pn | Samoan | sei | ‘flower worn as ornament (behind ear or in hair)’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | hei | ‘ear or hair ornament of flower or leaf’ |
The generic terms for flowers in many Western Oceanic languages are innovative, and are not only not cognate with those found in Eastern Oceanic, but are also often not cognate within lower level subgroups.
Just as with leaf terms, modern Oceanic languages tend to have one or two more specific flower terms that denote the flowers of particular types of plants. So alongside sē ‘blos- som, flower’, Wayan has sei ‘flower of the vadra pandanus’ and waluwalu ‘flower of the breadfruit’. Other languages tend to have specific names for coconut, sago or banana flowers (e.g. Misima lámun ‘coconut flower’, Ramoaaina tete ‘flower of banana’, Tikopia viro ‘sago flower’). But again none of these more specific terms appear to be reconstructable for POc. Even within lower level subgroups languages have non-cognate forms. For example, the Papuan Tip languages Gapapaiwa (sisina ‘coconut blossoms’), Gumawana (niyola ‘blossoms on a coconut palm’) and Misima (lámun ‘coconut flower’) have non-cognate terms for coconut flower.
| Nduke | |
| malete- | Fruit. malet’ pevu ‘fruit of coconut’, malet’ manioko ‘pawpaw’. Can describe any kind of fruit, whether ripe or already fallen .. |
| mezu- | To be ripe, of kino (cut-nut) or tat’lise (sea-almond) nuts (but not used of canarium nuts). This is determined by the skin of the fruit beginning to soften slightly and the nuts falling down by themselves. |
| udo- | The spoilage of fruit that happens when fruit-fly or flying foxes attack it. Fruit that is udo often drops to the ground prematurely. In coconuts udo happens when the fruit is still very young. |
| vara- | A hand of bananas or hea ‘betelnuts’, but not of kino ‘cutnuts (Barringtonia)’ or haoro ‘Canarium nuts’. Refers to the separate ‘hands’ of betelnut or bananas that have been torn off from the full bunch. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| vua | 1. Fruit; 2. (metaph.) Results, products, offspring. (v) 1. (sub. a plant.) Fruit, bear fruit; 2. (sub. a project, etc.) Produce results, bear fruit. 3. (sub. e.g. people, animal stock.) Increase, multiply. |
| vuata | 1. Crops, food plants, fruit or vegetables which are harvested. cf. marawa, magiti ‘vegetables’. 2. Returns, benefits, products of one’s work, fruits of one’s labour. |
| ua | Bunch or cluster of fruit. |
| nia | Flesh or main substance of s.t. Thus: 1. Flesh of an animal body, including meat, fat and marrow, in contrast to skin (taba) and bones (tua); 2. Flesh or main edible part of fruit or root excluding the skin or rind; 3. Tuber of root crop, e.g. taro, yam, sweet potato; 4. Mature inner part of a tree, heartwood. near syn. doa; 5. Lower part of stem of the kava plant (agona) in contrast to the root (waka) and upper stem (gai); 6. Substance or main content of a speech, book, etc. |
| mārawa | 1. Ground crops, food-plants obtained from plants other than trees; uncooked vegetables, including root crops, bananas, sugarcane, corn, melons, etc. contr. vuata, fruits, magiti, food ready for eating or foodstuffs in general. 2. Used by some as a generic term for all food plants, including tree–crops or fruit. |
| bā | Hand of bananas. bā i ata, (N) Top or upper hand. bā i rā, (N) Bottom or lower hand. |
| kalikali | 1. Groin, top of the leg where it joins the trunk (of person or animal). near syn. qiriqiri. 2. The lowest rows of bananas on a stalk, poorly developed. syn. kalikali ni tiaina. |
| Tikopia | |
| fua | (N) 1. Fruit 2. Analogous objects to fruit, e.g. eggs of fish or birds. |
| rere | (v) 1. Move with speed, rush 2. Develop from bud into fruit. |
| kaureu | (N) Unripe, but damaged fruit, e.g banana bunch which must be cut to avoid loss. |
| moa | (N) Banana fruit on stem in formative stage. |
Table 4.11 gives the terms for ‘fruit’ and related meanings in Nduke, Wayan Fijian and Tikopia. All three languages have generic terms for fruit and specific terms relating to bananas.
The term ‘fruit’ in English has a number of senses, including: ‘1. vegetable products in general, that are fit to be used as food by men and animals … 2. the edible product of a plant or tree, consisting of the seed and its envelope, esp. the latter when it is of juicy pulpy nature … 5. the seed of a plant or tree regarded as the means of reproduction, together with its envelope’ (OED). With terms glossed as ‘fruit’ in the dictionaries of Oceanic languages it is often difficult to determine which of the English senses are present in the meaning of the Oceanic term. Ross (1996d: 208-209) concludes that POc *puaq, the general term for ‘fruit’, denoted fruit as a plant part and plant product, rather than a food category. The number of reflexes of *puaq that are glossed as ‘seed’ suggests that its meaning encompassed both the seed and its envelope (see §2.9).
| PAn | *buaq | ‘fruit’ (ACD; Dempwolff 1938) | |
| POc | *puaq | ‘fruit: generic for fruit as a part of plants, the seed and its envelope (N); to bear fruit (v)’ (Ross 1996d) | |
| NNG | Gitua | pua | ‘seed, egg’ |
| PT | Wedau | ua | ‘fruit’ |
| PT | Motu | hua-hua | ‘fruit, bear fruit’ |
| PT | Mekeo | pua | ‘seed’ |
| MM | Tabar | ua-ua | ‘seed’ |
| MM | Label | hua | ‘seed’ |
| MM | Teop | vua | ‘fruit, seed’ |
| MM | Roviana | vua | ‘fruit’ |
| MM | Maringe | vua | ‘fruit’ |
| SES | Gela | vua-vua | ‘fruit; seed; flower’ |
| SES | Lau | fu-fua | ‘fruit’ |
| SES | Arosi | hua | ‘fruit; counter for fruit, stones, eggs, fish etc; round or lump-like objects; bear fruit’ |
| NCV | Raga | vwa-i- | ‘fruit’ |
| NCV | Big Nambas | na-va- | ‘fruit’ |
| NCV | Nguna | na-waa | ‘fruit’ |
| SV | Sye | (no)vwa- | ‘seed’ |
| SV | Sye | (no)vwa(haɣ) | ‘fruit of any tree’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | (no)howa- | ‘fruit’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | wuwa | ‘fruit, berry’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | uwa | ‘fruit, flower’ |
| Fij | Wayan | vua | [N] ‘fruit; results, products, offspring’; [v] ‘(plant) bear fruit; (project, etc.) produce results, bear fruit; (people, animal stock) increase, multiply’ |
| Pn | Tongan | fua | [N] ‘fruit; result; egg’; [v] ‘bear fruit’ |
| Pn | Niuean | fua | [N] ‘fruit, berry, nut, egg shell, shellfish’; [v] ‘swell’21 |
| Pn | Tikopia | fua | ‘fruit; objects similar to fruit, such as fish or bird eggs, but not fatu kai (seeds of plants)’ |
| Pn | Samoan | fua | [N] ‘fruit; flower, bloom; egg; produce’; [v] ‘produce; bear fruit’ |
POc also had several terms that for clusters or bunches of fruit. The most general of these, *puŋu, denoted a bunch or cluster of any kind of fruit or nuts.
| PMP | *puŋu | ‘bunch, cluster (of grain, fruit, areca nuts, etc.)’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *puŋu | ‘bunch or cluster of fruit or nuts’ (Ross 1996d: 185) | |
| Adm | Loniu | he-puŋ | ‘one duster (as of areca nuts)’ |
| Adm | Titan | sa-buŋ | ‘one duster (as of areca nuts)’ |
| NNG | Yabem | buŋ | ‘bunch (of bananas etc)’ |
| NNG | Patep | bun | ‘bundle; of timbers, green etc; tie (into a bunch)’ |
| MM | Nduke | vuŋu- | ‘bunch or cluster of nuts or fruit’ |
| SES | Gela | vuŋu | ‘grain of maize or com; pod, bunch, cluster of fruit’ |
| SES | Lau | fuŋu | ‘bear fruit or seed; a bunch’ |
| SES | Kwaio | fuŋu | ‘bearing fruit; bunch of fruit’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | hunu | ‘bear fruit, be in fruit; bunch, bundle’ |
| SES | Arosi | huŋu- | ‘a bunch or cluster of fruit’ |
| NCV | Mota | vuŋ | ‘a bunch of fruit or coconuts, Canarium almonds (but not bananas or pandanus)’ |
POc *jamu(qa,a), on the other hand, apparently referred to clusters of fruit, or flowers, on palms. This term is reflected with such a meaning in Kairiru, Rotuman and Rarotongan, but in other languages, such as Wayan and Tikopia, reflexes have come to denote the spathe or the covering of a coconut flower cluster. The addition of this latter meaning appears to be restricted to Central Pacific languages, and so is not reconstructed as a secondary meaning for the POc term. The Polynesian forms here are taken to be reflexes that have undergone metathesis (Geraghty 1986: 301).
| POc | *jamu(qa,a) | ‘cluster of flowers or fruit, usually palms’ (Ross 1989b: 474) | |
| NNG | Kairiru | jyam | ‘bunch of palm fruit’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | damu | ‘a bunch, cluster (of nuts or fruit)’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | jamuʔa | ‘branching flower and fruit stem of coconut or fan palm’ |
| Fij | Wayan | sāmoa | ‘hard sheath or calyx enclosing flower of coconut (used as torch); coconut flower before sheath bursts’ |
| Pn | Tongan | toume | ‘coconut spathe, often used for torches’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | taume | ‘coconut spathe, when dry used for fuel’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | taume | ‘fruit-bearing coconut shoot; coconut spathe’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | taume | ‘coconut spathe’ (but examples refer clearly to spadix [flower spike]) |
POc also had a distinct term, *qitiŋ, that denoted a hand or bunch of bananas. The balance of the evidence suggests that ‘hand’ was the usual meaning.
| PMP | *qitiŋ | ‘bunch of bananas’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *qitiŋ | ‘a hand or bunch of bananas’ (based on ACD) | |
| PT | Gumawana | kisi | ‘hand of bananas’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | ŋiti-n | ‘hand of bananas’ |
| MM | Roviana | itiŋi-na | ‘a hand of bananas’ |
| SES | Gela | iti (ni vudi) | ‘the stem of a bunch of bananas’ |
| SES | Lau | ī | ‘hand of bananas’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | ifi | ‘hand of bananas; (small kinds of fruit) bunch, cluster’ |
Also attributable to POc is a distinct term for the stem of fruit, probably denoting bananas in particular.22
| POc | *kulo | ‘stem of fruit, especially banana’ | |
| Adm | Lou | kolu(ɛn) | ‘fruit stem’ |
| NNG | Mengen | kule-na | ‘(banana) stem’ |
| SES | Gela | kulo | ‘(banana) stem’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | kəlᵚæ | ‘fruit stem; stalk, leaf-stem, petiole’ |
Table 4.12 gives the terms for ‘seeds’ in Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia. Nduke has a single term, kiko-, which is a general term for seeds or grain. Wayan, on the other hand, has a number of different terms, three of which, mata, gele and kawa, denote seeds in general, although with mata and kawa the seed of a plant is only one of a range of related meanings. Wayan also has a term tībou that denotes the seeds of mangrove trees.
‘Seed’ in English refers to ‘the ovules of a plant or plants (chiefly, when in the form of ’grains’ or small roundish bodies) esp[eciallly] as collected for the purpose of being sown’ (OED), and can refer to a variety of objects, including the large stone-like seeds of some fruit, grains of grasses, beans, the scale-like seeds of pine cones etc. While many modern Oceanic languages have apparently monosemous terms glossed as ‘seed’, other languages have polysemous terms with primary meanings of ‘stone’, ‘fruit’ or ‘louse egg’. POc appears to have been like these latter languages.
| Nduke | |
| kiko- | A general term for a seed or grain. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| mata | Something which is the focal point or most important part of s.t., e.g. eye of needle, mesh of net, entrance to house, blade of knife, point of a spear, seed, source of water, etc. |
| gele | Seed of a plant, pips or stones of fruit. |
| kawa | That which is reproduced by a plant or animal: seed, progeny, offspring, descendants, stock. |
| tībou | Seeds of mangrove (tiri or toŋo). |
| Tikopia | |
| koru | (N) Seed or kernel of large fruit, e.g. Areca. Also a dry breadfruit; and (mod.) ship’s biscuit. |
| fatufatu | (N) Stone, rock; knob, knot, nodule, kernel (e.g. fatu kofe ‘bamboo nodule’, fatu kai ‘melon, melon seed’); Parts of body, protuberant or kernel-like (e.g. knuckle, Adam’s apple etc). |
| nukurū | (N) Dried kernel of areca nut, stored for betel chewing. |
| kākā | (N) Dry, woody areca nut, in late stage. |
In a number of modern Oceanic languages, including Manam, Carolinian and Tikopia, reflexes of POc *patu ‘stone’ are polysemous and can also refer to the seeds of plants. In other languages, such as Lukep, Marovo and Emae, reflexes of POc *patu appear to have lost the ‘stone’ meaning and remain as distinct terms for ‘seed’. While it is possible that the shift from the meaning ‘stone’ to that of ‘seed’ occurred independently in different groups of Oceanic languages, it seems probable that POc *patu was polysemous and could denote both stones and the seeds of plants. The most natural polysemy of *patu would have been ‘stone’ and ‘large stone-like seeds’. The Lukep, Kiribati and Samoan reflexes suggest that *patu may have also denoted small seeds such as those of melons and citrus fruits, but it is not clear if *patu could refer to the seeds of all plants.
| PAn | *batu | ‘stone’ (Blust 1999) | |
| POc | *patu | ‘stone, rock; seed’ (vo1.2, ch.3, §7.1) | |
| NNG | Lukep | patu- | ‘small seeds such as com, melon, carrots etc’ |
| NNG | Takia | patu- | ‘seed, (small) fruit of tree, nut, egg; coin’ |
| NNG | Manam | patu | ‘stone, seed, money’ |
| PT | Tubetube | patu | ‘seed’ |
| MM | Siar | patu-n | ‘seed’ |
| MM | Marovo | patu-na | ‘seed’ |
| SES | Tolo | vatu-na | ‘seed’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | ati | ‘seed, (fruit) pips; block of coral, rock, stone; islet’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | fāy | ‘stone, rock, seed, testicles’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | fatu-fatu | ‘stone, rock; knob, knot, nodule, kernel; protuberent or kernel-like body-part (e.g. knuckle, adam’s apple etc)’ |
| Pn | Emae | fatu | ‘seed’ |
| Pn | Samoan | fatu | ‘hear1t; seed, pip; grain; core, essence’ |
Holzknecht (1989: 87) presents data from a number of Markham (NNG) languages to support the reconstruction of POc *lija(n) ‘seed’, the primary meaning of which was probably ‘nit, louse egg’ (Ross 1989b: 481-482). More detailed Oceanic data indicates that the POc form was *lisaq ‘nit, louse egg’, reflecting an earlier PAn term *liseqeS ‘nit, louse egg’ (Blust 2002), and that a second form, *lejaŋ ‘nit’, is reconstructable for PWOc. Reflexes of POc *lisaq ‘nit, louse egg’ with the meaning ‘seed’ occur in Sa’a (SES) and Wusi (NCV), so it is possible that this was a secondary meaning in PEOc. The exact reference of PEOc *lisa ‘seed’ is unclear, but it probably denoted small seeds like grain at least, and may have referred more generally to the seeds of plants. The ‘seed’ meaning of reflexes of PWOc *lejan in several Markham (NNG) languages, including Adzera niju-n ‘seed’ and N Watut nejo ‘seed’, indicate that a similar shift in meaning has also occurTed with reflexes of this form.
| PAn | *li(ŋ)sa | ‘nit, louse’s egg’ (Blust 1972b) | |
| PEOc | *lisa | ‘nit, louse egg; seed’ | |
| SES | Sa’a | lite | ‘seed, kernel’ |
| NCV | Wusi | lise | ‘seed’ |
As noted in §2.8, POc *puaq was another term that could refer to the seeds of a plant as part of a broader meaning that also encompassed ‘fruit’. A number of Oceanic languages have a distinct term for the seeds of the breadfruit, but as can be seen from the following list, the modern terms are rarely cognate.
| Adm | Lou | komʷit- | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Kaulong | emlu | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | salemi | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| MM | Bola | baki | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| MM | Nakanai | kako | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | tat | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| SES | Gela | dui | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | kɔlɔ | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷuxili | ‘edible seeds from one variety of breadfruit’ |
The data given by Ross (1996d: 188) allow the reconstruction of PWOc *kalijo ‘edible kernel of breadfruit segments’, but no term with this meaning is reconstructable for POc.
| PWOc | *kalijo | ‘edible kernel of breadfruit segments’ | |
| NNG | Mangap | kiliizi | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Sio | kalinzo | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Malasanga | kariro | ‘breadfruit fruit’ |
| NNG | Lukep | kadidi | ‘breadfruit seed’ (*-l- assimilated to -d-) |
| NNG | Takia | alid | ‘breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Manam | kaizo | ‘edible breadfruit seed’ |
| NNG | Ali | alic | ‘breadfruit’ |
| MM | Halia | ariro | ‘Artocarpus leeuwenii’ (Glennon and Glennon 2005) |
| MM | Teop | ariko | ‘seed of breadfruit tree’23 |
The breadfruit is a syncarp, a compound fruit with many segments arranged around the core, which itself is the spike of the original flower. POc *malo- denoted both the flower spike and the fruit core.
| POc | *malo- | ‘breadfruit flower, breadfruit core’ (Blust 1972b: *malo(n) ‘core of the breadfruit’) | |
| NNG | Bariai | malo | ‘breadfruit flower’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | malo- | ‘core of the breadfruit’ |
| Fij | Bauan | malo | ‘core of the breadfruit’ |
| Pn | Tongan | malo | ‘flower-spike of the breadfruit’ |
This section looks at terms for the outer coverings of parts of plants, such as the bark of woody stems, rind or peel of fruits and husk or shell of nuts. In some modern Oceanic languages there is a general term that covers all such meanings. For example, in Wayan taba denotes any sort of outer covering or layer, including skin or hide, bark, rind or husk of fruit and the outer shell of things like eggs. Similar terms are found in other languages, such as Longgu pagepage ‘bark; skin of snake or lizard; skin of an animal that sheds; skin that peels, of human; skin of fruit or tubers (e.g. cassava, sweet potato); any skin removed from “owner”’, and Mumeng (Patep) ninəvi ‘skin, of person, animal, fruit, tree’. Nduke, in contrast, has a number of quite specific terms, tutupa ‘bark of tree’, poko- ‘the husk or covering of grain’ and pululu ‘the cover over fruit found on some palm trees’. Many languages, like Nduke and Tikopia, have specific terms for the husk of coconuts.
In many modern Oceanic languages the same word is used for skin (of animals and people), skin of fruit and bark (of trees), e.g. Xaraciuu kä ‘skin, hide; bark, peel (of fruit)’, Iduna kwafilina ‘skin (of fruit, plants, animals); bark of tree’, Mangseng peti ‘skin, peel, bark’ and Labu anasɔ ‘skin; bark; peel’. And this also appears to have been true of POc *kulit. Also reconstructable for POc (and PMP) is a verbal derivative *kulit-i-, with the transitive suffix *-i, denoting the removal of skin or bark.
| PMP | *kulit | [N] ‘skin’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| PMP | *kulit-i | [vT] ‘to remove the skin ofs.t., to remove bark from a tree’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *kulit | [N] ‘skin (of animals, people, fruit), bark (of trees)’ (Ross 1988) | |
| POc | *kulit-i- | [vT] ‘to skin s.t., to remove bark from a tree’ | |
| Adm | Titan | kuli-n | ‘skin’ |
| NNG | Lukep | kuli- | ‘skin, bark’ |
| PT | Misima | kúnis | ‘(humans, animals, fish, food) skin’; ‘(tree) bark’; ‘(fish) scales’; ‘(coconut) husk’ |
| MM | Nakanai | kuli-kuli | ‘skin (a piece rather than the whole); bark; peel’ |
| MM | Nakanai | kulisi | ‘(skin) have scrape; remove tree bark or fruit skin’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | kuliti | ‘peel off in flakes’ |
| SES | Gela | (ɣui)ɣuli | [N] ‘skin’ |
| SES | Gela | ɣuliti | [v] ‘peel skin or bark’ |
| SES | Bugotu | (ɣui)ɣuli-ña | [N] ‘skin,, bark’ |
| SES | Bugotu | ɣuliti | [v] ‘flay, skin’ |
| SES | Tolo | huli-na | ‘(human, fruit) skin; (tree) bark’ |
| SES | Kwara’ae | ʔuli-ʔuli | ‘bark, skin with flesh’ (thicker than taʔetaʔe ‘skin, bark, husk’) |
| SES | Arosi | ʔuri-na | ‘human skin, animals, roots, fruits; inner tree bark’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | ul | ‘(human, tree) skin’ |
| NCV | Paamese | uli- | ‘tree bark (especially the fibrous kind which easily peels off in long strips and can be used for tying things)’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | kun | ‘skin, peel, bark, crust, membrane, book cover’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | kolo- | ‘skin, peel, bark, hide, rind, pillow case’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | ʔuti | ‘skin, peel, bark, crust’ |
| Fij | Bauan | kuli- | [N] ‘skin, peel, bark’ |
| Fij | Bauan | kulit-a | [v] ‘peel cooked taro or food cooked in water; strip off the skin or bark of a tree’ |
| Nduke | |
| poko- | The husk or covering of grain. Variant: popoko-. |
| pululu | The cover over fruit found on some palm trees. |
| tutupa- | The bark of a tree. |
| punutu- | Fibrous epidermis round the base of a coconut frond. The punutu looks like an open-weave cloth, and is used for straining coconut ‘milk’ from squeezed coconut flesh . |
| rereto- | Spathe of the coconut, the ‘boat’ that accompanies the flowers and baby coconuts. The flowers and fruits (coconuts) are themselves supported by the baɣutu (stem). |
| pepenete- | Husk of a mature coconut, and also the thick coir or fibre that makes up the inside of the husk. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| sau | 1. Shell or endocarp of any organism; 2. Anything which has had the good parts taken out, which is reduced to its waste or useless parts; thus, waste material, offal, rind or husk of fruit, food refuse, etc; 3. Rubbish in general, refuse, garbage. |
| taba | Outer or covering layer. Thus: 1. Skin or hide; 2. Bark; 3. Rind or husk of fruit; 4. Shell or outer case (of egg, football); 5. Page or leaf of paper. |
| taliŋa | 1. Ear (of animal); 2. Carved knob or horn at base of curve on kiakavo club; 3. Sheath or calyx containing the seed and flower of certain fruits. Taliŋa ni kulu sheath or calyx containing the seed and flower of breadfruit; taliŋa ni tiaina sheath or calyx containing the seed and flower of banana. |
| basili | Dead skin of the stem of a banana plant. |
| sāmoa | 1. Hard sheath or calyx enclosing the flower of a coconut. Used as a torch.syn. basiwara. 2. Coconut flower before the sheath bursts. |
| Tikopia | |
| kiri | (N) Skin (of man, animal); bark (of tree). Cf. raukiri ‘bark of tree’ . |
| moko | (N) Outer (covering), applied especially to bark, skin. |
| vākai | (N) Fibre of inner cortex of plants, esp. hibiscus; used for cord, pads for expressing coconut cream, pad for preparing kava and (dyed) ornament for pandanus mats. |
| penu | (N) 1. Integument, outer covering of object, as shell, husk, rind etc. |
| paku | (ADJ) 1. blunt 2. hard 3. rind, crust. |
| puru | (N) Husk, primarily of coconut (puru niu), since no other palm nut husk of economic interest; a fibrous dense material used as fuel or for domestic purposes such as cleaning wooden bowls, but mainly as lashing or after special treatment, for preparation of sinnet cord. |
| taume | (N) Spathe or sheathing-leaf of flower of coconut palm; when dry used for fuel. Traditionally supplied fire for the ritual dancing in Marae. |
In PROc there is evidence for doublet forms *kulit and *kilit, with *kilit reflected in Namakir of North Central Vanuatu, Western Micronesian languages and Polynesian languages. However, it is likely that these reflect independent developments in Proto Micronesian, Namakir and PPn.
| PROc | *kilit | ‘skin, bark’ | |
| NCV | Namakir | kili-n | ‘skin, bark’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | kit | ‘skin’ |
| Mic | Mokilese | kili- | ‘skin, bark, peel, hide’ |
| Mic | Mortlockese | kili-n | ‘skin, bark (3s)’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | sīɾ- | ‘skin, bark’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | xiɾ | ‘bark, skin’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | xīl | ‘skin, bark’ |
| Mic | Ulithian | xili- | ‘bark, skin’ |
| Pn | Tongan | kili | ‘skin; peel; rind; bark’ |
| Pn | Niuean | kili | ‘bark; skin’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | kiri | ‘(human, animal) skin; (tree) bark’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | kili | ‘skin; bark, (fruit) peel’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | ʔili | ‘skin, complexion, hide, scalp, bark, rind, peel’ |
Specific terms for the outer coverings of different parts of the coconut are also reconstructable for POc and are presented in chapter 12.
| Nduke | |
| oto- | The sap or gum of trees and some fruits (e.g. unripe pawpaw). Oto appears when you cut the stem of a tree or plant. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| toya | Sap of a tree, especially when runny. contr. būlei. |
| būlei | 1. Gum, sticky sap exuded from tree or fruit. 2. Chewing gum. |
| makadre | (N) Resin or sap of the kauri pine (dakua), not present on Waya. cf. toya. Used for torches and for glazing pots. |
| Tikopia | |
| piki | 1. (V) Cling; stick to; adhere; clasp. 2. (N) Adhesive material: gum, resin etc from breadfruit and other trees. |
| vale | (N) Resin; also saliva. |
| toto | (N) 1. Blood. 2. Sap of plants and trees. |
Table 4.14 gives the terms for sap or resin in Nduke, Wayan and Tikopia. Nduke appears to have a single term oto- ‘the sap or gum of trees and some fruits’. Tikopia and Wayan, on the other hand, have several different terms. In Wayan toya denotes sap, especially when it’s runny, būlei denotes sticky sap or gum, and makadre denotes the gum or resin of the kauri tree which is used for glazing pots.
The Oceanic data, shown in the cognate set below, suggest the reconstruction of POc *bulut, and perhaps of a variant POc *bulit, referring to the sap of plants and other sticky substances. It was also apparently an Undergoer subject verb ‘to be sticky’ with a corresponding transitive form *bulut-i- ‘to stick something to something’. Reflexes of *bulut in a number of Oceanic languages have narrower meanings than that reconstructed for POc, denoting kinds of sap that have a particular purpose. For example, ’Are’are purui and Sa’a pulu denote the use of putty nut gum to caulk canoes. Samoan pulu also denotes the substance used for caulking, in this case, breadfruit sap, and Mota pulu and NE Ambae bulu denote the sap of the Canarium almond which is used for tattooing.
| PAn | *belit, *bulit | ‘viscous, sticky’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *bul[i,u]t | [N] ‘sap (of plant) or other sticky substance’; [vT] ‘be sticky’ (Capell 1943: *bulu(t)) | |
| POc | *bulut-i- | [vT] ‘to stick something to something’ | |
| Adm | Lou | pulut | ‘sticky’ |
| Adm | Titan | βulút-i | ‘stick to s.t. (VT)’ |
| MM | Nakanai | bulu | ‘soup, any liquid’ |
| MM | Nakanai | bulu-bulu- | ‘sap of tree’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | bulit | ‘stick, glue; sap; the sap of the breafruit tree’ |
| MM | Siar | polo-n | ‘sap of a tree’ |
| SES | Kwaio | buluʔ-ia | ‘caulk, tamp a post; gum; mix together’24 |
| SES | ’Are’are | puru-i- | ‘gum, stick, caulk joints of canoe planks with puttynut’ |
| SES | Sa’a | pulu | ‘pitch, gum, native cement; a nut, Parinarium laurinum, is scraped on rough coral rock and darkened in colour with a mixture of charcoal and the juice of the oʔa tree; the cement hardens almost immediately’ |
| NCV | Mota | put, pulu | ‘gum of trees, particularly of Canarium; torch; tattoo done with Canarium gum; birdlime, to catch birds with; to stick’ |
| NCV | Mota | pulut | ‘to make stick (VT)’ |
| NCV | Ambae | bulu | ‘sap of Canarium, used in the making of tattoos’ |
| NCV | Ambae | bulus-i | ‘to join (VT)’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | pᵚil | ‘sap, chewing gum’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | ful | ‘breadfruit sap’ |
| Mic | Pulo Annian | vʷunɨ- | ‘sap, gum,, glue’ |
| Fij | Wayan | bulu | ‘adhere, be attached, stick to a surface; be patched, sealed, filled (of a tooth), have s.t. glued on top to cover it’ |
| Fij | Wayan | bulu-bulu | ‘be patched, sealed with a patch; be sticky, gluey, adhesive, doggy’ |
| Fij | Wayan | bulut-i- | ‘to patch s.t., stick a patch on s.t.’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | pulu | ‘sap, gum:; any adhesive substance -gum, paste, sealing-wax, solder etc; chewing gum’ (cf. pulpulu ‘sticky’) |
| Pn | Tongan | pulu | ‘white sap, especially of breadfruit tree’ |
| Pn | Tongan | pupulu | ‘sticky, adhesive’ |
| Pn | Samoan | pulu | ‘breadfruit gum, used as putty especially for caulking canoes; chewing gum; rubber’ |
| SES | Arosi | buru | ‘tree species, Parinarium laurinum; the gum is used to caulk canoes’ |
As can be seen from Table 4.15 Wayan, Tikopia and Nduke all have a single term for the thorns of a plant.
| Nduke | |
| robo- | Thorns of a plant, e.g. lime tree thorns or Bougainvillea, and also sharply serrated leaves. |
| Wayan Fijian | |
| voto | 1. Thorn, prickle. 2. Spike or spines of a fish, such as the sokisoki, Pufferfish. 3. Barb or tail needle of a stingray. 4. Gooseflesh. |
| Tikopia | |
| sina | (N) Thorn, spine. |
Proto Austronesian *Cenek ‘thorn’ (ACD) appears to be reflected within Oceanic only by the Bauan Fijian verb tono-ka ‘to pierce, poke’. Ross (1996d: 189) reconstructs *ruRi as the general term for thorns and spines in POc, noting that some reflexes (e.g. Lou and Lukep) refer specifically to the barbs of sago leaves and bark, and the Titan reflex to the sago plant itself. Reflexes of this term have only been found in Admiralty, North New Guinea and Papuan Tip languages. While Bilibil, Takia and Kis and Gapapaiwa reflect POc *druRi, Numbami and Mapos-Buang and Iduna reflect *ruRi, and the Admiralty forms are compatible with either *ruRi or *druRi.
| PMP | *duRi | ‘thorns’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| POc | *(dr,r)uRi | ‘thorns’ | |
| Adm | Lou | ruwi | ‘barbs on sago bark’ |
| Adm | Titan | nrúwi | ‘a type of sago which has a lot of thorns’ |
| NNG | Bilibil | dur | ‘thorn’ |
| NNG | Lukep | riri(ni) | ‘sharp points on sago and pandanus leaves (IP noun)’ |
| NNG | Takia | duduru- | ‘thorn (inalienable)’ |
| NNG | Kis | dulu | ‘thorn’ |
| NNG | Numbami | luli | ‘thorn’ |
| NNG | Mapos Buang | ruru(k) | ‘thorn’ |
| PT | Gapapaiwa | tuiri-na | ‘his bone’ |
| PT | Iduna | lulu | ‘bone’ |
Blust (1976b) reconstructs POc *poto(k) ‘thorn, barb of stingray’. However, while the ‘thorn’ meaning is well-supported, the ‘stingray barb’ meaning appears to be restricted to Central Pacific languages, and so may not have been present in POc.
| POc | *poto(k) | ‘thorn, barb of stingray’ (Blust 1976b) | |
| Adm | Titan | poto-n | ‘thorn’ |
| Fij | Bauan | voto | ‘a thorn, prickle; root of bodily hair (not of the head)’ (cf. voto-ka ‘to prick’ (vT)) |
| Fij | Wayan | voto | ‘thorn, prickle; spike or spines of a fish; gooseflesh’ |
| Pn | Tongan | foto | ‘barb of stingray’ |
| Pn | Niuean | foto | ‘thorn, barb, spike, bristle (used both literally and figuratively, describing personal characteristics)’ |
| Pn | Samoan | foto | ‘sting (of stingray)’ |
In a number of languages terms for ‘thorn’ reflect POc terms that are best reconstructed with the meaning ‘needle’. Thus POc *saRum ‘needle, tattooing needle (typically made from wing-bone of flying fox)’ (vol.1, ch.4, §3.2.1) is reflected in Carolinian tou-tow as the general term for thorns of plants. The same is true of the Sa’a reflex of POc *sika ‘netting needle’ (vol.1, ch.8, §2). Milke (1961) reconstructs *sika for POc with the meaning ‘netting needle, thorn’, but the ‘thorn’ meaning appears to be reflected only in Sa’a sike ‘thorn’, suggesting that the original meaning was ‘netting needle’ and that the Sa’a form is innovative.
This chapter presents more than 40 POc reconstructions of terms that denote the parts of plants. In general the number and types of terms that are reconstructable for POc within each of the 12 semantic categories are similar to those found in modern Oceanic languages. For example, modern languages tend to have several terms that refer to the roots of plants, typically including a term for roots in general and a number of more specific terms denoting different types of roots. Similarly, for POc a general term for roots, *wakaR, and several more specific terms, *lali(t,c) ‘buttress roots’, *Ramut ‘fine, hair-like roots’ and *wako(t) ‘mangrove (aerial) roots’, can be reconstructed. The same is true for terms referring to outer coverings. POc *kulit denoted the skin of fruits and the bark of trees, as well as the skin of animals and people. Alongside *kulit, POc also had specific terms for coconut husk (*punut, *(p,pʷ)enut) and for the sheath of fibrous material around the base of a coconut frond (*Runut, *nuRut). Many modern Oceanic languages have similar types of terms for outer coverings.
Modern Oceanic languages also tend to have extensive terminologies for the parts of the coconut palm, its fruit and their uses (Table 4.1). Chapter 12 is devoted to this topic.
The number of general plant part terms reconstructed for POc, over 30, is similar to the numbers of such terms in Wayan (nearly 50), Tikopia (nearly 50) and Nduke (over 30). However, these modern languages have a much larger number of terms for the parts of particular types of plants (nearly 20 in all three languages), than can be reconstructed for POc (7 terms in this chapter). This difference was particularly apparent with the terms for leaves. Table 4.8 gave a selection of the range of terms for leaves in a number of Oceanic languages, demonstrating how modern Oceanic languages typically have several terms for the leaves of particular types of plants, including coconut, taro and pandanus. Ross (1996d) reconstructs POc terms for taro leaves (*gal(a,o)) and palm fronds (*[pa]paq[a-]), and POc *sulu(q) ‘coconut leaf torch’ could probably also refer to dry coconut leaves, but other terms for the leaves of particular types of plants do not appear to be reconstructable.
Table 4.2 shows the range of terms in a number of modern languages for parts of banana plants. Many Oceanic languages, including Lou, Iduna, Gapapaiwa, Gumawana, Ramoaaina, Gela, Longgu, Wayan, and E Futunan, have tenms that specifically denote the new shoots or suckers of banana plants, but such a specific term does not appear to be reconstructable for POc. Rather, POc *[s,j]uli(q) apparently denoted propagation material in general (including suckers and shoots), though it may have referred especially to the suckers of banana and taro. Modern Oceanic languages also tend to have more specific terms for bunches of bananas than can be reconstructed for POc. Thus Lou has a term pɔrɔk denoting a new bunch of bananas and several terms for hands of bananas, including topʷan ‘first banana hand’, ŋɔrɛn ‘last hand of bananas’, sɛt ‘one hand of bananas’ and turɛt ‘two hands of bananas’. For POc only the more general term *qitiŋ ‘hand of bananas’ can be reconstructed.
It is unlikely that the structure and detail of the POc terminology for plant parts differed much from that of modern Oceanic languages. Our inability to reconstruct as many POc names for the parts of specific plants as there are in modern languages probably stems from two factors: (i) a rapid rate of lexical replacement in such names; (ii) shortcomings in the data for modern Oceanic languages. Both factors would reduce the number of cognate sets. It is possible that a faster rate of lexical replacement with specific plant part terms reflects a lower frequency of use. In small migrating communities, where it is likely that the younger people move on while the elders remain at home, there may be a tendency for less frequently used lexical items to be forgotten and later replaced if and when needed.