Chapter 5.2 People: gender, age cohorts and marital status

Malcolm Ross and Meredith Osmond

1. Introduction⇫

A volume entitled ‘Body and mind’ and devoted to the human person would not be complete without a chapter on words for people. This chapter, however, is restricted to terms for people classified by gender, age cohort and marital status. Terms for kinship and affinal relations and for social rank and leadership will be included in volume 6.

In §2.2 terms for ‘person’ are presented, in §2.3 and §2.4 terms for people classified respectively by gender and by age cohort, in §2.5 terms for people who lack a certain kinship relation, i.e. a woman with no children, a child with no parents, and an adult who has not married or whose spouse has died. In §2.6 terms for twins are given.

Terms for ‘person’, ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘child’ are readily reconstructable. It is evident that Oceanic languages had a number of other terms related to age, and status based on marriage and childbearing. In all Oceanic societies the transition, for both male and female, from childhood to adolescence or marriageable age, and then from the single to the married state, is observed both terminologically and ceremonially (Pawley 1982b:269-70).

In Manam (NNG), for example, boys are called nat until around 15 years of age. When their hair has been cut (second stage of initiation) they are called amuna. This will continue until they marry, when they become tamoat. In old age men are called imanei and finally ikamoan (Böhm 1983:239).

A small girl in Manam is also called nat. As a young marriageable woman she is barasi. A married woman is called aine. If she remains unmarried she is called kosikosi; if her husband dies the term for a widow is ŋiŋar. When she is around 50 years old she is designated ain molmolu. An old woman is ain ikib or manei. Manam also has terms for a woman’s status in terms of number of children: biau ‘woman with one child’, pagar ‘woman with two or more children’, kupi ‘childless or sterile woman’ (Böhm 1983, wordlist).

In To’aba’ita (SES), wane is the male gender marker and kini or ai the female. Wela is the name for a child regardless of sex, even if one quite big, as long as not married. A newly-married man is wane fālu, a newly-married woman kini fālu. A married person is gʷauliʔi wane or gʷauliʔi ai. The addition of -ʔa to these last two terms means they are ‘somewhat old’ (Lichtenberk 2008).

2. Person⇫

There are five POc reconstructions whose reflexes suggest a meaning ‘person’ (Pawley 1985):

• *tau ‘person in any form, including ghosts and supernatural person-like beings’
• *tamʷataq ‘living person’ (contrasting with *tau-mate_ ‘dead person’)
• *qata ‘person’
• *tinoni ‘person, people’
• *(k,kʷ)a(i)- ‘person’

Reflexes of these terms show differences in geographical distribution. Languages of the Southeast and Northwest Solomons reflect *tinoni ‘person, people’ (this distribution may be due to local contact), while languages of Vanuatu and New Caledonia have reflexes of POc *qata. POc *tau- and *qata- are also frequently used in compounds.

2.1. POc *tau⇫

PAn *Cau ‘person’ is a well attested reconstruction, continued as PMP and POc *tau. Reflexes of POc *tau occur in three structural contexts:

• as an independent lexical item, typically meaning ‘man’ or ‘person’ (§2.2.1.1);
• as the first item of a compound (§2.2.1.2);
• as the root of a pronominal form (§2.2.1.3).

The evidence for each of these is discussed below.

2.1.1. Unbound reflexes of POc *tau ‘person’⇫

In some North New Guinea and Papuan Tip languages (and perhaps in Gela), a reflex of POc *tau may stand alone. Elsewhere reflexes are found only in compounds or pronominals. POc *tau occurred in a considerable number of compounds, and it was a natural process for one of these compounds to become the basic term for ‘person’, displacing *tau, especially because ‘living person’ was always in opposition to ‘spirit, ghost’. In Mussau, for example, where tau occurs in compounds, the standalone form for ‘person’ is tau-matu, i.e. a compound has replaced tau.

The gloss offered below from Pawley (1985) takes account of the three types of reflex mentioned above.

PAn		*Cau	‘person’ (ACD)
POc		*tau	‘person in any form, including ghosts and supernatural person-like beings’ (Pawley 1985)
NNG	Atui	tu	‘man’
NNG	Akolet	a-to	‘man’
PT	Molima	(tomo)tau	‘person; men’
PT	Molima	(ʔoloto) tau	‘human being’ (ʔoloto ‘man’)
PT	Kilivila	tau	‘man’
PT	Misima	tau	‘man; male of any age; male (of animals)’
PT	Sudest	tau	‘people’ (lolo ‘person’)
PT	Sinaugoro	tau	‘man, male in general’’
PT	Motu	tau	‘the body; a man’
PT	Dawawa	tau	‘person’

cf. also:

SES

Gela

tau

‘spouse’

Bender et al. (2003) reconstruct PMic *tau ‘person’, but it appears that Micronesian reflexes only occur in the compounds listed here. The first element of the reflexes below is different in form from the reflexes of prefixed PMic *tawu-, which remain productive in a number of languages, as illustrated in §2.2.1.2.

PMic		*tau	‘person’ (Bender et al. 2003)
PMic		*tau-mate	‘dead person’
PMic		*tau-tubʷa	‘spirit of a deceased person’
Mic	Marshallese	cə(təbʷ)	‘spirit’
Mic	Chuukese	sō(tupʷ)	‘not visible person, departed, dead’
Mic	Chuukese	sō(pe)	‘ghost’
Mic	Chuukese	sō(mæ)	‘corpse’
Mic	Puluwatese	hō(tupʷ)	‘departed person, ghost’
Mic	Puluwatese	hō(mæ)	‘bad ghost of departed person’
Mic	Carolinian	sō(tubʷ), sō(mæ)	‘respectful term for one who is dead’
Mic	Carolinian	sō(pe)	‘respectful term for ghost or spirit’
Mic	Pulo Annian	ou(tuɸʷa)	‘spirit, god’

2.1.2. Compounds formed with POc *tau- ‘person who…, person from…’⇫

Compounding with *tau- dates back at least to PMP times, as PMP *tau-mataq shows. Section 2.2.2 is dedicated to POc *tamʷataq ‘living human being’, as it was probably no longer a compound but a single lexeme. Oft reflected early Oceanic compounds with *tau- include POc *tau-mate ‘dead person’ (§2.2.2.2), POc *tau-paqoRu ‘young person of marriageable age’ (§2.4.3), and PEOc *tau-tasik ‘expert fisherman or sailor’ (vol.1:207 and below). The terms for ‘man’ in Meso-Melanesian languages in the extreme north of New Ireland—Lavongai tauan and Tiang tauən—are evidently cognate with Sinaugoro tauɣani- ‘body’ and reflect a PWOc compound *tau-(q,k)ani.

Compounding with reflexes of POc *tau- ‘person who…, person from…’, where the second element is typically a verb or a placename, is still somewhat productive in a number of modern languages, and we infer that it was productive in POc. Reflexes of the prefix are listed first, then sample compounds from languages where it is in more frequent use.

SE Solomonic languages do not figure among the examples below, but there is an indication that at least the ‘person from…’ sense was once productive in SE Solomonic, as the fossilised forms Sa’a au-henue ‘be resident in a place, native of a place; inhabitant of a place’ and Arosi au-henua ‘man of the place’ are found, both reflecting POc *tau-panua, where *panua meant roughly ‘inhabited place, community’ (vol.1:18, 62; vol.2:40, 295; Pawley 2005).

PAn		*Cau	‘person’ (ACD)
POc		*tau-	‘person who VERBs, person from PLACENAME’
Adm	Mussau	tau	‘person who …’
PT	Minaveha	tau-	‘person who …’
PT	Tawala	tu-	‘person who …’
PT	Dobu	to-	‘person who …’
PT	Gumawana	to-	‘person who …’
PT	Iduna	to-	‘person who …’
PT	Dawawa	tau-	‘person who …’
PT	Misima	to-	‘person who …’
PT	Motu	tau	‘person from …’ (e.g. tau erema ‘an Erema man’)
MM	Nakanai	tau-	‘man, person, used only in connection with sibling and village affiliation, and in expressions showing relations between two or more persons’1
MM	Teop	to-	‘person who …’
PMic		*tawu-	‘master, expert’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic	Woleaian	sau-, tau-	‘master, expert’
Mic	Ponapean	sow-	‘expert at’
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-	‘expert’
Mic	Chuukese	sowu-	‘master, expert’
Mic	Puluwatese	hawu-	‘expert, master, lord’
PPn		*tau-	‘person who …, person from …’
Pn	Samoan	tau-	‘person who …, person from …’
Pn	Rennellese	tau-	‘person who …’
Pn	Pukapukan	tau	‘person from …’

Adm	Mussau	tau ni-nama-nama	[person NOM-REDUP-eat]	‘person who eats a lot’
Adm	Mussau	tau ni-kinari	[person NOM-sing]	‘person who likes to sing’
Adm	Mussau	tau ŋ-ai-noŋo-noŋo anna	[person CSTR-AGENT-REDUP-hear think]	‘servant’ (lit. ‘person who hears wishes’)
Adm	Mussau	tau ŋ-ai-nama ŋ-asi	[person CSTR-AGENT-eat LIG-taro]	‘person who eats taro’
Adm	Mussau	tau ŋ-ai-ssa tee-ira	[person CSTR-AGENT-bad with-O:3P]	‘their enemies’ (lit. ‘people who do bad with them’)
Adm	Mussau	tau ni-tam aikaaia	[person NOM-NEGATIVE.VERB believe]	‘unbeliever’
PT	Minaveha	tau vivenena		‘one who teaches’
PT	Minaveha	tau nonona		‘one who hears, listener’
PT	Minaveha	tau nuauya		‘one who understands, wise man’
PT	Tawala	tu-danene		‘thief’
PT	Tawala	tu-dayadayabu		‘poor people’
PT	Gumawana	to-kani-giloilo		‘one who eats very little’ (kani ‘eat’, giloilo ‘hermit crab’)
PT	Gumawana	to-piki		‘stingy person’ (piki ‘stingy’)
PT	Gumawana	to-vatulukʷana		‘teacher’ (vatulukʷana ‘teach’)
PT	Gumawana	to-yausa		‘spy’ (yausa (V) ‘spy’)
PT	Iduna	to-bogau		‘sorcerer’ (bogau ‘sorcery’)
PT	Iduna	to-bonaʔabi		‘obedient person’ (bonaʔabi ‘obedience’)
PT	Iduna	to-dibumuhiga		‘hard worker’ (dibumuhiga ‘diligence’)
PT	Iduna	to-faha		‘gardener’ (faha (V) ‘plant’)
PT	Iduna	to-faisewa		‘worker’ (faisewa (V) ‘work’)
PT	Dawawa	tau-noya		‘slave’ (noya ‘work’)
PT	Dawawa	tau-paka		‘owner’ (paka ‘garden’)
PT	Dawawa	tau-suku		‘victim as a result of payback’
PT	Dawawa	tau-waisamasamani		‘accuser’ (wai- CAUSATIVE, samana (V) ‘report’)
PT	Misima	to-gulagula		‘poor person’ (gulagula ‘(be) poor’)
PT	Misima	to-honi		‘greedy person’ (honi ‘(be) greedy’)
PT	Misima	to-kewakewa		‘people who come to- feast’ (who bring a pig; kewa ‘carry on pole’)
PT	Misima	to-losidai		‘drummers; (men who) beat drums’ (sidai ‘hand drum’)
PT	Misima	to-pahepahenapu		‘advisor; wise man’ (pahenapu ‘exhort, advise’)
MM	Teop	to kikira		‘keeper’ (kikira ‘take care of’)
MM	Teop	to kiu		‘workman, servant’ (kiu ‘work’)
MM	Teop	to rarare		‘judge’ (rare (N) ‘judge’)
MM	Teop	to suga		‘rebel’ (suga ‘neglect’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-eyikɔ		‘sorcerer who chants to stop rain’ (yeyikɔ ‘chant spell to stop rain’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-fāi		‘one who treats injuries’ (faai ‘be bruised’; (N) ‘bruise’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-hæfey		‘traditional medical practitioner’ (hæfey ‘traditional medicine’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-kāpuŋ		[N] ‘judge’ (kāpuŋ (V) ‘judge’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-kkawɨyīmʷ		‘housebuilder’ (kkawɨ ‘build’; yīmʷ ‘house’)
Mic	Puluwatese	haw-pʷe		‘diviner’ (pʷe ‘to divine’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-xekkæy		‘person who laughs a lot’ (ghekkáy ‘laugh’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-kkə̄l		‘singer’ (kkə̄l ‘sing’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-sæfey		‘traditional medical practitioner’ (sáfey ‘traditional medicine’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-mʷær		‘gentleman’ (mʷár ‘lei, flower garland’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-ffəl		‘priest, counsellor’ (ffəl ‘preach, give advice’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-fīyouw		‘warrior’ (fīyouw ‘fight’)
Mic	Carolinian	sɔu-mǣs		‘thief’
Mic	Woleaian	tau-yeŋāŋ		‘expert, good worker’ (yeŋāŋ ‘work’)
Mic	Woleaian	tau-rix		‘good runner’ (rix ‘run’)
Mic	Woleaian	tau-yaf		‘swimmer’ (yaf ‘swim’)
Mic	Woleaian	tau-farewa		‘canoe-builder’ (wa ‘canoe’)
Mic	Woleaian	tau-fita		‘skilled fisherman’ (fita ‘fishing’)
Mic	Woleaian	tau-fitex		‘person who fights continuously’ (fitex ‘war’)
Fij	Bauan	dau bati		‘specialist in tattooing’ (bati ‘tooth, tattooing instrument’)
Fij	Bauan	dau lali		‘drummer’ (lali ‘hand drum’)
Pn	Samoan	tau-fanua		‘commoner; land-owner’ (fanua ‘land’)
Pn	Samoan	tau-tai		‘master fisherman’ (tai ‘sea’)
Pn	Samoan	tau-uta		‘landlubber’ (uta ‘island’)
Pn	Samoan	tau-malae		‘host, person who received (important) visitors’ (malae ‘village green’)
Pn	Rennellese	tau-haŋe		‘house owner’
Pn	Rennellese	tau-manaha		‘chief/owner of a settlement’ (manaha ‘exogamous patrilineal descent group’)
Pn	Rennellese	tau-hinaŋaŋo		‘clever or learned (person)’ (hinaŋaŋo ‘thought’)
Pn	Rennellese	tau-kese		‘unrelated person, enemy’ (kese ‘strange, varied, deceitful’)

2.1.3. Pronominals formed with POc *tau-⇫

POc *tau- occurs as the root of pronominal forms only in Western Oceanic languages. Its basic PWOc function was to form emphatic free pronouns corresponding to English pronouns formed with -self in sentences like He did it himself. It apparently did not form reflexives. However, in a few Papuan Tip languages (indicated below) emphatic forms reflecting *tau- have lost their emphatic value and have displaced inherited free pronouns either throughout the paradigm or, in Duau, in just the third person, or, in Bunama, in the first and third persons.

PWOc		*tau-	[EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE]
NNG	Kove	tau	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Lukep	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Tami	tau	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Adzera	ru	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Dangal	rau	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Yalu	(i)ro	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Wampar	ra	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Bukawa	dau	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Labu	lo	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
NNG	Mapos Buang	lo	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Iduna	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Molima	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Dobu	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Sewa Bay	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Tawala	tau-	[FREE PRONOUN FORMATIVE]
PT	Wedau	tau-	[FREE PRONOUN FORMATIVE]
PT	Ubir	tao-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Anuki	ta-, tou-	[FREE PRONOUN FORMATIVE]
PT	Gumawana	tau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Misima	to-to-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Budibud	to-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Dawawa	tau-
PT	Bunama	tau-	[FREE PRONOUN FORMATIVE]
PT	Sinaugoro	tau-ɣe-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Kuni	kau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
PT	Roro	hau-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
MM	Nehan	totou-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’
MM	Babatana	ta-na-	‘EMPHATIC PRONOUN FORMATIVE’

Pronominals formed with POc *tau- usually treat it as a directly possessed root (§3.1.1), as in Yabem, Bunama and Dawawa below. Just two languages appear to use indirect possession with the default alienable possession classifier, Sinaugoro ɣe- and Babatana na-.

The Bunama set is the ordinary free pronoun set. Note that Bunama retains inherited second-person free pronouns, but replaces first- and third-person pronouns with the emphatics.

		PWOc	Yabem (NNG)	Bunama (PT)	Dawawa (PT)	Sinaugoro (PT)	Babatana (MM)
Singular	1	*tau-gu	tau-ʔ	tau-gu	tau-gu	tau-ɣe-gu	ta-na-gu
	2	*tau-mu	taʊ-m	oa	ta-m	tau-ɣe-mu	ta-na-mu
	3	*tau-ña	tau-∅	tau-na	tau-n	tau-ɣe-na	ta-ni
Plural	1EXC	*tau-ma	tau-ŋ	tau-ma	tau-ma	tau-ɣe-ma	ta-na-mami
	1INC	*tau-da	tau-ŋ	tau-da	tau-da	tau-ɣe-ra	ta-na-dia
	2	*tau-mi	taʊ-m	omi	tau-mi	tau-ɣe-mi	ta-na-mina
	3	*tau-dri	tau-ŋ	tau-di	tau-di	tau-ɣe-ri	ta-na-dira

2.2. POc *tamʷataq ‘living person’ and POc *tau-mate ‘dead person’⇫

POc *tamʷataq reflects PMP *tau-mataq, literally ‘live person’, from *tau ‘person’ (§2.2.1.1) and *mataq ‘raw, new, green’ (vol.1:155). It was thus the antonym of POc *tau-mate ‘dead person’ (*mate ‘die, dead’, §4.2.1.2) and the two were among the many compounds with *tau discussed in §2.2.1.2.

2.2.1. POc *tamʷataq ‘living person’⇫

It seems likely that POc *tamʷataq had already become a synonym of monosyllabic *tau (§2.2.1.1) in the sense ‘living person’. In several major subgroups – Admiralties, North New Guinea, Fijian, Polynesian – reflexes of *ta-mʷataq are the general term for a human being.

There has been some debate about the form of this reconstruction. Almost all its reflexes point to POc *tamʷataq (or *tamataq, as the labial feature of *mʷ has been unstable throughout the history of Oceanic),² but scholars have pointed to Mussau taumata as reflecting POc *tau-mataq, the regular reflex of PMP *tau-mataq ‘person’. Either both forms occurred in POc dialects or, as Blust (1981a: 235) implies, the change from *tau-mataq to *tamʷataq had not occurred by the time Mussau (one of two members of a putative small first-order subgroup of Oceanic) separated from the rest of Oceanic. The discussion is in fact perhaps without foundation. The change entailed the coarticulation of the rounding gesture of *u in *tau-mataq with the following *m, giving rise to *mʷ. No one suggests that the change was a regular one: it isn’t reflected in known reflexes of *tau-mate. Rather, it was a lexically specific change in an oft used word. According to the data available to us, the Mussau term for ‘person’ is taumatu, not taumata, and taumatu is not a reflex of POc †*tau-mataq, so the reconstruction of the POc form *tamʷataq is uncontested.

PMP		*tau-mataq	‘person’ (Blust 1993; Dempwolff 1938)
POc		*tamʷataq	‘human being, especially in ordinary living form’ (*mataq ‘raw, new, green’, vol.1:155) (Pawley 1985)
Adm	Loniu	amat	‘human being, person, often used to refer only to males’
Adm	Bipi	xamak	‘person’
Adm	Nyindrou	dramak	‘person’
NNG	Manam	tamoata	‘man, mankind’
NNG	Wogeo	ramata	‘person’
NNG	Mangap	tomoto	‘man’
NNG	Sio	tamɔta	‘person; man (generic)’
NNG	Tuam	tamot	‘man’
NNG	Gedaged	tamoḷ	‘man, male, human being’
NNG	Megiar	tamot	‘man’
PT	Dobu	tomota	‘people; human race’
PT	Kilivila	tomota	‘people; person’
MM	Notsi	tamət	‘man’
MM	Lihir	tomat	‘man; husband’
MM	Sursurunga	təm	‘one characterised by.. /one whose job is..’
MM	Nehan	tamat	‘person, man’
MM	Halia	tamata	‘man; husband’
MM	Banoni	tamata	‘man’
SV	Lenakel	(ie)ram-	‘chief’
Fij	Wayan	tamata	‘human being, person’
Fij	Bauan	tamata	‘human being, people in general’
PPn		*taŋata	‘man(kind); person’ (POLLEX)
Pn	Tongan	taŋata	‘person’
Pn	Niuean	taŋata	‘person, human, mankind’
Pn	Rennellese	taŋata	‘man, person’
Pn	Samoan	taŋata	‘human of either sex’

cf. also:

Adm

Mussau

taumatu

‘person, human being’

2.2.2. POc *tau-mate ‘dead person’⇫

POc *tau-mate ‘corpse’, from tau ‘person’ (§2.2.1.2) and mate ‘die’ (§4.2.1.2) is reconstructed on the basis of WOc and Micronesian reflexes. However, given the ubiquity of compounds with *tau (§2.2.1.2), it is possible that the term was innovated independently in each of the two areas. The NCV terms are not fully cognate, as they appear to reflect *qata rather than *tau as their first element (§2.2.3.2).

POc		*tau-mate	‘dead person’ (tau ‘person’ + mate ‘die, dead’)
PT	Muyuw	toumat	‘dead person’
PT	Kilivila	tomata	‘corpse, dead person’
PT	Molima	tomate	‘dead person’
PT	Misima	tomati	‘dead person; person who has just died’
MM	Roviana	tomate-	‘corpse; ghost, spirit’
PMic		*tau-mate	‘dead person’
Mic	Chuukese	sōmæ	‘corpse’
Mic	Puluwatese	hōmæ	‘bad ghost of departed person’

cf. also:

NCV	Mota	tamate	‘a dead man; a ghost, a dead man in separation from his body …’
NCV	Mwotlap	tmat	‘corpse’
NCV	Nokuku	temate	‘spirit’
NCV	Paamese	temate	‘spirit of dead’

2.3. POc *qata ‘person’⇫

There is another reconstruction, POc *qata, whose reflexes mean ‘human being’. Like *tau (§2.2.1) it is reflected both as an independent noun and as the first part of a number of compounds.

2.3.1. Unbound reflexes of POc *qata ‘person’⇫

In a note, repeated in the ACD, Blust (1972b) reconstructs PMP *qaRta with the meaning ‘outsiders, alien people’. He lists reflexes that include terms of self-designation from Negrito people in Northern Luzon, terms meaning ‘slave’ in a geographically restricted area from the southern Philippines to the Lesser Sundas, and a wide but discontinuous set of terms from Sumatra to Maluku that simply denote ‘man, person’. He includes no Oceanic cognates. He concludes that ‘outsiders, alien people’ is the prior PMP meaning with ‘person’ as a semantic neutralisation in scattered areas.

Putative reflexes of POc *qata meaning ‘person’ occur in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. No Oceanic reflexes carry the Malayo-Polynesian meaning ‘outsider’ except the possible New Caledonian reflexes listed under ‘cf. also’, because they reflect *qataC rather than *qata. A reasonable inference is that they reflect a compound consisting originally of *qata and another morpheme. If so, then their meaning does not necessarily attest to the meaning of POc *qata.

There are also apparent reflexes of POc *qata which mean ‘soul, spirit’, but François (2013) points out that in NCV languages these reflexes are inalienably possessed and have remained separate from reflexes of *qata ‘person’. The homophony is accidental. POc *qata ‘person’ reflects PMP *qaRta ‘outsiders, alien people’, and POc *qata(r) ‘image, reflection, soul, spirit’ reflects PMP *qatad ‘appearance, mark’ (§3.9.1).

The North New Guinea reflexes of *qata ‘person’ below function as an emphatic (‘he did it himself’; cf. §2.2.1.3).

PMP		*qaRta	‘outsiders, alien people’ (Blust 1972c, ACD)
POc		*qata	‘person’ (François 2013)
NNG	Numbami	ata	‘self’
NNG	Kaiwa	ate	‘self’
NNG	Misim	da	‘self’
PNCV		*qata	‘individual, person, human being’ (Clark 2009; François 2013)
NCV	Lehali	n-at	‘person’ (François 2013)
NCV	Löyöp	n-at	‘person’ (François 2013)
NCV	Volow	n-at	‘person’ (François 2013)
NCV	Mwotlap	n-ɛt	‘person’ (François 2013)
NCV	Raga	ata(tu)	‘person’
NCV	Namakir	ʔat	‘person’
NCV	South Efate	n-at	‘person; someone (indefinite but nonspecific)’
SV	Anejom̃	n-at	‘person, fellow’
NCal	Nemi	kac	‘man’
NCal	Jawe	kac	‘man’
NCal	Nêlêmwa	ak	‘man’
NCal	Nêlêmwa	axa-t	‘man, male’
NCal	Iaai	at	‘person’

cf. also:

NCal	Pije	kaca	‘stranger, foreigner’
NCal	Fwâi	kaya	‘stranger, foreigner’
NCal	Jawe	kaya	‘stranger, foreigner’
NCal	Nemi	kaca	‘stranger, foreigner’
NCal	Xârâcùù	ka	‘stranger, foreigner’(Grace 1972)

2.3.2. Compounds formed with POc *qata- ‘person’⇫

A number of POc compounds had *qata- ‘person’ as their first element. They differ from those that had *tau- as their first element. Whereas *tau- is roughly translated ‘person who …’ (§2.2.1.2), compounds with *qata- simply denote a person (as *tamʷataq ‘living person’ does; §2.2.2.1) and gender- and age-based categories of human beings. In this section those compounds that denote people in general are presented. Compounds denoting gender-based categories are POc *qata-mʷaqane ‘man, male’ (§2.3.1) and POc *qata-pine ‘woman, female’ (§2.3.2). Those denoting age-based categories—they are not widely reflected—are Proto SE Solomonic *qata-natu ‘child’ and Proto North–Central Vanuatu *ta-maraɣai ‘old man’ (§2.4.6). The sense of POc *qata-mate ‘malevolent spirit of a dead person’ suggests that it almost certainly reflects POc *qata(r) ‘image, reflection, soul, spirit’, not POc *qata ‘person’.

François (2013) points out that where a term for a category or people begins with *ta-, this is potentially ambiguous between an origin in *qata- and one in *tau-. However, as just noted, there seems to be a systematic difference in meaning between *tau- and *qata-. There is also a phonological difference, as *tau- is usually reflected as tau- or to-, and the diphthong *-au- is reflected even in Micronesian languages where there has been substantial phonological change. Prefixed *qata-, on the other hand, is reflected as ta- when it loses its first syllable, as it often does.

Most of the following are restricted to a local group of languages. Only PROc *[qa]ta-maquri ‘living person’ (*maqurip ‘be alive’; §4.2.1.1) spans a large piece of Oceania, but it has few reflexes and may reflect parallel innovations.

PROc		*[qa]ta-maquri	‘living person’
NCV	Mota	tamaur	‘man alive’ (cf. tamate ‘man dead’)
NCV	Nguna	na-tamʷoli	‘human being’
NCV	South Efate	n-atamʷol	‘person’ (mʷol ‘be alive’)
Fij	Rotuman	famori	‘human being’

The second element of Proto Torres-Banks *(qa)ta-dunu ‘individual, person’ reflects PNCV *dunu ‘true, real’ (Clark 2009).

PNCV		*(qa)ta-dunu	‘individual, person’ (François 2013)
NCV	Vurës	tøⁿdün	‘person’
NCV	Mota	tanun	‘person’
NCV	Nume	tuⁿdun	‘person’
NCV	Dorig	tⁿdun	‘person’
NCV	South Gaua	tuⁿdun	‘person’
NCV	Merlav	nɛ-tɛⁿdʉn	‘person’

The identity of the second elements of the Proto South Vanuatu terms below is unknown (Lynch 2004e).

PSV		*n-ata-mama(q), *i-ata-mama(q)	‘person’
SV	Sye	n-eteme	‘person’
SV	Ura	y-erema	‘person’
SV	Southwest Tanna	i-elmama	‘person’
SV	Kwamera	i-ermama	‘person’
PSV		*n-ata-mimi(q), *i-ata-mimi(q)	‘person’
SV	North Tanna	i-etemim	‘person’
SV	Whitesands	i-etamimi	‘person’
SV	Lenakel	i-eramím	‘person’
SV	Anejom̃	n-atimi	‘person’

2.4. POc *tinoni ‘person, people’⇫

Reflexes of POc *tinoni are limited to two subgroups. Apart from Vitu off the north coast of New Britain, all languages listed here are from the Northwest Solomons or the Southeast Solomons where the term apparently has now become the general term for a human being. Its limited range makes it difficult to establish its POc meaning.

As with English ‘man’, reflexes of both *ta-mʷataq and *tinoni may sometimes be used as a term for people in general and sometimes for males only.

PEMP		*tinoni	‘man, male’3
POc		*tinoni	‘person, people’
MM	Vitu	tinoni	‘person’
MM	Solos	tinon	‘man; husband’
MM	Papapana	sinoni	‘husband’
MM	Nduke	tinoni	‘person’
MM	Roviana	tinoni-	‘people’
SES	Bugotu	tinoni	‘man, mankind, person’
SES	Gela	tinoni	‘man, human being, person (living)’
SES	Longgu	inoni	‘person, man’
SES	’Are’are	inoni	‘human being; people; man’
SES	Arosi	inoni	‘man’
SES	Sa’a	inoni	‘man; human being’

2.5. POc *(k,kʷ)a(i) ‘person’⇫

The reconstruction of POc *(k,kʷ)a(i) ‘person’ is somewhat speculative. This morpheme appears to have meant ‘a person belonging to a certain group’, and was followed by a modifier indicating the identity of that group. It is reflected in this function or something close to it in the Iduna, To’aba’ita, Arosi, Nguna, Bauan and Wayan Fijian terms and perhaps in the plural form PPn *ka-kai. The reconstruction is speculative in two respects. First, in Western Oceanic languages in particular, there are numerous forms beginning with ka- which denote a category of person, and we have taken these to be reflexes of *ka. Some of them may well have other origins. Where possible the modifier that follows the reflex of *ka- is identified. Second, the form of the reconstruction is uncertain. POc *kʷa- is reflected as far east as Bugotu (with exceptions in Medebur and Bola), switching to *kʷai- from Malaita and Makira eastward.⁴ Reconstruction of initial *kʷ-, rather than *k-, is also uncertain. POc *kʷ was an unstable phoneme that is reflected as kʷ only in Papuan Tip languages and Western Fijian (Ross 2011). In these and some other languages *kʷa sometimes becomes *ko. Among the reflexes below, Iduna kʷa-na and Wayan koi are thus consistent with the reconstruction of POc kʷa(i). Indeed, we have no other explanation for them (other than the possibility that the set below includes some non-cognate forms). Proto Malaita-Makira, however, normally reflects POc *kʷ- as *k-, but the forms below instead reflect *ɣ-, casting doubt on the reconstruction of POc *kʷ-.

POc		*(k,kʷ)a(i)	‘person belonging to a category’ (Pawley 1985: PEOc *kai ‘person’)
PWOc		*(k,kʷ)a[i]	‘person belonging to a category’
NNG	Bariai	ka-kau-iriria	‘young man’
NNG	Medebur	kai-dik-waun	‘young man’ (waun ‘new, young’; cf. wai-dik ‘woman’)
NNG	Medebur	kai-n	‘boy’
NNG	Manam	ka-leti	‘foreigner, white man’
SJ	Tobati	ha-r	‘person’
SJ	Ormu	ka-ru	‘person’
PT	Iduna	kʷa-na	‘person of group’ (e.g. kʷana-ʔoyaʔoya ‘man of the mountains’, kʷana-koyokoyo ‘poor/bad man’)
PT	Iduna	ka-liva	‘man, male, person’
MM	Vitu	kaka	‘person’
MM	Bulu	kaka-tara	‘person’ (tara ‘mature’)
MM	Bola	kakai	‘boss’
MM	Tabar	ka	‘man’
MM	Madak	ka-dioŋ	‘stranger, foreign -person’
MM	Madak	ka-vus	‘white person’
MM	Sursurunga	ka-lik	‘child’ (-lik endearment particle)
MM	Sursurunga	kə-ləmul	‘person’
MM	Sursurunga	kə-ləu	‘man, boy’
MM	Tangga	ka-ltu	‘man’
MM	Ramoaaina	ka-ulung	‘ignorant person; bush dweller’
MM	Ramoaaina	kə-puana	‘pitied person’
MM	Solos	ka-tun	‘person’ (tun < Proto NW Solomonic *tuna ‘correct, proper’)
MM	Petats	ka-tun	‘person’ (see Solos ka-tun)
MM	Halia	ka-tun	‘person’ (see Solos ka-tun)
MM	Mono-Alu	ka-nega	‘man, husband; big’
Proto Malaita-Makira		*ɣai	‘person, person belonging to …’
SES	To’aba’ita	ʔai	‘collectivity’ (e.g. kai ni bulisi ‘police unit’)
SES	Kwaio	ai	‘person’
SES	Lau	ʔai	‘person, individual, woman’
SES	Arosi	ai	‘native of place’ (e.g. ai [ni] Waŋo ‘native of Wango’)
PNCV		*kai-masi	‘sorcerer’ (*masi-ŋa ‘love magic’) (Clark 2009)
NCV	Paamese	eimasi	‘evil spirit’
NCV	Nguna	na-kaimasi	‘sorcerer’
NCV	Nguna	na-kā	‘people (of a particular chief or place)’

PFij		*(k,kʷ)ai	‘person of a place or category specified by the modifier’
Fij	Bauan	kai	‘person of group’ (e.g. kai Viti ‘Fijian’, kai ðolo ’person of the interior)
Fij	Wayan	koi	‘person of a place or category specified by the modifier’ (e.g. koi Niusiladi ‘New Zealander’, koi ata ‘inhabitant of the interior of Viti Levu and other large islands; inlander’)
PPn		*kai	‘person of one place or kind’ (plural: *ka-kai; POLLEX)
Pn	Tongan	kai-fonua	‘commoner’ (fonua ’land, territory, place)
Pn	Tongan	ka-kai	‘people’
Pn	Tongan	kai-na	‘occupied by strangers’ (-na stative formative)
Pn	Samoan	ʔa-ʔai	‘village, town’
Pn	Samoan	ʔai-nā	‘be inhabited’
Pn	East Futunan	ka-kai	‘people, nation’
Pn	East Uvean	kai-fenua	‘commoner, peasant’ (fenua ‘land’)
Pn	East Uvean	kai-amaki	‘bad person who seeks to do ill to others’
Pn	Tokelauan	ka-kai	‘village, city, town’
Pn	Pukapukan	ka-kai	‘all the people of a place’
Pn	Tahitian	ai-ani	‘a shameless beggar’ (ani ‘hungry’)
Pn	Tuamotuan	kai	‘body, group of blood relatives’
Pn	Māori	kai-	(agentive nominalising prefix)

3. People by gender⇫

3.1. Man, male⇫

Two POc terms are reconstructable reflecting PMP *ma-Ruqanay ‘male, man’. They perhaps occurred in different POc dialects, as no language reflects both. The expected form, POc *maRuqane, is reflected in just a few languages, in the Papuan Tip and Meso-Melanesian linkages of Western Oceanic. Much more widespread is POc *mʷaqane, a curiously truncated variant of *maRuqane.

Blust (1982b) comments that the origin of the truncated form is problematic. Lynch (2002e) suggests two possible origins. Both assume that *-R- had been irregularly lost (it is sporadically lost in non-Oceanic languages too, perhaps because tetrasyllabic roots were dispreferred). The first hypothesis says that the *m- of *maRuqane became *mʷ- under the influence of *-u-. For this to be true, *-u- must have been adjacent to *m-, as the two fused as *mʷ- (cf. the discussion of the history of *tamʷata in §2.2.2.1). Lynch suggests that *maRuqane metathesised to †*muRaqane, This would have been followed by loss of *-R-, giving †*muaqane, leading to *mʷaqane.

Lynch also offers an alternative explanation whereby *maRuqane formed a compound *tau-maRuqane, giving rise to *tamʷaRuqane (cf. §2.2.2.1), which was then reanalysed, leaving mʷaRuqane as a separate morpheme with initial *mʷ-. Of the two explanations, the first is more explanatory, as the second fails to explain loss of *-u-. There is in any case evidence that forms that might be taken to reflect *tau-maRuqane actually reflect *qata-mʷaqane.

The few forms that reflect *maRuqane all mean ‘male, man’. There is good evidence that POc *mʷaqane had two uses. As an independent noun, it meant ‘male, man’, but as a directly possessed noun (§3.1.1) it meant ‘brother of a woman’. It appears with this sense in the Admiralties and across Remote Oceanic, establishing its POc origin.

PAn		*RuqaLay	‘male, man’ (ACD)
PMP		*[ma]Ruqanay	‘male, man’ (ACD)
POc		*maRuqane	‘man, male’ (Blust 1993)
PT	Motu	maruane	[N] ‘male’
MM	Mono-Alu	manuale	‘male’ (metathesis)
MM	Lungga	marane	‘man’
MM	Vangunu	maroani	‘man’

PAn		*ma-RuqaLay	‘male, man’ (ACD)
PMP		*ma-Ruqanay	‘male, man’
POc		*mʷaqane	‘man, male; brother (of woman)’ (Milke 1958: *mʷane ‘brother (of woman)’)
Adm	Seimat	wawan	‘man as opposed to woman’
Adm	Lou	mʷanɛ-	‘brother (woman speaking)’
NNG	Manam	mʷane	‘male’
NNG	Kaiep	maken	‘man’
PT	Molima	moane	‘spouse’
MM	Vitu	mane	‘young man’
MM	Ramoaaina	muana	‘man’
MM	Kia	mane	‘man’
MM	Kokota	mane	‘man’
SES	Bugotu	mane	‘male, male person’
SES	Gela	mane	‘male, man, person, native’ (used in compound to identify occupation or place of identity)
SES	Longgu	mʷanei	‘man, male’
SES	Lau	ŋʷane	‘male’
SES	Kwaio	wane	‘man, male, human being’
SES	Sa’a	mʷane	‘male, man, boy’
SES	To’aba’ita	wane	‘man, husband; person of unspecified sex’5
NCV	Nokuku	mane-	‘brother’
NCV	Kiai	mane-	‘(elder) brother (of woman)’
NCV	Sakao	mana-	‘(man’s) brother’
NCV	Big Nambas	mʷana-	‘brother (of woman)’
NCV	Paamese	mano-	‘brother (of woman)’
NCV	Lewo	mʷene-	‘brother (of woman)’
SV	Sye	mano-	‘brother (of woman)’
SV	North Tanna	mʷanə-	‘brother (of woman)’
SV	Whitesands	nəmʷanə-	‘brother (of woman)’
SV	Lenakel	nə-mʷanə-	‘brother (of woman)’
NCal	Nixumwak	mʷala-	‘brother of woman’ (Lynch 2002e)
NCal	Iaai	mañi-	‘opposite sex sibling’
Mic	Kiribati	te-mʷāne	‘man, male’
Mic	Kiribati	mʷāne	‘male’
Mic	Kiribati	mʷāne-	‘his/her sibling of opposite sex’
Mic	Marshallese	mʷmʷahan	‘man, male, wife’s brother’
Mic	Mokilese	mʷān	‘man, male’
Mic	Puluwatese	mʷǣn	‘man, male’
Mic	Puluwatese	mʷǣne-	‘brother of (a woman)’
Mic	Carolinian	mʷǣl	‘man, male’
Fij	Bauan	ŋane	‘sibling of opposite sex’
Fij	Wayan	ŋʷane	‘sibling of opposite sex’
Fij	Nadrau	umane	‘male’ (Lynch 2002e)
Pn	Tongan	(tuo)ŋaʔane	‘brother or male cousin of woman’
Pn	Samoan	(tua)ŋane	‘brother of woman’

The following POc reconstruction is a compound of *qata ‘person’ and POc *mʷaqane ‘man, male’ (cf. §2.2.3.2), based on numerous reflexes, many of which show reduction of form in various ways, commonly by deleting *qa-. Polynesian languages have deleted *-mʷa-. Only two widely separated reflexes, Nakanai (MM) and Anejom (SV) share the meaning ‘brother of woman’, but, given that POc *mʷaqane had this sense, it is reasonable to attribute it also to POc *qata-mʷaqane.

POc		*qata-mʷaqane	‘man, male; brother (of woman)’
NNG	Kove	tamone	‘man’
NNG	Sio	tamɔne	‘man, male’
NNG	Mangseng	to-tomone	‘male (human)’
NNG	Kakuna	tamane	‘man, person’
NNG	Numbami	tamone	‘man’
MM	Vitu	tamoɣane	‘man’ (mane ‘boy of 12+’)
MM	Bola	tamuɣane	‘young man’
MM	Nakanai	hatamale	(1) ‘man, male’; (2) ‘brother, woman speaking’
MM	East Kara	tomekan	‘man’
MM	Vaghua	tamanə	‘man’
PSOc		*qata-mʷaqane	‘man, male’ (Lynch 2004e)
NCV	Hiw	təŋʷen	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Lehali	atŋʷan	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Volow	n-taŋmʷan	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Mwotlap	na-tŋmʷan	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Vurës	atŋmʷɪn	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Mwesen	atŋmʷɪn	‘male, man, husband’ (François 2013)
NCV	Raga	atamʷani	‘man, male’
NCV	Paamese	tomane	‘male, masculine’
NCV	Uripiv	n-orman	‘man, male’
NCV	Port Sandwich	roman	‘cock’
NCV	Namakir	tamʷaʔan	‘man, male’
PSV		*n-atamʷaqane, *i-atamʷaqane	‘man, male’
SV	Sye	n-atman	‘man, male’
SV	Ura	y-armon	‘man, male’
SV	North Tanna	i-etemān	‘man, male’
SV	Lenakel	i-eramʷān	‘man, male’
SV	Southwest Tanna	i-elmān	‘man, male’
SV	Anejom̃	n-atamʷañ	‘man, woman’s brother’
Fij	Wayan	taŋʷane	‘man, male’
Fij	Bauan	taŋane	‘male’
PPn		*taqane	‘male’ (POLLEX; with loss of *-mʷa-)
Pn	Niuean	tāne	‘husband, man, male’
Pn	Tongan	taʔane	‘male, of animals mainly; to be married, of royalty’
Pn	Samoan	tāne	‘husband; man, male’
Pn	Tikopia	tāne	‘male’
Pn	Māori	tāne	‘male, husband, man (not used of animals)’

There is also reasonable evidence for a shortened form of POc *qata-mʷaqane ‘man, male’ in New Guinea Oceanic, namely PNGOc *qata-mʷaq(a) ‘man, male’.

PNGOc		*qata-mʷaq(a)	‘man, male’
NNG	Tami	tamu	‘man’
NNG	Mutu	tamoɣ	‘man’
NNG	Mangap	tom-tom	‘person’
NNG	Dami	tamo	‘married man’
NNG	Medebur	toma	‘person’
NNG	Mapos Buang	alam	‘people; relatives’
SJ	Tarpia	tamu	‘man’
Proto Markham		*ɣaram	‘man’
NNG	Mari	garam	‘man’
NNG	Wampur	garam	‘man’
NNG	Sirasira	garaŋ(gat)	‘man’
NNG	Adzera	garam	‘man’
NNG	Adzera	garam(gar)	‘person’
NNG	Musom	arom	‘man’
NNG	Sirak	arom	‘man’
NNG	Wampar	gara(gab)	‘person’
PT	Gapapaiwa	tomoa	‘man’

3.2. Woman⇫

The terms for ‘woman, female’ present one of the most challenging reconstructive tasks in Austronesian historical linguistics, with a number of terms derived from PAn *bahi ‘woman, female’. (Blust 1982b, ACD).⁶ Although POc reflects only two of the many variants reflected in non-Oceanic languages, namely *pine and *papine, it has generated variants of its own. With some exceptions, most in Vanuatu, *pine occurs only in the compounds presented below.

In Bugotu and Gela (both SES) the regular reflex of *papine means ‘opposite-sex sibling’, and across SE Solomonic the term for ‘woman’ reflects POc *paipine, a variant that remains unexplained. In a number of Papuan Tip reflexes of *papine and *paipine initial *p- is replaced by *w-, again an unexplained change.

PAn		*b⟨in⟩ahi	‘woman, female’ (Blust 1982b; ACD)
PMP		*b⟨in⟩ahi, *ba-b⟨in⟩ahi	‘woman, female’
POc		*pine	‘woman, female; sister of man’
PT	Iduna	vine-	‘woman of (PLACENAME)’
PT	Iduna	vine(sikʷa)	‘widow, widowed woman’
PT	Iduna	vine(ulatana)	‘young unmarried girl, teenager’
MM	Vitu	vine	‘young girl’ (cf. tavine ‘woman’)
MM	Roviana	vine(ki)	‘female’
NCV	Loh	(ləkʷɛ)vinə	‘woman’
NCV	Lehali	(n-lɔk)vɛn	‘woman’
NCV	Nokuku	le-vina	‘woman’
NCV	Larëvat	ne-vən	‘woman’
NCV	West Ambrym	vēn	‘woman’
NCV	Paamese	a-hine	‘woman’
NCV	Paamese	a-hino-	‘sister of man’
NCV	Port Sandwich	pene-	‘sister of man’
NCV	Lewo	vine-	‘sister of man’
SV	Ura	vi-, vinu-	‘sister of man’
SV	North Tanna	vənə-	‘sister of man’
SV	Whitesands	nə-vnə-	‘sister of man’
SV	Lenakel	no-uin-	‘sister of man’
SV	Southwest Tanna	na-uin-	‘sister of man’
SV	Kwamera	pini-	‘sister of man’
PPn		*fine	‘woman’
Pn	Tongan	fine(-motuʔa)	‘elderly woman’
Pn	Tongan	fine(-mui)	‘young woman’
Pn	Tongan	fine(-ʔeiki)	‘lady’
Pn	Tikopia	fine	‘term of address to wife or between sisters-in-law’
Pn	Māori	hine	‘term of address to girl, young woman’

POc		*papine	‘woman, female; sister of man’ (Milke 1958)
Adm	Kele	pihin	‘woman’
Adm	Lou	pɛin	‘woman’
Adm	Nyindrou	bihin	‘young single woman, virgin’
NNG	Roinji	pain	‘woman’
NNG	Gedaged	pain	‘woman’
NNG	Manam	aine	‘woman, female, girl’
NNG	Wogeo	vaine	‘woman’
PT	Dobu	waine	‘woman’ (w- for †∅-)
PT	Gapapaiwa	wavine	‘woman’ (w- for †v-)
PT	Sinaugoro	vavine	‘woman’
PT	Motu	hahine	‘woman, female’
MM	Lavongai	aina	‘woman’
MM	Tabar	vevine	‘woman’
MM	Barok	une	‘woman’
MM	Patpatar	hahin	‘woman’
MM	Tolai	vavina	‘woman’
MM	Siar	fain	‘woman’
MM	Petats	hihin	‘woman’
MM	Torau	baina	‘woman’ (b- for †∅-)
SES	Bugotu	vavine	‘opposite-sex sibling’
SES	Gela	vavine	‘opposite-sex sibling’
NCV	Mota	vavine	‘woman, female (used also of animals and birds)’
NCV	Raga	vavine	‘woman’
NCV	Tamambo	vavine	‘woman’
NCV	Kiai	vavine-	‘younger sister of male’
NCV	Tape	vevn-	‘sister of man’
NCV	Namakir	vavin	‘woman, female’
SV	Sye	vevn-	‘sister of man’
Fij	Rotuman	hani	‘woman, girl, wife’
Pn	Tongan	fefine	‘woman’
Pn	Niuean	fifine	‘woman’
Pn	East Futunan	fafine	‘woman’
Pn	Pukapukan	wawine	‘woman, wife’
Pn	Rennellese	hahine	‘woman’
Pn	Samoan	fafine	‘woman’
Pn	Tikopia	fafine	‘woman’

POc		*paipine	‘woman, female; sister (of man)’
PT	Suau	waihin	‘woman’ (w- for †h-)
PT	Nimoa	waiine	‘woman’ (w- for †∅-)
SES	Bugotu	vaivine	‘woman, female’
SES	Gela	vaivine	‘woman’
SES	Bauro	hehene	‘woman’ (assimilation of *ai > e)
SES	Fagani	hehene	‘woman’
SES	Kahua	hehene	‘woman’
SES	Arosi	haihine	‘woman’
Mic	Kiribati	te-aiine	‘woman’
Mic	Chuukese	fēfiɾ	‘woman; womanhood; female; left hand or side’
Mic	Chuukese	fēfiɾa-	‘sister (of man)’
Mic	Woleaian	faifire	‘woman, sister’

Corresponding to *qata-mʷaqane ‘man’ (§2.3.1) is POc *qata-pine, a compound of *qata ‘person’ and POc *pine ‘woman, female’ (cf. §2.2.3.2). No five-syllable reflexes of POc †*qata-papine ‘woman, female’ have been found. Like other compounds in *qata-, the first element is often reduced to ta-.

POc		*qata-pine	‘woman, female’
NNG	Bariai	taine	‘woman’
NNG	Sio	taine	‘woman, sister’
NNG	Ulau-Suain	tein	‘woman’
MM	Vitu	tavine	‘woman’
MM	Harua	ɣatavine	‘woman’
MM	Nakanai	hatavile	‘woman, female’; ‘sister, man speaking’
MM	Meramera	tavine	‘woman’
MM	East Kara	tefin	‘woman’
MM	West Kara	tefin	‘woman’
MM	Nalik	rəfin	‘woman’
PSOc		*qata-vine	‘woman, female’ (Lynch 2004e)
NCV	Mota	tavine	‘woman, female’
NCV	Uripiv	n-esevin	‘woman, female’
NCV	South Efate	tafin	‘woman servant, slave’
PSV		*n-atavine, *i-atavine
SV	Sye	n-ahiven	‘woman, female’
SV	Ura	y-arvin	‘woman, female’
SV	Anejom̃	n-ataheñ	‘girl, female; sister of male’
Proto Tanna		*p-atavine
SV	North Tanna	p-etan	‘woman, female’
SV	Whitesands	p-ətan	‘woman, female’
SV	Lenakel	p-eravɛn	‘woman, female’
SV	Southwest Tanna	p-ilavən	‘woman, female’

cf. also:

Pn	Tongan	taʔa-hine	‘girl, young woman’ (borrowing)
Pn	Rennellese	taʔa-hine	‘term of reference for a sister, daughter, niece’
Pn	Samoan	te-ine	‘girl’

Data from the westerly part of the north coast of New Guinea point to a variant *mapine for *papine:

NNG	Kaiep	main	‘woman’
NNG	Kairiru	moin	‘woman’
SJ	Tarpia	mupin	‘woman’
SJ	Sobei	mefne	‘woman’
SJ	Anus	mofin	‘woman’

This in turn also seems to have formed a compound *(qa)ta-mapine:

NNG	Kove	tamine	‘woman’
NNG	Ali	tamiñ	‘woman’
NNG	Mutu	tamen	‘woman’
NNG	Sissano	tameñ	‘woman’
NNG	Sera	tameiŋ	‘woman’

4. People by age cohort⇫

4.1. Oceanic age cohort terms⇫

There is a framework of single-word terms for age cohorts that seems to have a similar structure in many Oceanic languages. The basic elements are:

1. young person, the age range of which often stretches from birth to adulthood
2. person of marriageable age, typically two terms, female and male
3. fully grown adult
4. mature middle-aged adult, typically two terms, female and male
5. very old person

It is sometimes difficult to align terms from different languages, first because in most dictionaries age cohort terms appear to be incompletely listed, and secondly because dictionaries typically give only relative ages,⁷ and definitions like ‘young girl’ are vague. However, the five basic terms in an eight-language sample are laid out in Table 13.⁸

Several observations are in order. The empty cells in Table 13 marked with ‘…’ might be filled if the data were more complete, but the empty cells marked with ‘—’ are probably artefacts of our representation of gender-related terms. For example, Mutu has kōŋ ‘mature person’, but apparently no dedicated terms for ‘mature man’ or ’mature woman’. To’aba’ita has gender-specific terms for (marriageable) young adults, but apparently no genderless term for ‘young adult’. Numbami and Mwotlap stand out from the other languages in the table in that they have a larger number of gender-specific terms. These are shown with a slash, thus feminine/masculine. Several To’aba’ita terms are basically verbs. Thus darā means ‘be a marriageable young man’.

Terms for ‘young person’, labelled ‘1’ in Table 13, typically embrace an age range from birth to the onset of adulthood which is divided into smaller categories by either using the ‘young person’ term with modifiers (Khehek, Numbami, Nehan and Wayan) or using further single-word terms. These are shown in Table 14. The exception here is Mwotlap, where the ‘young person’ term does not include children below about six years of age and as a result fewer terms are formed with modifiers.

The basic divisions in Table 14 are (1a) baby, (1b) prepubescent child and (1c) adolescent. This tabulation is not exhaustive. Wayan also has the terms driadria tabatūtū ‘infant learning to stand’ and driadria kakarebareba ‘toddler’. To’aba’ita has wela kōkosa or wela ʔāʔabu ‘newborn baby’, wela kā ‘baby that can crawl’ and wela ʔāʔaru ‘toddler’. Paamese has titali ‘infant sitting up’. Mutu apparently singles out children aged around four or five as kukua. Since the ‘young girl/young boy’ terms in Mwotlap designate young people from around six years of age upward, a separate term nɪ-nɪtmʷəy denotes children under six. Mwotlap also has a term n-ɛt su [ART-person little] ‘children’ contrasting with n-ɛt liwɔ [ART-person big] ‘adults’.

Table 13 Age cohort terms in eight Oceanic languages

		Adm	NNG	NNG	MM	SES	NCV	NCV	Fij
		Khehek	Numbami	Mutu	Nehan	To’aba’ita	Mwotlap	Paamese	Wayan
1	young person	nah	ekapa/kolapa	pain	keketiki	wela	na-mʷalmʷal/nυ-lυmɣɛp	ēhon	driadria
2	young adult	—	kolapa asasa	ŋēr pāɣu	mamahoho-liki	—	—	—	—
	marriageable young woman	lupup pihiŋ/pecih	ekapa wowe	nabiu	komadia	θāriʔi	—	atouli	vulau
	marriageable young man	lupup kemeŋ	kolapa dewala	…	mamanai-liki	ʔalakʷa, darā (v)	—	meakoi	saravou
3	fully grown adult	kxikxiŋ	ewesika/tamota olman	tamat	kʷaiagaŋaʔi, ila ai/ila wane	n-ɛt liwɔ	ahin, atau/ame	tūdonu
4	mature person	pete luɔp	…	kōŋ	mahoho	araʔi	—	…	uabula
	mature woman	pete pecih	…	—	pipigogo-liki	gʷauliʔi-ai-ʔa (v)	na-maɣtʊ	…	—
	mature man	pete kemeŋ	…	—	mahohontiehe	gʷauliʔi-wane-ʔa (v)	na-tmayɣɛ	ulmatu	—
5	very old person	…	e-ᵐbamoto/ko-ᵐbamoto	kuᵐbut	mahohon siounu	…	na-maɣtʊ yəyəy/na-tmayɣɛ yəyəy	avi mavul	tūgʷāgʷā

Table 14 Age cohort terms in eight Oceanic languages from birth to the onset of adulthood

		Adm	NNG	NNG	MM	SES	NCV	NCV	Fij
		Khehek	Numbami	Mutu	Nehan	To’aba’ita	Mwotlap	Paamese	Wayan
1	young person	nah	ekapa/kolapa	pain	keketiki	wela	na-mʷalmʷal/nʊ-lʊmɣɛp	ēhon	driadria
1a	infant, newborn	n. kepeh nakxiŋ	k. palele	p. pāɣu, kaduk-sa	guama	sikafi/kurafia	mʷɛy, nɪtɪtɪ	tīvava	d. dramedrame
1b	small child	n. kepeh	e. kakapi/k. kae, ko-kae	akeake, kukua	k. buloutu	—	nɪ-nɪtmʷəy	…	d. sewa
	young girl	n. pecih	e. kakapi	—	k. kuah	θāri	—	…	d. alewa
	young boy	n. kemeŋ	…	—	…	wēwelaniwane	—	—	d. taŋʷane
1c	adolescent, not yet marriageable	n. lupup	k. dewala	ŋēr marani	…	θāri, ulufāluʔi	—	litetai	d. saravou

With one exception, there is little cognacy across the eight languages in the tables above, yet the categories appear similar, and it is a reasonable inference that POc had such categories. The exception is that ‘fully grown adult’ is often designated by the term that means ‘person’. The POc term denoting a fully grown adult was thus probably *tamʷata ‘person’ (§2.2.2.1), reflected above in Numbami, Nehan and Wayan. We also hypothesise that where POc age cohort terms distinguished gender, they did so using *papine ‘female’ (§2.3.2) and *mʷaqane ‘male’ (§2.3.1) as modifiers. The evidence for this is somewhat circumstantial, but see To’aba’ita ila wane ‘married man’, wēwelani-wane ‘young boy’, Paamese ahin ‘adult woman’, and Wayan driadria taŋʷane ‘young boy’.

The lack of cognacy among age cohort terms partly reflects shifts in meaning over time. Thus Khehek (Adm) kxikxiŋ ‘fully grown adult’ and Wayan (Fij) driadria ‘young person’ appear to be cognate.

Below, reconstructions for age cohorts are discussed under the headings used in Tables 13 and 14. Reconstruction in this semantic domain is not easy, as a wealth of local terms for age cohorts are found but few terms that have survived across a number of Oceanic primary subgroups

4.2. Young person from birth to onset of adulthood⇫

The English word ‘child’ has two meanings: (1) offspring and (2) young boy or girl. Thus (1) denotes a kin relationship, (2) an age group. The POc term for sense (1), ‘offspring’, is *natu-, a kin term (see vol.6).

Oceanic languages typically have no single-word term corresponding to English ‘childʼ in sense (2) but instead have a term for human beings from birth to the onset of adulthood. POc *meRa appears to have been the term denoting this age group. A number of its reflexes are glossed simply ‘child’, but we suspect that this is a product of wordlist collecting, where the informant is simply asked for the term corresponding to English ‘child’. Evidence that POc *meRa did mean ‘person from birth to adulthood’ is found in the To’aba’ita and ’Are’are dictionary entries below and in the generalisation of some of its NCV reflexes to mean something like English ‘fellow, guy’, i.e. a colloquial way of referring to men in particular.

The origin of POc *meRa was pointed out to us by Charles Grimes (pers. comm.). In a number of CMP languages the term for a newborn is ‘red child’, and in some of these the term ‘red’ reflects PMP *ma-iRaq ‘red’ (ACD). In PCEMP and POc this became *meRaq ‘red’ (vol.2:206; ACD). The terms below are drawn from a geographically well distributed range of CMP languages.⁹ The association between ‘red’ and ‘newborn’ seems to have been lost in early Oceanic, but POc *meRa seems to have had the specific meaning ‘newborn’ (see Misima and Arosi glosses) and the metonomic usage ‘young person from birth to onset of adulthood’.

PCEMP		*anak meRaq	‘newborn baby’ (*anak ‘child’, *meRaq ‘red’)
CMP	Hawu	ana mea	‘newborn, infant’
CMP	Helong	ana mea	‘newborn, infant, baby (pre-toddler)’
CMP	Tetun	kau mea	‘newborn, infant’ (kau-k oan ‘very young child’; mea-k/-n ‘gold, rust, reddish’)
CMP	Buru	an-miha-n	‘newborn, infant’ (regular truncation of ana-t/-n ‘child, offspring’, miha-t/-n ‘reddish-brown’)
POc		*meRa	‘newborn; young person from birth to onset of adulthood’
PT	Misima	me-melo-na	‘infant; newborn’ (-o for †-a)
PT	Motu	mero	‘child’ (-o for †-a)
PT	Sinaugoro	mero	‘child’ (-o for †-a)
PEOc		*mʷeRa	‘newborn; young person from birth to onset of adulthood’ (Cashmore 1969: *mʷela ‘child’)
SES	Longgu	mʷela	‘child, young person’
SES	Longgu	mʷela-kiki	‘child’ (kiki ‘small’)
SES	Arosi	mʷera	‘very small child’10
SES	Lau	wela	‘child, person’
SES	Lau	wela ābu	‘very young infant’ (ābu ‘taboo’)
SES	Kwaio	wela	‘child’
SES	Sa’a	mʷela	‘child’
SES	To’aba’ita	wela	‘child of any age up to young unmarried adult’
SES	Kwaio	wela	‘child’
SES	’Are’are	mera	‘child of any age up to young unmarried adult’
SES	’Are’are	mera masike	‘child 3–8 years old’ (masike ‘small’)
SES	’Are’are	iʔi ni mera	‘child 8–12 years old’
SES	’Are’are	reoreo ni mera	‘child 8–15 years old’ (reoreo ‘wild yam’)
SES	’Are’are	sisiri ni mera	‘child 8–15 years old’
SES	’Are’are	mera haoru	‘child 12–16 years old’ (haoru ‘new, young’)
SES	’Are’are	mera nanau	‘male 16–20 years old’ (nanau ‘unmarried male’)
SES	Arosi	mʷera	‘very small child’11
PNCV		*mʷera, *mʷara	‘child’ (Clark 2009)
NCV	Loh	werə	‘baby’
NCV	Lehali	(sus)wæj	‘child’
NCV	Volow	(n-ɛt)mʷɛj	‘child’
NCV	Mwotlap	(n-ɪt)mʷɛj	‘child’
NCV	Mota	mʷera	‘child’
NCV	Nokuku	mʷer	‘child (of)’
NCV	Nokuku	mʷer (kekara)	‘baby’ (kekara ‘red’)
NCV	Kiai	mera	‘man, person, human being’
NCV	Ambae	mʷera	‘man’
NCV	West Ambrym	mere	‘small, a little bit, young, thin …’
NCV	West Ambrym	(tesi)mre	‘child, young one’
NCV	Uripiv	mʷeri	‘man, fellow, people’
NCV	Port Sandwich	mʷera(ur)	‘bush man’ (la-ur ‘interior forest’)
NCV	Paamese	a-mē	‘adult married man in village; larrikin, young man who acts tough’
NCV	Lewo	mʷē	‘young’
NCV	South Efate	na-mʷer	‘people’
Pn	Emae	mea	‘baby’

It is possible that the apparent PNCV doublet *mʷara above is the product of reflexes of *mʷera that have undergone contamination by reflexes of POc *mʷala ‘young unmarried woman’ (§2.4.3).

A few languages have distinct single-word terms for ‘boy’ and ‘girl’, but they are few and far between. POc seems simply to have used the terms for ‘male’ (§2.3.1) and ‘female’ (§2.3.2) alone or as modifiers to a ‘young person’ term, as in ’Are’are (SES) mera māne ‘boy’ and mera keni ‘girl’.

4.2.1. Baby, infant, newborn⇫

POc apparently had two terms for ‘baby’, *meRa-meRa and *kʷawaq. No language has been found in which they contrast. The use of reduplication in POc for a diminutive or a small version of the denotatum of the root was noted in vol.3:50–51. POc *meRa-meRa thus meant ‘baby, very young child’, a small version of *mʷeRa ‘young person from birth to onset of adulthood’ (§2.4.2). Polynesian reflexes are often modifiers of a reflex of PPn *tama ‘child’.¹²

POc		*meRa-meRa	‘baby, very young child’
NNG	Maleu	(la)mela-mela	‘child’
PT	Gumawana	me-meya	‘a baby’
PT	Tawala	meya-meya	‘tiny baby, up to a few months old’ (for †mela-mela)
PT	Dobu	(gʷama) meya-meya-na	‘baby, suckling’ (gʷama ‘child’; for †mela-mela)
SES	Arosi	mʷera-mʷera	‘very small child’
NCV	Vera’a	mʷɛr-mʷɛrɛ	‘child’
NCV	Vurës	mʷir-mʷiar	‘child’
NCV	Mwesen	mʷɛr-mʷɛr	‘child’
NCV	Dorig	mʷɛr-mʷɛr	‘child’
NCV	Nokuku	mʷer-mʷera	‘child; give birth’
PNPn		*tama-mea-mea	‘newborn child’
Pn	Samoan	(tama)mea-mea	‘newly born baby (from birth to 2 months)’
Pn	Luangiua	(kama)-mea	‘small’
Pn	Pileni	me-mea	‘child, baby’
Pn	Takuu	(tama) meamea	‘baby’
Pn	Rennellese	(tama) mea-mea	‘new born child’
Pn	Tikopia	me-mēa	‘babe, infant’
Pn	Māori	(tama) mea-mea	‘son by a slave wife’

cf. also:

PT	Misima	melu-melu	‘young, infant; youngest child’
PT	Misima	me-melóna	‘infant; newborn’

POc *kʷawaq seems also to have meant ‘baby, small child’. Initial *kʷa- is reconstructed to account for Dawawa and Misima wa-. In several languages the *-a- of the first syllable is reflected as a rounded vowel. This can be attributed either to *kʷa- or to the *-w- that follows it.

POc		*kʷawaq	‘baby, small child’ (Lynch 2004e: Proto Southern Melanesian *kawaq)
PT	Dawawa	wawai	‘infant’
PT	Misima	wawaya	‘baby, child’
MM	Tinputz	koaʔ	‘child (before puberty), offspring’
MM	Teop	kua	‘child’
PSV		*kova(q)	‘baby, small child’ (Lynch 2004e)
SV	Lenakel	kova	‘baby, small child’
SV	Kwamera	kova	‘baby, small child’
NCal	Pije	hawak, hyaok	‘child’
NCal	Fwâi	haok	‘child’
NCal	Nemi	hyaok	‘child’
Proto Central Micronesian		*ka(w)o	‘newly born, infant’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic	Kiribati	te-kao	‘umbilical cord’
Mic	Marshallese	kaw	‘foetus, embryo, still-born baby’
Mic	Chuukese	kɔ̄-kɔ	‘baby (up to three months)’
Mic	Chuukese	(ni)kkɔ	‘baby girl’
Mic	Chuukese	(wu)kkɔ	‘baby boy’
Mic	Puluwatese	(li)kkɔ	‘baby girl’
Mic	Puluwatese	(wu)kkɔ	‘baby boy’
Mic	Carolinian	xɔ̄xɔ	‘baby, infant’
Fij	Wayan	-kawa	‘that which is reproduced by a plant or animal: seed, progeny, offspring, descendants, stock’

4.2.2. Child⇫

No term is reconstructable for ‘child’, i.e., a person up to the onset of puberty, although many languages have one-word terms. However, a theme that runs through certain Oceanic subgroups is that the term for ‘child’ consists of what is or once was a term for ‘person’ modified by a term for ‘little’ or it consists just of the term for ‘little’ alone. Forms for ‘little’ were reconstructed in vol.2:193–195:

• POc *liki ‘small’, perhaps only in compounds
• POc *qitik, *qitek ‘small’
• POc *kiki ‘small’
• POc *rikit
• PWOc *siki ‘small’

POc *liki ‘small’ occurs perhaps only in compounds, and is present in the items listed below. The Madak, Sursurunga and Bilur forms apparently reflect PWOc *kʷa[i] (§2.2.5) as their first element, whilst the first element in Patpatar and Proto Polynesian reflects POc *tama- ‘father’, where the child is construed as the small member in the father–child relationship.

POc		*-liki	‘small’ (vol.2:194)
MM	Nakanai	e-gu-li-liki	‘child (not offspring)’
MM	Nakanai	e-gu-liki-liki	‘children’
MM	Nalik	nafna-lik	‘child’
MM	Madak	kā-lik	‘children’
MM	Sursurunga	ka-lik	‘child, baby, person (used of males of any age, but only of female children)’
MM	Sursurunga	ka-lilik	‘children, guys (colloquial)’
MM	Patpatar	tama-lik	‘baby boy (the small member of the father–child pairing)’

There is good evidence that Proto Polynesian distinguished between singular *tama-qiti ‘child’ (< POc *qitik) and plural *tama-riki ‘children’ (< POc *rikit).

POc		*qitik	‘small’ (vol.2:193–194)
PPn		*tama-qiti	‘child’ (*qiti ‘small’; POLLEX)
Pn	Tongan	tama-siʔi	‘child’ (metathesis: PPn *-qiti > Pre-Tongan *-ʔisi > -siʔi)
Pn	Samoan	tama-iti	‘children’
Pn	Samoan	tama-iti-iti	‘small child’
Pn	Tokelauan	tama-iti	‘child; offspring; childhood, youth; immature, young’
Pn	Anutan	tama-ti	‘child’
Pn	Emae	tama-ti-iti	‘child’
Pn	Rennellese	tama-ʔitiʔiti	‘child, infant, baby’
Pn	Tahitian	tama-iti	‘a son’
Pn	Pukapukan	tama-iti	‘child’
Pn	Tongarevan	tama-iti	‘male child, son; upper ridgepole’
Pn	Hawaiian	kama-iki	‘child’
Pn	Rarotongan	tama-iti	‘boy, child’
Pn	Māori	tama-iti	‘child’

cf. also:

MM

Nehan

keke-tiki

‘child’

The Nehan item immediately above appears to reflect *tiki, which may in turn reflect a metathesis of *qitik.

POc		*rikit	‘small’ (vol.2:194)
MM	Bilur	ka-lkit	‘child’ (-l- for †-r-)
MM	Tangga	keka-ik	‘child’
PPn		*tama-riki	‘children’ (POLLEX)
Pn	Tongan	tama-iki	‘children’
Pn	East Uvean	tama-liki	‘children’
Pn	Tuvalu	tama-liki	‘child, children’
Pn	Nukuria	tama-liki-liki	‘child’
Pn	Luangiua	kama-liʔi	‘child’
Pn	Sikaiana	tama-liki-liki	‘child’
Pn	Takuu	tama-riki	‘pre-adolescent child’
Pn	Tikopia	tama-riki	‘child, children’
Pn	Rennellese	tama-giki	‘children’
Pn	Hawaiian	kama-liʔi	‘children’
Pn	Tahitian	tama-riʔi	‘children’
Pn	Rarotongan	tama-riki	‘children’
Pn	Māori	tama-riki	‘children’

Finally, the items below simply reflect one of the terms for ‘small’.

PT	Tawala	kiki-	‘little, young rather than short of height’
MM	Notsi	ci	‘child’ (< PWOc *siki)
MM	Lihir	cik	‘child’ (< PWOc *siki)

4.3. Young (unmarried) person⇫

Although Table 14 shows category (1c) ‘adolescent, not yet marriageable’, there is no evidence that POc speakers treated this as a category separate from ‘young unmarried person’. The lower bound of this category was puberty, the upper bound marriage. Note that in Wayan Fijian, for example, the term for (1c) is compound, dridria saravou i.e. ‘young person’ + ‘marriageable young man’, i.e. (1c) represents an overlap between ‘young person’ and ‘marriageable young man’, post-puberty but not quite old enough for marriage.

The most widely reflected expression for a young (unmarried) person consists of a word for ‘person’ (perhaps POc *tau; §2.2.1.1), sometimes omitted, and a reflex of POc *paqoRu ‘new, young, recent’). The ‘young, unmarried’ sense was already present in PAn *baqeRuh (ACD).

PAn		*baqeRuh	‘new; bachelor’ (ACD)
POc		*paqoRu	‘new, young, recent’ (vol.2:203)
POc		*tau paqoRu	‘young person of marriageable age’ (Pawley 1982a: 270)
PT	Motu	tauhau	‘youth, young man’ (for †tauharu)
Pn	Tongan	tāupoʔou	‘virgin, maiden, an esp. attractive young woman’
Pn	Samoan	tāu pōu	‘title of village maiden’
Pn	East Futunan	taupoʔou	‘virgin’
Pn	Rennellese	taupoʔou	‘unmarried person’

cf. also:

NNG	Medebur	kaidik-waun	‘young man’ (kaidik ‘man’, waun ‘new, young’)
NNG	Mutu	ŋēr pāɣu	‘young adult’ (ŋēr ‘person’, pāɣu ‘new’)
NNG	Atui	ul-po	‘young man’ (po ‘new’)
PT	Gumawana	tubu-wau	‘young man, normally 15–30 years of age’ (tubu ‘grandchild, grandparent’, vau ‘new’)
PT	Misima	he-val	‘young man’ (valu- ’new)
PT	Sinaugoro	fou variɣu	‘teenage virgin’ (variɣu ‘new’)
MM	Torau	podo-auru	‘young man’ (podo ‘be born’, auru ‘new’)
MM	Mono-Alu	poro-haulu	‘young man’ (poro ‘be born’, haulu ‘new’)
SES	Bugotu	(lu)vaolu	‘youth’
SES	Gela	vaolu	‘new; young, fresh, in one’s prime’
SES	’Are’are	(māne) haoru	‘a young unmarried man; a newcomer’ (māne ‘male’, haoru ‘new’)
SES	’Are’are	(keni) haoru	‘a marriageable girl’ (keni ‘female’, haoru ‘new’)
SES	Ulawa	(keni) haʔolu	‘maiden’ (keni ‘female’)
NCV	Lewo	yaru viu lala	‘the young guys’ (yaru ‘people’, viu ‘new’, lala PLURAL)
Fij	Bauan	ðaura-vou	‘youth, young man of marriageable age’ (vou ‘new’)
Fij	Wayan	sara-vou	‘young man of marriageable age’ (vou ‘new’)

A second term for an unmarried young person, apparently a young woman, is POc *mʷala. The gloss is based on the agreement of the North New Guinea and North–Central Vanuatu glosses below. PNCV *mʷala-gelo also has a modifier of unknown meaning as its second element, and Clark (2009) concludes that *mʷala-gelo probably denoted a young male. The glosses of his supporting data (below) would equally well support the gloss ‘young adult’, however.

POc		*mʷala	‘unmarried young woman’
NNG	Sio	mɔla	‘widow; any unmarried woman’
NNG	Mengen	mala(ui)	‘young woman’
Proto Torres-Banks		*mʷala-mʷala	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Loh	ŋʷələ-ŋʷelə	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Lehali	ŋʷəl-ŋʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Volow	mʷal-mʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Mwotlap	mʷal-mʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Vurës	mʷal-mʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Mwesen	mʷal-mʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Mota	mʷala-mʷala	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Dorig	mʷal-mʷal	‘girl, young woman’
NCV	Merlav	ŋʷal-ŋʷal	‘girl, young woman’
PNCV		*mʷala-gelo	‘young person, probably young unmarried man’ (Clark 2009)
NCV	Ambae	mʷalakelo	‘young unmarried person, esp. male’
NCV	Raga	mʷalagelo	‘young unmarried person from puberty to marriage’
NCV	Apma	mʷalgel	‘young unmarried person from puberty to marriage’
NCV	Uripiv	mʷelakel	‘young person’
NCV	Nese	tavat malakel	‘girl’ (tavat ‘female’)
NCV	Lonwolwol	malgel	‘unmarried man’
NCV	Paamese	meakoi	‘unmarried man’
NCV	Bieria	melekelu	‘unmarried man’

4.4. Fully grown adult⇫

As mentioned in §2.4.1 the POc term denoting a full-grown adult was probably *tamʷata ‘person’ (§2.2.2.1).

Wayan Fijian, at least, distinguishes life-stage terms from marriage-related terms (Andrew Pawley, pers. comm.). It is uncertain whether this is true of many Oceanic languages, but the weight of the evidence points in that direction, as languages tend not to have a lifestage (as opposed to kin) term denoting ‘married man’ or ‘married woman’. As most adult men and women in Oceanic communities are married, they are referred to by the unmarked terms for ‘man’ or ‘woman’. These are typically reflexes of *mʷaqane/*qatamʷaqane (§2.3.1) and *papine/*qatapine (§2.3.2).

4.5. Mature person⇫

Most Oceanic languages seem to distinguish at least two stages of mature adulthood, one for people of perhaps 30–50, i.e. vigorous adults with unmarried children, and another for people older than perhaps 50 or 60 and no longer so vigorous.¹³ Vigour is probably more important than age here. In Wayan Fijian a still active 60-year-old is uabula, i.e. ‘mature’ rather than ‘old’. A difficulty in the data is that ‘old’ tends to be used indiscriminately in definitions of both categories. Sometimes one category is labelled ‘old’, the other ‘very old’. Sometimes ‘mature’ is used, and this is taken to be an indicator of the younger category.

The most widespread cognate set for a ‘mature person’ reflects POc *matuqa ‘mature, full-grown, ripe, old (person)’. Only reflexes that denote a person are listed here. POc *matuqa was evidently originally a stative verb, and in some languages it occurs as modifier of (the reflex of) a term meaning ‘person’. In the Huon Gulf languages of Western Oceanic, it has become the usual term for ‘man’.

PAn		*CuqaS	‘mature, elder’ (ACD)
PMP		*ma-tuqah	‘old (person)’
POc		*matuqa	‘mature, full-grown, ripe, old (person)’ (vol.2:204)
Proto Huon Gulf		*matuɣ	‘man’
NNG	Adzera	marub	‘man’
NNG	Sukurum	marub	‘man’
NNG	Middle Watut	(ŋa)maroʔ	‘man’
NNG	North Watut	(ŋa)maruʔ	‘man’
Proto Hote-Buang		*maluɣ	‘man’
NNG	Misim	(ya)malu	‘husband’
NNG	Mapos Buang	maluh	‘man’
NNG	Vehes	mooɣ	‘man’
NNG	Mangga	moow	‘man’
NNG	Patep	vuɣ	‘man’
NNG	Kapin	muɣ	‘man’
SES	Bauro	(ɣai)maua	‘old woman’
NCV	Hiw	(ta)məso	‘old person’ (ta- < *qata ‘person’, §2.2.3)
NCV	Loh	(te)məto	‘old person’ (te- < *qata ‘person’, §2.2.3)
NCV	Mota	(ta)matua	‘old person’ (ta- < *qata ‘person’, §2.2.3; matua ‘full-grown, ripe’)
NCV	Raga	(bʷat)metua	‘old man’ (bʷatu ‘head, base, beginning’, metue ’mature, ready to gather, of fruits, nuts, yams, etc.)
NCV	Paamese	matū	‘(s. o.) old’
NCV	Lewo	(yer)marua	‘old person; respectful term for talking about someone’s including one’s own husband’ (yaru ‘man, person’, marua ‘old, mature’)
Fij	Rotuman	mafua	[ADJ, VI] ‘fullgrown, adult; old as opposed to young’
Fij	Wayan	mātua	‘mature, full-grown, adult, ripe’
Pn	Tongan	motuʔa	‘old, of people; mature, fully developed; parent’
Pn	Niuean	motua	[V] ‘be mature, adult’; [N] ‘old age’
Pn	Samoan	matua	‘be adult, grown up; be old (person); parent’
Pn	Samoan	ʔolo-matua	‘old woman’ (also loʔo-matua)
Pn	East Futunan	matuʔa	‘old, of people’
Pn	Tikopia	(faka)mātua	‘mature, grow old; old person; ancestors’

4.6. Old person⇫

For ‘old person’ POc *mʷarap (V) ‘grow old’, (N) ‘old person’ and *tobʷan ‘old person’ are tentatively reconstructed.

On evidence from Papuan Tip languages POc *mʷarap was originally a verb. It retains a verbal use in Gapapaiwa. In Muyuw, Kilivila and Budibud it is prefixed with a classifier, ta-/to- for human males (< POc *tau- ‘person who…; §2.2.1.2) or na- for human females (Lawton 1993:184–185). Prefixal classifiers are generally affixed to modifiers in noun phrases in this group of languages, indicating that the root is a verb ‘be(come) old’.

Final *-p of *mʷarap is regularly reflected in Gapapaiwa and is perhaps also responsible for the rounding of the final vowel in SE Solomonic languages.

The NCV items are listed under ‘cf. also’ because it is uncertain whether they are cognate. François (2013) takes them to reflect *maraɣai ‘to tremble’ with prefixed *ta- (< *qata ‘person’). If his etymology is correct, then the resemblance of the PNCV reconstruction to the POc reconstruction must be attributed to chance.

POc		*mʷarap	[V] ‘grow old’; [N] ‘old person’
PT	Gapapaiwa	morapa	[V] ‘grow old’; [N] ‘old person’
PT	Muyuw	(ta)mwey	‘old man’
PT	Muyuw	(na)mwey	‘old woman’
PT	Kilivila	(to)mwaya	‘old man’
PT	Kilivila	(nu)mwaya	‘old woman’
PT	Budibud	(to)mol	‘old man’
PT	Budibud	(na)mol	‘old woman’
PT	Gumawana	(to)moya	‘old man’ (loan from Kilivila)
PT	Gumawana	(na)moya	‘old woman’ (loan from Kilivila)
SES	Longgu	mwaro	‘old woman’
SES	Lau	waro	‘(person) old’
SES	Baelelea	ŋʷaro	‘(person) old’
SES	Kwara’ae	ŋʷaor	‘(person) old’
SES	Langalanga	waro	‘(person) old’
SES	Fagani	mʷare(faɣa)	‘(person) old’
SES	Kahua	mara(haɣa)	‘old man’

cf. also:

	PNCV	*ta-maraɣai	‘old man’ (lit. ‘quivering person’)(François 2013)
NCV	Lehali	tamajɣæ	‘old man’
NCV	Mota	tamaraɣai	‘an old man who shakes’ (maraɣai ‘to tremble’)
NCV	Mwotlap	tamayɣɛ	‘old man’
NCV	Lakon	tamāɣæ	‘old man’
NCV	Ambae	tamaraɣai	‘old man’
Mic	Marshallese	mʷor	‘old (of things)’

POc *tobʷan ‘old woman (?), old person’ was probably a noun, and its first syllable probably reflects POc *tau- ’person who… (§2.2.1.2).

POc		*tobʷan	‘old woman (? ), old person’
NNG	Apalik	tuwun	‘old woman’
MM	Ramoaaina	tabuan	‘woman’
MM	Halia	tobuana	‘old woman’
SES	West Guadalcanal	(tu)tuga	‘(person) old’
SES	Talise	(tuga)tuga	‘(person) old’
SES	Birao	(tuga)tuga	‘(person) old’
SES	Lengo	(tuga)tuga	‘(person) old’
Mic	Woleaian	tuxo(faiy)	‘be old (of a person)’

5. People by absence of relationship⇫

Kinship relationships will be discussed in vol.6. The terms below denote a person who lacks a particular relationship. English has such terms: ‘orphan’, ‘widow[er]’, ‘spinster’, ‘bachelor’. Oceanic languages have terms with these meanings and more. For example, in Mutu (NNG) we find kakam ‘woman whose child has died’, māⁿduat ‘man whose child has died’, kulīŋ ‘man whose sibling has died’ and silūn ‘woman whose sibling has died’.

5.1. Orphan⇫

Despite the glosses of the data below, we take POc *mad(r)awa to be a stative (adjectival) verb, as suggested by the prefix *ma- (§1.3.5.4). The 3SG agreement marker of Arop-Lukep madu(nu) also suggests that it is an adjective rather than a noun.

POc		*mad(r)awa	‘orphaned, separate’
NNG	Dami	mād	‘orphan’
NNG	Lukep	madu(nu)	‘child with at least one parent dead’
NNG	Mangap	mōⁿdo	‘orphan’
NNG	Mangap	mon-mōⁿdo	‘orphans’
NNG	Sio	muⁿdo(ro)	‘orphan; illegitimate child; guardian’
NNG	Numbami	maⁿdawa	‘orphan’
PNCV		*madua	‘orphan; separate’ (Clark 2009; Lynch 2004e)
NCV	Mota	manua	‘orphan’
NCV	Mwotlap	na-mⁿdʊ	‘orphan’
NCV	Paamese	(ti)marue	‘orphan’
NCV	Nguna	madua-ki	‘apart from’

5.2. Unmarried person⇫

POc *jamu ‘person without spouse’ evidently denoted spinsters, bachelors, widows and widowers. Regular reflexes are confined to SES and one MM language. Manam amuna appears to be a cognate, but is missing a reflex of initial *j-.

POc		*jamu	‘person without spouse’
MM	Nakanai	samu(ra)	‘an unmarried person of either sex, regardless of previous state’
SES	Gela	samu	‘widow or widower; unmarried girl or boy’
SES	Gela	samu(rau)	‘elderly but unmarried’
SES	Lengo	samu	‘widow’
SES	Ghari	camu	‘unmarried (male or female)’
SES	Tolo	camu	‘unmarried (male or female)’
SES	’Are’are	samu	‘unmarried person’
SES	Longgu	samu	‘widow or widower, person whose spouse has died’

cf. also:

NNG

Manam

amu(na)

‘young unmarried man’

5.3. Widow, widower⇫

Blust (ACD) reconstructs two distinct but similar forms for POc, labelling them both ‘widow(er)’. Either they were alternant forms of the same lexeme, or they contrasted with regard to the sex of the denotatum. The one piece of evidence that helps us out here is the contrast between Sori ñaw ‘widow’ and ñah ‘widower’. If this contrast is a retention, then we can gloss the reconstructions accordingly. However, Blust is rightly cautious, as pairs that distinguish gender by a change in the wordform are otherwise unheard of in Oceanic languages.

POc		*ñao	‘widow (?)’ (ACD)
Adm	Nyindrou	ñaw	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Sori-Harengan	ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Bipi	ñaw, ña-ñaw	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Drehet	nap	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Likum	ña-ñaw	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Nali	nao	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Pak	pi-ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Loniu	hi-ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Ere	nao	‘widow, widower’
Adm	Leipon	hi-ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Leipon	po-ñaw	‘widower’
Adm	Titan	pi-ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Penchal	pati-ñaw	‘widow’
Adm	Penchal	po-ñaw	‘widower’
Adm	Nauna	ñaw	‘widow, widower’
SES	Kwaio	nao	‘widow, widower (also unwed mother); more generally, as a category, includes divorced persons and also unmarried person who is publicly known to have had a sexual affair’
SES	Sa’a	naʔo	‘widow, widower’
SES	’Are’are	nao	‘widower’
SES	’Are’are	keni nao	‘widow’
SES	Arosi	nao	‘widow(er) fasting after spouse’s death’
SES	Arosi	nao-na	[V] ‘fast after spouse’s death’

POc		*ñaro	‘widower (?)’ (ACD: *ñaRo)
Adm	Sori-Harengan	ñah	‘widower’
NNG	Mangap	nora	‘widow’ (metathesis)
NCV	Mota	naro	‘widow, widower’
NCV	Mwotlap	na-nay	‘widow, widower’

Also reconstructable is PWOc *kʷabu(r,R) ‘widow or widower’. One wonders how it differed in meaning from the term above. Fox (1978) gives us a possible clue. After the death of one’s spouse, in Arosi one is nao. Only after a lengthy fast from certain foods does one become eligible for remarriage and acquire a new status, Arosi oʔoura (which does not reflect *kʷabu(r,R), however).

PWOc		*kʷabu(r,R)	‘widow or widower’
NNG	Dami	wāb	‘widow’
NNG	Takia	buab	‘unmarried (male or female, never married or widowed)’ (initial b- unexplained)
PT	Kilivila	kwabuya	‘widow’
PT	Gumawana	kobuya	‘widow; be a widow’
PT	Gumawana	kobui-na	‘widow of …’
PT	Gapapaiwa	kwapura	‘widow’
PT	Dobu	kwabura	‘widow’ (-r- for †-l-)
PT	Motu	vabu	‘widow or widower, esp. during time of mourning’
PT	Sinaugoro	vabu	‘widow; become a widow’
MM	Vitu	ɣabu	‘widow or widower’

6. Twins⇫

Three POc terms for ‘twins’ are reconstructed. The first is POc *bʷege or *boge. The form is ambiguous, as it takes only a simple sound change to get from one to the other. A second term was based on the POc root *saŋa ‘be branching or forked; branch (of tree, river, path), fork, crotch)’ (vol.3:96). It occurs in two variants: (a) a reduplicated form, probably *saŋa-saŋa, and a stative verb form derived with *ka-/*ma- (variants of the same prefix: see §1.3.5.4). These terms can be used to identify various objects that carry the meaning ‘two parts of one whole’. Thus they may refer to a double nut or double banana as well as twins. Also reconstructed is POc *apic ‘twins of the same sex’.

POc		*bʷege	‘twins’
POc		*boge	‘twins’
NNG	Lukep	boko-boko	‘twin’
NNG	Mangap	bōgo	‘divided, twins’
NNG	Numbami	boboka	‘twins’
MM	Bola	boge	‘twins’
MM	Nakanai	(vi)boge	‘(a) twin’ (vi- RECIP)
PMic		*pʷexe, *pʷe-pʷexe	‘twins’ (Bender et al. 2003)
Mic	Kiribati	pʷepʷē	‘twins’
Mic	Mortlockese	(li)pʷpʷe	‘twins’
Mic	Carolinian	(li)pʷpʷey	‘twins of the same sex’
Mic	Woleaian	(ri)pʷeye	‘twins’

PMP		*saŋa	‘bifurcation, to branch’ (ACD)
POc		*saŋa-saŋa	‘twins’
POc		*ka-saŋa, *ma-saŋa	‘to be branching or forked; branch (of tree, river, path), fork, crotch’ (vol.3:96)
Adm	Seimat	saŋa-saŋa	‘twins’
NNG	Sio	sɔ-sɔŋa	‘twin’
MM	Madak	xi-saŋ	‘twins’
MM	Patpatar	ka-saŋ	‘twin’
MM	Ramoaaina	ka-aŋa	‘twins’
PPn		*mā-saŋa	‘set of twins’ (POLLEX)
Pn	Tongan	māhaŋa	‘twins’
Pn	Niuean	mahaŋa	‘twins’
Pn	East Futunan	māsaŋa	‘twin boy and girl’
Pn	Rennellese	māsaŋa	‘twins’
Pn	Samoan	masaŋa	‘twin’
Pn	Tikopia	māsaŋa	‘twin, twins’
Pn	Māori	māhaŋa	‘twin’
Pn	Hawaiian	mahana	‘twin’

Finally, Blust (ACD) reconstructs POc *apic ‘twins of the same sex’. Only one Oceanic reflex is known. This is perhaps because the sense is so specialised that other cognates have not been collected.

PAn		*Sabij	‘twins of the same sex’ (ACD)
POc		*apic	‘twins of the same sex’ (ACD)
MM	Roviana	avisi	‘twins of the same sex’

Notes⇫