This chapter investigates verbs of perception in Proto Oceanic, based on a comparison of a sample of daughter languages. A full comparative study of the morphology, syntax and semantics of this set of verbs in Oceanic languages would require a book. Here we offer an introductory account, focusing mainly on certain basic semantic and grammatical features of perception verbs, and building on the work of Bethwyn Evans (2003), whose study of verb classes and valency-changing devices in Proto Oceanic includes a section on several verbs of perception.
Since Aristotle, Western scholars have generally assumed that humans have five basic senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and feeling by touch. In a basic sensing event there is an animate participant, the experiencer, who by means of a body part (eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin) becomes aware of a separate participant (the stimulus or source). Neurophysiological research shows that the five senses scheme is too simple. People have additional physiological systems for sensing pain, temperature, balance and awareness of how our body and limbs are moving (proprioception).
Languages of the world generally give these non-basic senses different grammatical treatment from the basic senses. There are a number of possible explanations for this. Firstly, no readily-recognised sense organs are participants in sensations that come through these other physiological systems. Secondly, sensations such as pain, dizziness, and feeling cold are involuntary, whereas in the case of seeing, hearing, smelling etc. the experiencer may initiate the process and at least has a measure of control over it. Third, whereas the stimulus or source of a basic sensory experience is typically an identifiable entity outside the experiencer’s own body (the thing seen, heard etc.) the source of non-basic sensations like pain, cold or dizziness is not external and may not be identifiable. Because the sensations may be prolonged, they are often treated as states and the focus tends to be on their effect on the body. Thus in English we typically describe feeling pain, fear, cold, itchiness and dizziness in terms of the experiencer or a body-part being in a state or condition, which is expressed by a predicate adjective (‘My hip is quite painful’, ‘Are you cold?’, ‘Mary is dizzy’) whereas for the primary sensing events we tend to use active verbs/verbs with the experiencer as actor (‘I saw/heard John’), rather than adjectival predicates with the experiencer as involuntary recipient of the stimulus (‘John is visible/audible to me’).
The present paper will deal mainly with the treatment of the five basic senses in Oceanic languages and with the question of whether the different senses receive similar grammatical and semantic treatment.
Basic perception verbs vary conceptually along a number of parameters. These are illustrated in English in the following paradigm, closely based on that proposed by Viberg (1984). We have labelled the variables as i) sensing, ii) attending and iii) stimulus-subject.2
| Sense modality | Sensing | Attending | Stimulus-subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| sight | I see many people | I look at the film | The film is visible/looks blurry. |
| hearing | I hear bells | I listen to the tune | The tune is audible/sounds loud. |
| smell | I smell smoke | I smell the milk (to see if it is sour) | The milk is smelt?/smells sour |
| taste | I taste garlic | I taste the mixture (to check if enough salt) | The mixture is tasted/tastes fine. |
| touch | I feel the wind in my hair. | I feel the fabric | The fabric is felt?/feels velvety. |
Some languages distinguish lexically or grammatically between two kinds of perception events involving the basic senses: sensing and attending. A verb or verbal clause depicting a sensing event focuses on the animate participant’s experiencing of the stimulus; it is neutral as to whether this experience was intentional or accidental. In the case of an attending event, by contrast, an experiencer is depicted as intentionally focusing on a target. Languages may express the difference lexically, as is done in the English verbs see vs look and hear vs listen, but not in the verbs smell, taste or feel, where the same term can be used for both sensing and attending. In either event the experiencer will be subject of the verb, and the verb will usually be transitive. A matter to be investigated is the way in which intent is signalled in the basic sensory verbs in Oceanic languages, and its corollary, whether, for each of the basic senses, a language will use the same verb for both sensing and attending events.
We may define a canonical perception verb (and clause) cross-linguistically as one that has the perceiver (experiencer) as the highest ranked argument (the subject in nominative-accusative languages). However, it is common to find other kinds of clauses used to represent perceptions. When the focus shifts from the performance of the act to some conclusion, the source of the perception, the stimulus, will be subject and the verb will be intransitive. Focus may then, at least for sight and hearing, be limited to acknowledgement of the perception ‘it is seen/it is heard’ or even acknowledgement of the ability to be perceived ‘it is visible/audible’. More commonly, further information may be given by a qualifier in the case of all five senses ‘it looks fine/it sounds awful/it smells sour etc.’. The degree to which languages use the same verb polysemously varies widely. In English, for example, smell, taste and feel can all be used with experiencer or stimulus as subject, while see and hear may use a related or different lexeme for stimulus-subject.
When dealing with an intransitive verb in many Oceanic languages, one must ask: Is this verb active or stative? Does it take as subject (or highest-ranked argument) an Actor or an Undergoer? The intransitive forms of many verbs of process or change of state, such as those that mean ‘open’, ‘close’, ‘break’, ‘cut’, ‘split’, ‘burn’ and ‘block’ are typically stative, taking as subject the thing that undergoes the process. Many intransitive verbs, both active and stative, can be transitivised by adding (a) a transitive suffix of the form –i or –(C)i (where C is a variable consonant) and (b) an object pronoun suffix or clitic; or simply by adding (b).
Sometimes a language will use a single perception verb form polysemously to represent two or three basic senses and sometimes also to represent cognitive processes like knowing, thinking, understanding and remembering, and cultural practices like obeying, paying attention and learning. Given that sensory verbs are often polysemous in these ways, the question arises whether there is a universal hierarchy within which senses are ordered, which will predict the direction of semantic extension. Viberg (1984) finds some evidence for the following hierarchy: sight > hearing > touch > smell, taste. This hierarchy implies that vision has primacy over the other senses, such that a verb of seeing may be extended to refer to at least certain senses lower on the scale, but not the reverse. Hearing in turn has primacy over touch, smell and taste.
With these issues in mind, let us turn to the Oceanic languages. Our project is hampered by the fact that dictionaries and grammars of Oceanic languages seldom provide careful and detailed descriptions of the grammar and semantics of verbs of perception. Dictionary entries often fail to state whether a particular verb is transitive or intransitive, and derived forms are often not given full glosses. In some cases these gaps in the data limit our ability to make secure reconstructions.
All Oceanic languages have at least one transitive verb whose primary sense is ‘see s.t.’ (and which may also mean ‘look at s.t.’). The experiencer is the subject and the source/stimulus the direct object. Typically they also have a number of transitive verbs for intentional visual activities comparable, for example, to English ‘peer’, ‘peep’, ‘glance’, ‘gaze’ and ‘stare’. Verbs which we might call ‘verbs of directed looking’ (look around, up, down, in, out, over, away, into etc.) are likely to be expressed in Oceanic languages by a serial verb construction or by a combination of verb and directional marker (cf. Ross 2003b:256; Ross 2004a).
Verbs of seeing and looking may also be used intransitively with the perceiver as subject. Examples are Motu ita (VI) ‘see, look’, ita-i- (VT) ‘look at s.t.’, Arosi rio (VI) ‘see’, rios-i (VT) ‘look at s.t.’, and Wayan Fijian tola ‘see, look’, tolav-i- ‘see s.t.’.
POc *kita (VI) ‘see’, *kita-i- (VT) ‘see s.t.’ is a well-supported reconstruction with reflexes in both Western Oceanic and Eastern Oceanic languages. It is also noteworthy that a number of Eastern Oceanic languages have extended the meaning of their reflexes to include ‘know’ and ‘understand’.3
| PMP | *kita | ‘see’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| POc | *kita | [VI] ‘see’ | |
| POc | *kita-i- | [VT] ‘see s.t.’ | |
| NNG | Tuam | (i)gita | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Malai | (i)gita | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Matukar | ita | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Manam | ita | ‘see, look at’ |
| PT | Gumawana | gita | [VI] ‘see’ |
| PT | Gumawana | gite- | [VT] ‘see s.t.’ (*-a > e, assimilation) |
| PT | Dobu | ʔita | [VT] ‘see, look’ |
| PT | Balawaia | ɣita | ‘see’ |
| PT | Motu | ita | [VI] ‘see, look’ |
| PT | Motu | ita-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t.’ |
| MM | Meramera | ite | ‘see’ (*-a > e, assimilation) |
| NCV | Loh | itɛ | ‘see’ |
| NCV | Raga | ɣita | ‘see’ |
| SV | Kwamera | ata, ati | [VI, VT] ‘see, look, regard, understand’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | e-ɣet | ‘see’ |
| PPn | *kite | ‘see, appear, know’ (*-a > e, assimilation) | |
| Pn | Tongan | kite | [VI] ‘(of distant objects) to appear, be or come in sight’ |
| Pn | Niuean | kite | [VT] ‘see, learn, understand, know’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | kite | [VI] ‘appear in distance, be seen’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | kite | ‘look, see, find’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | kite | ‘see, look at, catch sight of’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | ʔite | ‘see, know, recognise’ |
| Pn | Marquesan | kite | ‘recognize, see, know’ |
| Pn | Māori | kite- | ‘see, find’ |
There are a number of competing reconstructions with some claim to be the general term for ‘see’. Reflexes of *kita and *reki[-] (with doublet *reqi[-]) occur almost in complementary distribution (with some overlap in North New Guinea), and a distinction in meaning between them cannot be clearly identified. Both *reki[-] and *reqi[-] are reconstructable to POc with no clear difference in meaning. Only Bugotu and Gela reflect both members of this pair with the reflex of *reki[-] referring to seeing and the reflex of *reqi to directed looking.
| POc | *reki[-], *reqi[-] | ‘see, look, see s.t., look at s.t.’ | |
| NNG | Mangap | re | [VT] ‘see, look, experience; consider, think, be aware’ |
| NNG | Yabem | liʔ | ‘see, look at s.t., know, have experience’ |
| NNG | Hote | ye | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Amara | rei | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Maleu | lei | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Lamogai | rik | ‘see, know’ |
| MM | Bilur | re | ‘see’ |
| MM | Siar | re | ‘see’ |
| MM | Banoni | reɣe | ‘see’ |
| MM | Babatana | ri | ‘see’ |
| SES | Bugotu | reɣi | [VT] ‘see’ |
| SES | Bugotu | rei | ‘look’ |
| SES | Gela | riɣi | [VT] ‘see’ (rigi sondo ‘to find’, rigi puku ‘see clearly’, rigitaoni ‘look after, take care of’) |
| SES | Gela | rei | ‘see, look’ (in compounds meaning ‘look up/about/here/round, stare at, squint’ etc) |
| SES | Lau | riki-a | ‘see’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | riki-a | [VT] ‘see, look at, watch’ |
| SES | Arosi | rē-i | ‘see’ |
| SES | Fagani | riɣi-a | ‘see’ |
| SES | Bauro | reɣi-a | ‘see’ |
| SES | Kahua | reɣi-a | ‘see’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | räe | ‘see, espy, catch sight of, find’ |
| Fij | Bauan | rai-ða | [VT] ‘see s.t.’ |
Reflexes of *liqos also suggest that its POc meaning referred to directed looking.
| POc | *liqos | [VI] ‘look, see’ | |
| POc | *liqos-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t., see s.t.’ | |
| MM | Nakanai | liho | ‘to see, look at’ |
| SES | Bugotu | lioh-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t.’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | rio | ‘see, look, be awake’ (in many compounds: ‘look for, around’ etc) |
| SES | To’aba’ita | lio | [VI] ‘look, look after’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | lio(nūna) | [VT] ‘look at oneself (as in a mirror)’ |
| SES | Kwaio | lia | [VI] ‘see, look’ (*o > a irregular) |
| SES | Kwaio | lias-i- | [VT] ‘see s.t.’ |
| SES | Sa’a | lio, lio-lio | [VI] ‘to look, see, be awake’ |
| SES | Ulawa | liosi- | [VT] ‘see s.t.’ |
| SES | Arosi | rio | [VI] ‘look, see’ |
| SES | Arosi | rios-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t.’ |
| PNCV | *leʔos-i | ‘see, look at’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Araki | les-i | ‘see’ |
| NCV | Uripiv | (e)les-i- | [VT] ‘see, look at s.t.’ |
| NCV | Paamese | les-i- | [VT] ‘see, look at s.t.’ |
| PSV | *e-laqVs | ‘look at, look for’ (Lynch 2001c) | |
| SV | Anejom̃ | e-laθ | ‘look in certain direction’ |
| SV | Sye | e-la(saɣ) | ‘look up’ |
| SV | Sye | e-la(ᵐpya) | ‘look away’ |
| PMic | *lō, *lō-Si | ‘see’ (Bender et al.) | |
| Mic | Kiribati | nō | ‘look on’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | lew | ‘see’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | lew-ey | ‘see s.t.’ |
Another putative POc reconstruction, *ta(d,dr)aq has reflexes in a number of Meso-Melanesian languages that predominantly mean ‘see’. In other subgroups its reflexes more often mean ‘look at’, ‘observe’ (Micronesian) or to ‘look upwards’ (North New Guinea and South East Solomonic). If POc *ta(d,dr)aq proves to be related to PMP *tiŋadaq ‘look up, look skyward’, reconstructed by Dempwolff (1938), it would support the ‘look upwards’ gloss.
| POc | *ta(d,dr)aq | [VI] ‘look, look up’ | |
| POc | *ta(d,dr)aq-i- | [VT] ‘see s.t., look up at s.t.’ | |
| Adm | Mussau | tara | ‘to look’ |
| Adm | Mussau | tara(kila) | ‘recognise’ (kila ‘know (people)’) |
| Adm | Tenis | tara-ie | ‘see’ |
| NNG | Manam | tada | [VI] ‘look up’ |
| NNG | Manam | tada-li- | [VT] ‘look up to s.o., s.t.’ |
| MM | Tigak | tara-i- | ‘see’ |
| MM | Solos | tara | ‘see’ |
| MM | Halia | tara | ‘see, look’ |
| MM | Selau | tara | ‘see’ |
| MM | Teop | tara | ‘see’ |
| PSES | *tada, *tadaq-i- | ‘look at s.t., look up to s.t.’ | |
| SES | Bugotu | tada | ‘look up’ |
| SES | Gela | tada | ‘face up, upwards’ (tada-tada (VT) ‘look up’) |
| SES | Lau | ada | [VI] ‘to open the eyes, use the eyes; see, look’ |
| SES | Kwai | ada | ‘see’ |
| SES | Arosi | āda | [VI] ‘look up, raise the eyes’ |
| SES | Arosi | ādaʔ-i | [VT] ‘look up to’ |
| SES | Bauro | ata | ‘look up’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | sæṣēy | [VT] ‘look for s.t or s.o., look at or observe s.t.’ (respect) |
| Mic | Woleaian | saṣēy | [VT] ‘look at s.t., observe s.t.’ |
| MM | Vitu | ɣada | ‘see’ |
| MM | Lavongai | ara(i) | ‘see’ |
Proto Oceanic also had a number of lexemes of visual perception carrying additional information as to manner, duration, purpose etc. We have reconstructed POc *tirop, *tirop-i ‘look intently’, *kilop, *kilop-i ‘glance, glimpse’, *kilat ‘see clearly, discern, recognise’, and *(s,j)ila(k) ‘look sideways, glance around’. Similarities of form between *tirop, *kilop and *kila(t) may have led to some crossover of meaning in reflexes.
| PMP | *tin[d]ap | ‘look intently’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| POc | *tirop | [VI] ‘look intently, as at reflection or searching for lice’ | |
| POc | *tirop-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t., look for s.t. intently’ | |
| NNG | Gitua | tiro | ‘look for’ |
| NNG | Medebur | (i)tir(to) | ‘look for’ |
| NNG | Wogeo | (i-ti)tiri | ‘look for’ |
| MM | Roviana | ti-tiro | ‘search for’ |
| MM | Roviana | tiro | ‘to read’ |
| MM | Roviana | tiro(ana) | ‘a mirror’ |
| SES | Bugotu | tiro | [V] ‘to look’; [N] ‘a pool, window glass, mirror’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | iro | [VI] ‘look for s.t., search’ (takes an oblique object) |
| SES | To’aba’ita | iro-a | [VT] ‘look or search for s.o., s.t.’ |
| SES | Lau | iro | [VI] ‘look’ |
| SES | Lau | irof-i- | [VT] ‘look at s.t. fixedly, look for s.t.’ |
| SES | Kwaio | ilo | ‘look at’ |
| SES | Kwaio | ilo(i falaina) | ‘search hair (i.e. for lice)’ (falaina ‘hair’) |
| SES | Kwaio | ilo(nunu) | ‘a reflecting pool or mirror’ (nunu ‘shadow, image, picture’) |
| SES | ’Are’are | iro | ‘look for, collect’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | iro-iro | [N] ‘reflection, mirror’ |
| SES | Sa’a | iro, iro-iro | [VT] ‘look for, collect s.t.’ |
| SES | Sa’a | iroh-i- | [VT] ‘clear the head of lice’ |
| SES | Sa’a | iro-iro | [N] ‘a pool among rocks used as a mirror’ |
| SES | Arosi | iro | [VI] ‘look for, collect’ |
| SES | Arosi | iroh-i- | [VT] ‘look into, gaze into s.t., look at s.t.’ |
| SES | Arosi | (ha)iroh-i- | ‘look for lice in the hair’ (ha- ‘verbal prefix’) |
| NCV | Mota | tiro | [VI] ‘be clear’ |
| NCV | Mota | tiro(nin) | [N] ‘a little pool of water used as a mirror’ (nin ‘shadow, reflection’) |
| NCV | Tamambo | tiro | ‘look’ |
| NCV | Raga | siro-i | [VT] ‘look steadfastly at s.t.’ |
| NCV | Nakanamanga | ti-tiro | [N] ‘mirror’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | suẓo | [VI] ‘look, watch, glance’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tidro | [VI] ‘look, peer, watch attentively’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tidrov-i- | [VT] ‘take a close look at s.t.’ |
| PPn | *tiro | ‘look, observe’ | |
| PPn | *tirof-i | ‘gaze at s.t.’ | |
| Pn | Niuean | tio | ‘glance’ |
| Pn | Tongan | sio | [VI] ‘look, see’ |
| Pn | Tongan | siof-i | [VT] ‘keep one’s eyes fixed on s.t’ |
| Pn | Tongan | sio-ʔi | ‘peer at, look at in a critical or offensive way’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | jiro-a | ‘look carefully, search for’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | tilo | ‘gaze upon’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tilo-tilo | ‘peep, peer, survey, look over’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tilof-i-a | ‘be looked at, gazed at’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tiro-tiro | ‘look in pool as a mirror’ |
| Pn | Māori | tiro, ti-tiro | [VI] ‘look, look into, examine’ |
POc *kilop, *kilop-i- is reconstructable on the basis of two Polynesian witnesses with support from external witnesses in western Malayo-Polynesian and Central Malayo-Polynesian.
| PMP | *kilep | ‘glance, glimpse’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *kilop | [VI] ‘glance’ | |
| POc | *kilop-i- | [VT] ‘glimpse s.t.’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | kilo | [VI] ‘glance to one side, look out of the corner of the eyes’ |
| Pn | Tongan | kilo-kilo | [VI] ‘glance from side to side, keep a sharp lookout’ |
| Pn | Tongan | kilof-i | [VT] ‘keep glancing at s.t.’ |
| Pn | Niuean | kilo | [VI] ‘turn the head, look around’ |
| Pn | Niuean | kilo-kilo | [VI] ‘look around’ |
The following is the only reconstruction we have made for seeing verbs with both stative and active forms, based on evidence from Micronesian and Polynesian languages.
| PMP | *kilat | ‘open the eyes wide’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *kilat | [VI, U-verb] ‘be seen clearly, discerned, recognised’; [VT] ‘see clearly, discern, recognise’ | |
| NCV | Araki | kila | ‘look, watch in a certain direction’ (k usually reflects POc *g) |
| NCV | Tolomako | kile- | ‘see’ |
| NCV | Atchin | kila | ‘look round, down’ |
| NCV | Avava | kil-kila | ‘look, open eyes’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | kila(ŋ) | ‘see, discern, look at, observe, examine’; [VT] ‘see, discern, look at, observe, examine’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | kira | [VT] ‘see, behold, find s.t.’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | kira- | [VI] ‘be seen, found’ (in compounds only) |
| Mic | Ponapean | kila(ŋ) | ‘see, discern, look at, observe, examine’; [VT] ‘see, discern, look at, observe, examine’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | xa-xira | [VT] ‘recognise it’ (xa- CAUS) |
| Mic | Woleaian | xira | [VSt] ‘be clear, seen clearly, recognised’ |
| Pn | Tongan | ki-kila | [VI] ‘look with wide-open eyes’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | kiga | [VSt] ‘be clearly seen, in plain sight’ |
The Wayan verb kilāti- ‘know’ conflates a form reflecting *kilat with the sense ‘know’, the result perhaps of a blending of a reflex of *kilat with a reflex of *kila[la] ‘know’ (§10.2).
Polynesian reflexes of POc *(s,j)ila(k) ‘glance around’ sometimes refer to the mental attitudes attributed to someone glancing at something or somebody.
| PMP | *zilak | ‘cross-eyed’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *(j,s)ila(k) | ‘glance around’ | |
| SES | Bauro | sira-ia | ‘see’ |
| PCP | *jila, *ji-jila | ‘look sideways’ | |
| Fij | Rotuman | cila | ‘(subj. eyes) squint, be crossed’ |
| PPn | *sila | ‘glance, look sideways’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | hila | [VI] ‘turn eyes away, glance’ |
| Pn | Tongan | hila-ʔi | [VT] ‘glance at s.t., look at sideways’ |
| Pn | Tongan | hile-hila | ‘keep glancing’ |
| Pn | Niuean | hela | [VI] ‘to glance, look around furtively’ (*i > e irreg.) |
| Pn | Niuean | he-hela | [VI] ‘look, appear’ |
| Pn | Niuean | hela-hela | [VI] ‘glance around’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | siga | ‘look at, glance’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | yi-yila | ‘eyes opened wide’ |
| Pn | Samoan | sila-sila | ‘see, watch’ |
| Pn | Samoan | si-sila | ‘stare, look steadily at’ |
| Pn | Samoan | sila-fia | ‘know’ |
| Pn | Māori | hi-hira | ‘shy, suspicious’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | hira | ‘bashfulness’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | hila-hila | ‘bashful, shameful, ashamed’ |
In a number of Oceanic languages patterns of polysemy indicate a close association between seeing and knowing. That vision is our primary source of objective data about the world is supported by child-language studies and by cross-linguistic studies of evidentials (Sweetser 1990:39). In Oceanic languages a seeing verb always refers to sight alone, never including other senses. The association between seeing and knowing is illustrated in reflexes of POc *kita and *re(k,q)i above and of POc *qilo below. The latter has been tentatively reconstructed as ‘be aware of, discern, see’. The most detailed evidence is from the Polynesian glosses, and this indicates that ‘know, be aware, recognize, notice’ is the core meaning, with ‘see’ as an extension.
| POc | *qilo | ‘be aware of, discern, see’ | |
| MM | Nakanai | hilo | ‘to see’ (cf. liho ‘to see, look at’) |
| MM | Nakanai | hilo(tavu) | ‘to think of, keep in mind’ (tavu ‘have contact with’) |
| NCV | Mota | ilo | ‘see’ |
| NCV | Raga | ilo | ‘know, perceive’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | (h)ilo | [VI] ‘look while facing’ (h irregular) |
| Fij | Wayan | ilo-ilo | [VI] ‘look, observe, watch’; [N] ‘glass (generic); mirror, looking glass’ |
| Fij | Wayan | ilo-vi- | [VT] ‘notice, observe s.t.’ |
| Fij | Bauan | ilo | ‘look at, as a reflection in water or in a mirror’ |
| PPn | *qilo | ‘perceive, be aware of’ (POLLEX: ‘to know’) | |
| Pn | Tongan | ʔilo | [VT] ‘to see, espy, catch sight of, notice, perceive; find out, discover; be conscious or aware of; know, recognize’ |
| Pn | Tongan | ʔilo-ŋa | [VSt] ‘show, show up, be seen, shown, recognised, known; conspicuous’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | ʔigo-ŋa | [N] ‘symbol’ (igo-igo ‘look, esp. at a reflection’) |
| Pn | Samoan | ilo | ‘perceive, be aware of’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | iro | ‘take care of self or others’ |
Gedaged (NNG) il (V) ‘look at, behold, discern, perceive’; (N) ‘sight, view’ could reflect either *qilo or *kita, and we have no way of choosing between them.
We have considered the possibility that *qilo derives from POc *liqos (see above) by metathesis. Certainly the set of cognates supporting *qilo is in near-complementary distribution (according to subgroups) with those supporting *liqos. One could argue that Nakanai hilo is an independent development from the metathesis in Remote Oceanic languages. However, the semantic range of reflexes of *qilo, especially in Polynesian, appears to differ from *liqos reflexes.
A number of additional Polynesian forms are derived from POc *qilo. These forms are cited because they throw further light on the semantic range of *qilo.
| PPn | *qiloqilo | ‘be wise, aware’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | ʔilo-ʔilo | [ADJ] ‘be discerning, perspicacious, shrewd’; [VT] ‘know to some extent, have an idea of’ |
| Pn | Niuean | ilo-ilo | [ADJ] ‘wise, clever’; [VI] ‘be clever’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | ʔigo-ʔigo | ‘to know, understand, be aware of; be wise’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ilo-ilo | [VT] ‘investigate, examine s.t.’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | iro-iro | ‘watching out, alerted, warned’ |
| PPn | *faka-qiloqilo | ‘make s.o. wise’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | faka-ʔiloʔilo | ‘to teach, train, accustom’ |
| Pn | Niuean | faka-iloilo | [VT] ‘to be wise’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | faka-iroiro | ‘to warn’ |
| PPn | *qilo-a | [VI] ‘to know, be aware’; [VT] ‘know s.t.’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | ʔilo-a | [VT, VSt] ‘be known, well-known, visible, within sight’ |
| Pn | Niuean | ilo-a | [VI] ‘to know’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | ilo-a | ‘know, understand’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ilo-a | [VT] ‘see, spot, notice, recognize, know, be aware of s.t.’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | iro-a | [V] ‘to know’; [VT] ‘know s.t.’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | iro-a | ‘to know’ |
| PPn | *faka-qilo-a | [VT] ‘make s.t. known’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | faka-ʔilo | [VT] ‘make s.t. known, report s.t.’ |
| Pn | Niuean | faka-ilo-a | [VT] ‘inform, make s.t. known’ |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔa-ilo | [VI] ‘signal to s.o.’ (takes oblique object) |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔa-ilo-a | [VT] ‘show, make s.t. known, advertise’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | faka-iro | ‘inform beforehand’ |
| PPn | *faka-qilo-ŋa | [N] ‘mark, sign, signal’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | faka-ʔilo-ŋa | [VI] ‘make signs, signal’; [VT] ‘mark s.t., make a mark’; [N] ‘sign, signal, mark’ |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔa-ilo-ŋa | [N] ‘mark’ |
The following cognate sets support reconstruction of another ‘see’ verb to PWOc level.
| PWOc | *nasi | [VI] ‘look’ | |
| PWOc | *nasi- | [VT] ‘look at, see’ | |
| NNG | Gedaged | nasi | [VT] ‘see, look at, behold, perceive; to experience, undergo’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | nai | [VI] ‘look’; [VT] ‘look at, see’ |
| MM | Patpatar | nas | [VT] ‘see, look at’ |
| MM | Patpatar | na-nās | ‘open eyes, look for, search, gaze about’ |
| MM | Tabar | nasi | ‘look for’ |
| MM | Siar | nos | ‘look for’ |
Although POc verbs like *kita ‘see’, *kita-i- ‘see s.t.’ and POc *liqo(s) (VI) ‘see, look’, *liqos-i- (VT) ‘see s.t., look at s.t.’ have both a transitive and intransitive form, their reflexes tend to occur in utterances with a specific object. *liqos-i- or one of the other reconstructed ‘look’ forms can be used to signal that the act is intentional or more tightly focused.
It is rare for a seeing verb to be able to take either experiencer or stimulus as subject. We have reconstructed a single verb, POc *kila(t) (U-verb) ‘be seen clearly, discerned, recognised’, (A-verb) ‘see clearly, discern, recognise’, where reflexes in Micronesia and Polynesia show that the same verb may carry either interpretation. Elsewhere, we have located examples where a seeing verb is used intransitively as a stative verb with source as subject only in the Tongan and E Futunan reflexes of *kita with meaning ‘appear, come into view’. Evans (2003:68) concurs with respect to their rarity, but remains open as to whether intransitive *kita was (in Evans’ terms) Actor or Undergoer subject, or perhaps either. The balance of the evidence favours Actor subject only.
All languages in our sample have a transitive verb with ‘hear s.t.’ as one of its senses or its only sense, though in a number of Eastern Oceanic languages this verb may be extended to perceiving by non-visual senses. POc *roŋoR- ‘hear s.t.’ is generally reconstructed. However, there are certain problems associated with the formal reconstruction, to be discussed below.
A substantial number of reflexes of *roŋoR-, distributed across different high-order subgroups, carry the meaning ‘listen (to s.t. or s.o.)’, and it is likely that this sense was part of its semantic range in POc. An intransitive form, POc *roŋoR ‘hear’, is also reconstructable. In just a few languages this form is reflected as a stative verb, ‘be heard’, with the sound or its source as subject. We have located reflexes with the meaning ‘[be] heard’ only in Gela, the Fijian languages and Tongan. This limited distribution suggests that the stative use has been developed independently in Gela and the Central Pacific languages. (Evans 2003 points out that in Philippine languages cognates show a similar uneven pattern of polysemy.)
It is likely that when Proto Oceanic speakers wished to comment on the nature of a sound they used the source as subject of a sound-specific verb, as the drum is sounding, the leaves are rustling, their voices were audible etc. Perception is implied, but the lexemes are not derived from verbs of perception. Oceanic speakers have a considerable vocabulary for the names of particular sounds, typically using them as both noun and verb. One of the more common ones is a reflex of POc *taŋis, an intransitive verb usually translated by ‘cry’, used to describe any sound characteristic of its source, as a cock crowing, dog howling, drum beating etc. In To’aba’ita, for instance, one could say suʔari e aŋi ka ƒaluƒalu ‘the drum is loud’ (suʔari ‘drum’, aŋi ‘to cry’, ƒaluƒalu ‘sound loudly, of a drum’ (lit. ‘The drum is making a sound and it is loud’.) Samoan uses a term for ‘voice’, leo with verbal meaning ‘sound’ as in e leo taʔe ‘it sounds cracked’ (taʔe ‘cracked’). The following is a random sample of sound terms: Tolai tin ‘sound, as a coconut falling to the ground’, del ‘sound as the beating of a drum’, luluga (N,VI) ‘sound, as wind or rain’; To’aba’ita ākwaʔa ‘make a slapping sound, as of a flat object’, ŋalu ‘of the sound of talking, be audible’, kutakuta ‘make a relatively loud, vibrating, pulsating sound’; Niuean pakō ‘make a knocking sound’, kalī ‘make a rustling sound’, pakē ‘make a light crackling sound’.
Listening to something is sometimes given an extended cognitive meaning. In a number of languages (Gedaged, Nakanai, Nehan, Sursurunga, Sa’a), ‘hear/listen’ has been extended to ‘understand’.4 A different extension of meaning is noted in many Southeast Solomonic and Central Pacific witnesses, where the meaning ‘obey, take notice of s.o.’ is present alongside ‘hear, listen’. In Lakon (NCV) ruŋ means ‘hear, feel’, but also ‘obey’ and ‘know’ (Alexandre François, pers. comm.). In Central Pacific languages this sense is usually associated with reflexes of *paka-roŋoR, which contains the intensifying prefix *paka-.
Certain difficulties arise in the reconstruction of the POc form(s) for ‘hear’. We concur with Blust (ACD) who proposes POc *roŋoR, with initial *r, as the regular continuation of PMP *deŋeR. This is supported by non-Oceanic, Eastern Oceanic and Schouten evidence. *loŋoR was a Western Oceanic variant, reflected in all WOc languages in which reflexes occur, except in the Schouten languages (Wogeo, Kaiep, Kairuru, Ali, Sissano and Sera).
| POc | *roŋoR- | ‘hear s.t., listen to s.t.’ | |
| Adm | Lou | roŋ | ‘hear’ |
| Adm | Titan | roŋ | ‘hear’ |
| Adm | Seimat | hoŋ | [VT] ‘hear, notice, become aware of, perceive’ |
| NNG | Kaiep | (a)roŋ | ‘hear’ |
| SES | Bugotu | roŋo | [VI] ‘hear’ |
| SES | Bugotu | va-roŋo | [VI] ‘hear, listen to, obey’ |
| SES | Bugotu | roŋov-i | [VT] ‘hear s.t., listen to s.t.’ |
| SES | Gela | roŋo | [VI] ‘hear or be heard; listen, feel, obey; enquire about’ |
| SES | Gela | roŋo-i | [VT] ‘hear s.t., listen to s.t.’ |
| SES | Lau | roŋo-a | ‘hear, listen to; perceive, smell’ |
| SES | Kwaio | loŋo-a | ‘listen, hear’ |
| SES | Sa’a | roŋo | ‘hear, listen, hear tidings of, understand’ |
| SES | Arosi | roŋo | [VT] ‘hear, listen, obey’ |
| SES | Bauro | roŋo-a | ‘hear’ |
| TM | Buma | leŋi | ‘hear’ |
| TM | Vano | laŋe | ‘hear’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ẓoŋo-ẓoŋo | ‘hear, listen to’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | roŋ | ‘to hear, listen, obey’ |
| NCV | Mota | roŋo | ‘apprehend by senses, hear, smell, taste, feel by touch’ |
| NCV | Lakon | ruŋ | ‘hear, feel; obey, know’ |
| NCV | Raga | roŋo | ‘hear, feel, apprehend by senses’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | roŋo | ‘hear, feel s.t.’ |
| NCV | Paamese | loŋe | [VT] ‘hear, listen to; feel; pay attention to’ |
| SV | Kwamera | reŋi- | ‘feel, hear, smell, taste, perceive’ |
| NCal | Iaai | ləŋ | ‘hear feel, experience’ |
| NCal | Nengone | -ɖeŋi | ‘hear’ |
| PCP | *roŋo | ‘hear, be heard’ | |
| PCP | *vaka-roŋo | ‘listen, heed, obey’ | |
| Fij | Wayan | roŋo | [VSt] ‘be heard, sound, be audible’ |
| Fij | Wayan | roŋo- | [VT] ‘hear s.t., listen to s.t.’ |
| Fij | Wayan | vā-roŋo | [VI] ‘listen, obey, heed’ |
| Fij | Bauan | roŋo | [VI] ‘hear, be heard’ |
| Fij | Bauan | vaka-roroŋo | [VI] ‘listen, hear, obey’ |
| Fij | Bauan | roŋo-ð-a | [VT] ‘hear s.t.’ |
| Pn | Tongan | oŋo | [VSt] ‘sound, be heard, be perceived’ |
| Pn | Tongan | oŋo-ʔi | [VT] ‘hear s.t.; perceive, feel – pain, pleasure, taste, smell etc.’ |
| Pn | Samoan | loŋo | [VI] ‘perceive, by hearing or some other sense not sight’ |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔa-loŋo | ‘hear, listen; pay attention; obey’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | goŋo | [VI] ‘hear, listen, feel, taste’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | haka-goŋo | [VI] ‘hear, listen, obey, feel, taste’ |
| Pn | Māori | roŋo | [VT] ‘apprehend by the senses except sight; obey’ |
Variants with final *-n occur both with *r- initial and *l- initial forms, as in the following cognate set. Kove and Malalamai forms reflect either *roŋoR or *loŋoR, but given that all surrounding languages reflect *l- it would be odd if they did not.
| POc | *(r,l)oŋon | ‘hear’ | |
| NNG | Kove | (i)loŋon-i | ‘hear’ |
| NNG | Malalamai | (i)loŋon | ‘hear’ |
| SES | Talise | roŋon-i-a | ‘hear’ |
| SES | Longgu | roŋon-i-a | ‘hear (it)’ |
| NCV | Banam Bay | roŋon-i | ‘hear’ (Tryon 1976: 456-8) |
| Fij | Wayan | vaka-roŋon-i- | [VT] ‘make s.t. known, cause s.t. to be heard’ |
| Pn | Tongan | oŋon-a | [VT] ‘hear, perceive, feel, be aware of (pain, pleasure, taste, smell), be aware or conscious of s.t., feel for, sympathise with’ |
| Pn | Niuean | loŋon-a | [VSt] ‘be heard’ |
| Pn | Niuean | (fe)loŋon-āki | [VI] ‘hear each other’ |
| Pn | Samoan | laŋon-a | [VSt] ‘be heard’5 |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔa-loŋo | [VT] ‘listen to s.t., hear s.t.’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | roŋo | [VI] ‘have bodily sensation, esp. hear, listen, feel’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | raŋon-a | [VSt] ‘be heard, felt’ |
| Pn | Māori | roŋo | [VT] ‘apprehend by the senses except sight’ |
| Pn | Māori | raŋon-a | [VSt] ‘be heard’ |
| Pn | Māori | whaka-roŋo | ‘cause to hear, listen, attend to, obey’ |
Ross has hypothesised that the change in the final *-R to *-n and in the initial *r- to *l- was dissimilatory: to avoid two different trills (*R and *r) in the same very common word (Malcolm Ross, pers. comm.).
The following cognate set brings together some of the languages that reflect initial *l-:
| POc | *loŋoR | [VI] ‘hear’ | |
| POc | *loŋoR-i- | [VT] ‘hear/listen to s.t.’ | |
| NNG | Manam | loŋor- | ‘hear s.o./s.t.’ |
| NNG | Manam | loŋor-i | ‘obey, listen’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | (i)loŋ | ‘know, have knowledge of, be aware of, hear, learn, perceive, understand’ |
| PT | Bwaidoga | nogala | ‘hear, listen to’ |
| PT | Gumawana | nowo | ‘perceive s.t.; hear, listen, smell, sense s.t.’ |
| PT | Tawala | nonola | ‘hear, smell’ (for †nogola) |
| PT | Kilivila | lagi | ‘hear, listen’ |
| PT | Sudest | loŋʷe | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Bali | loŋor-i | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Nakanai | lolo | ‘hear, understand, know’ |
| MM | Meramera | loŋ(e) | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Tiang | loŋo-i | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Nalik | laŋar | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | a-loŋr-a | ‘hear; listen and understand’ |
| MM | Konomala | luŋu-i | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Tolai | va-loŋor | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Label | loŋor | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | loŋoro-i | [VI,VT] ‘hear, listen, heed, obey’ |
| MM | Siar | loŋra-i | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Nehan | loŋoro | ‘hear, understand’ |
The next set, although theoretically supporting a putative POc *noŋo(-noŋo), may simply reflect a number of parallel changes to *loŋoR or *roŋoR in which different languages independently assimilated initial *l- or *r- to the medial nasal.
| Adm | Mussau | noŋo-noŋo | ‘hear’ |
| NNG | Matukar | noŋ | ‘hear’ |
| SJ | Kayupulau | nono | ‘hear’ |
| SJ | Ormu | nono | ‘hear’ |
| MM | Banoni | noŋono | ‘hear’ |
| Pn | Niuean | fa-noŋo-noŋo | [VI] ‘to listen’ |
| Pn | Tongan | fa-noŋo-a | [VI,VT] ‘to listen, hear, hear about’ |
Verbs of smelling in Oceanic languages typically have an intransitive use, in which the source of the smell is the subject, and a transitive use in which the perceiver is subject and the source is direct object. Some examples follow.
| Intransitive | transitive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PT: Saliba | pane | ‘emit a smell’ | pane- | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM: Minigir | saŋina | ‘to stink’ | saŋine- | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM: Tolai | aŋina | ‘s.t. smell (sweet etc.)’ | aŋine | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| SES: Gela | aŋi | ‘emit strong smell’ | aŋi-hi | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| SES: Kwaio | moko | ‘to smell, stink’ | moko-fi | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| Fij: Wayan | garu + modif. | ‘to smell of s.t.’ | garu-ti | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| Pn: Tongan | namu | ‘emit smell’ | nāmu-ʔi | ‘smell s.t.’ |
The reconstruction of POc *s[a,o]ŋin (VSt) ‘emit a smell’, *s[a,o]ŋin- (VT) ‘smell s.t.’ is well supported if we accept that this form underwent sporadic changes in both the initial and final vowel. From the range of glosses exhibited by reflexes, it seems likely that *s[a,o]ŋin had both actor subject and source subject interpretations.
| POc | *s[a,o]ŋin | [VSt] ‘emit a smell’ | |
| POc | *s[a,o]ŋin- | [VT] ‘smell s.t.’ | |
| MM | Bola | (bu)roŋi | ‘(s.o.) smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Harua | (bo)roŋi | ‘(s.o.) smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | saŋin | [VSt] ‘stink’ |
| MM | Patpatar | saŋin | [VSt] ‘produce an odour’ |
| MM | Minigir | saŋine | [VT] ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Minigir | saŋina | [VSt] ‘stink’ |
| MM | Tolai | aŋine | [VT] ‘smell s.t., sniff at s.t.’; [ADJ] ‘stinking, smelly’ |
| MM | Tolai | aŋina | [N] ‘smell, odour’; [VSt] ‘to smell … (putrid, sweet etc.)’ (In compounds usually aŋ only, e.g. aŋ na boroi ‘to smell of pigs’) |
| MM | Ramoaaina | aŋina | ‘stink’ |
| NCV | Avava | suŋsuŋ, suŋ | [VI, VT] ‘smell’ |
| NCV | Naman | nsoŋ | [VI] ‘sniff’ |
| PMic | *saŋu | ‘smell s.t.’ (*i > *u irreg.) (Bender et al. 2003) | |
| Mic | Kosraean | (mi)sʌŋsʌŋ | ‘smelly, stinking of urine’ (mi- ‘urine’) |
| Mic | Marshallese | (ya)teŋw | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | təŋɨ-i(w) | ‘smell, sniff s.t.’ |
| Mic | Satawalese | ttēŋ | ‘smell’ |
| PPn | *soŋi | [VT] ‘smell s.t., sniff s.t., greet s.o. by pressing nose to face or limb and sniffing’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | hoŋi | [VT] ‘sniff s.t. up, as in smelling salts’ |
| Pn | Niuean | hoŋi | [VT] ‘smell s.t., sniff s.t.’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | soŋi | ‘touch noses’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | soŋi | ‘press noses, kiss’ |
| Pn | Samoan | soŋi | [VT] ‘smell, scent s.t., smell s.o.’s cheek or hand, a method of kissing’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | hoʔi | ‘smell; touch noses’ |
| Pn | Māori | hoŋi | [VT] ‘smell s.t., sniff s.t., touch noses in greeting’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | honi | [VT] ‘smell s.t., sniff s.t., touch noses in greeting’ |
| Adm | Drehet | hunu-huŋ | ‘smell’ |
| MM | Lavongai | sain | ‘smell s.t.’ |
POc *quruŋ reflexes support its reconstruction as both a stative verb ‘have an odour, smell’, and a transitive verb *quruŋ-i (VT) ‘to smell s.t.’.
| POc | *quruŋ | [VSt] ‘emit a smell’ | |
| POc | *quruŋ-i | [VT] ‘to smell s.t.’ | |
| NNG | Bilibil | ruŋ(ade) | ‘smell (s.t.)’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | i-luŋ(an) | ‘smell (s.t.)’ |
| PT | Molima | ulu(ma) | [VSt] ‘to stink’ |
| SES | Gela | uru | [N] ‘a smell, good or bad’; [VSt] ‘to emit a smell’ |
| SES | Gela | uru(mi) | [VT] ‘smell s.t.’ |
| SES | Gela | uru(dika) | [VSt] ‘to stink’ (dika ‘bad’) |
| SES | Lengo | ur-uru | [VSt] ‘emit a smell’ |
| SES | Lengo | uruŋ-i-a | [VT] ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | luŋi | ‘smell s.t.’ |
A separate term for the action of deliberately sniffing at something, POc *asok6 ‘to sniff, kiss’ *asok-i ‘sniff or kiss s.t.’, is reconstructable. This term continues a PAn etymon, *Sajek.
In a number of SES languages this action is represented by a compound, e.g. Kwaio moko-toʔona (moko ‘smell’, toʔona ‘put to the test, try’), To’aba’ita makʷa-toʔona (VT) ‘check the smell of s.t.’.
| PAn | *Sajek | [N] ‘smell’; [VT] ‘to smell (s.t.)’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *hajek | ‘smell, sniff, kiss’7 | |
| POc | *asok | [VI] ‘to sniff, kiss’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *asok-i- | [VT] ‘sniff or kiss s.t.’ (ACD) | |
| Adm | Wuvulu | ato | ‘to sniff, smell’ |
| Adm | Seimat | aso-i | ‘to sniff, smell’ |
| PT | Molima | yaso | ‘to smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Nakanai | aso- | [VT] ‘to sniff, smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Lamasong | so | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Selau | soka | ‘smell s.t.’ (metathesis) |
| MM | Roviana | aho- | ‘to kiss’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | aro(boi) | [N] ‘smell, scent, the sense of smell’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | arok-i | [VT] ‘to smell or scent an odour’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | aso | ‘to kiss by sniffing the face’ |
| SES | Lau | gasu | [VSt] ‘to smell bad, stink’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | uas | [N] ‘aroma or smell in the air, good or bad’ |
The forms listed below point to a POc verb *bona(s) (VI) ‘to smell, stink’, *bonas-i- (VT), either ‘(s.o.) smell (s.t.)’ or ‘(s.t.) smell of (s.t.)’. This appears to be related to POc *bo[-], *boe- (N) ‘odour, scent’, *baw-an, *bo-an (N) ‘odour, scent’ discussed below, but it is not derived by any known derivational process and may simply be a matter of chance resemblance.
| POc | *bona(s) | [VI] ‘to smell, stink’ | |
| POc | *bonas-i- | [VT] ‘smell (s.t.)’; ‘(s.t.) smell of (s.t.)’ | |
| NNG | Mengen | bona | [N] ‘unpleasant smells’ |
| PT | Motu | bona | [N] ‘smell, scent’ |
| PT | Motu | bona-ia | [VT] ‘to smell’ |
| PT | Balawaia | bona | [N] ‘smell,odour’ |
| PT | Balawaia | bona-ia | [VT] ‘to smell’ |
| NCV | Mota | puna | [VI] ‘to smell, stink’ (punai (N) ‘smell, scent’) |
| NCV | Mota | pun-pun | ‘to snuff in the native way of kissing’ |
| NCV | Kiai | pona-ponasia | [VT] ‘smell s.t.’ |
| NCal | Nêlêmwa | bo | [VSt] ‘s.t. smell’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō | [N,VSt] ‘smell, stink’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō (maṣ) | ‘to stink, smell bad’ (maṣ ‘be rotten, spoiled’) |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō (ŋas) | ‘be fragrant, sweet-smelling’ (ŋas ‘good, nice’) |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō (lap) | ‘to stink of armpit smell’ (lap ‘be big, huge’) |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō | [N] ‘smell, odour, aroma’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō (maṣ) | ‘stink, smell rotten’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō (ŋas) | ‘be fragrant, sweet-smelling’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō (pa) | ‘smell of shit etc.’ (pā ‘faeces’) |
| Fij | Bauan | bona | [VI] ‘stink because rotten; (N) stinking rottenness; a stench’ |
| Fij | Bauan | bonað-a | [VI] ‘to stink of s.t.’ |
Lynch (2001c) reconstructs the set below. It resembles POc *bona(s) but this may well be a chance resemblance, as PSV *-e- does not regularly reflect POc *-o-.
| PSV | *a-b(i)eni | [VI] ‘emit an odour’ (Lynch 2001c) | |
| SV | Sye | e-mpen | [VI] ‘emit an odour’ |
| SV | Lenakel | ə-pien | [VI] ‘emit an odour’ |
| SV | Kwamera | a-pein | [VI] ‘emit an odour’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | e-peñ | [VI] ‘emit an odour’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | ne-pñ(ami) | [VI] ‘smell of urine’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | e-peñ(wañ) | [VI] ‘have musty smell’ |
Tryon (1976) lists a number of NCV languages which denote ‘smell s.t.’ by compounding reflexes of *roŋoR ‘hear’ with reflexes of *bona(s), to reflect PNCV *roŋo-bona, e.g. Raga roŋ-bunina, Lametin roŋ-bonai.
Our starting point for the cognate set below is a pair of PMP forms, *bahu (V) ‘smell bad’, reconstructed by Dempwolff, and *bahu-an (N) ‘odour, stench’, reconstructed by Blust (ACD) as a suffixed form of Dempwolff’s *bahu. Dempwolff glossed *bahu as a noun, but it seems likely that it was used as a verb, since *bahu-an includes the nominaliser *-an. Blust reconstructs *bahu-an as Proto Western Malayo-Polynesian, but the Oceanic forms listed below show that it occurred in PMP.8
Most Malayo-Polynesian languages have lost *h, with the result that *bahu and *bahu-an respectively became *baw and *baw-an. By regular sound change *baw probably became POc *bo, but *baw-an may have survived in this form in POc alongside *bo-an (see discussion of Manam bʷau below). POc *bo is a phonotactically rare phenomenon, a monosyllabic lexical root. There has long been a tendency in Austronesian languages to make lexical forms disyllabic, and so *bo occurs with a number of extensions, some of which we cannot fully explain. Some of these extensions are disyllabic roots in their own right: see Bola bu-roŋi, Bola (Harua) bo-roŋi, both ‘(s.o.) smell s.t.’ under POc *s[a,o]ŋin ‘emit a smell’ above, and the Woleaian and Carolinian examples below. In Central Pacific and Micronesian languages a monosyllabic lexical root becomes bimoraic, i.e. its vowel is long.
The POc noun *bo[-] is shown below with a bracketed hyphen, as a number of its reflexes are monovalent nouns. Monovalent reflexes in Ponapean and Puluwatese suggest that the POc monovalent form was sometimes *boe-, and it is perhaps this form that is also reflected by Kiribati pʷoi (zero-valency noun) and Bauan boi (intransitive verb).
| PMP | *bahu | [VI] ‘smell bad’ (Dempwolff, cited by Blust, ACD) | |
| POc | *bo[-], *boe- | [N] ‘odour, scent’ | |
| POc | *bo | [VI] ‘have an odour, be smelly’ | |
| PNCV | *b[o,u][-] | [N] ‘odour, scent’ | |
| PNCV | *b[o,u] | [VI] ‘have an odour, be smelly’ | |
| NCV | Port Sandwich | mbo | ‘to stink, rotten’ |
| NCV | Port Sandwich | na-mbo- | ‘smell, odour’ |
| NCV | Uripiv | o-po | ‘rotten’ |
| NCV | Big Nambas | -pu | ‘it is rotten’ |
| NCV | Neve’ei | bo | ‘rotten, stink’ |
| NCV | Nāti | mpu | ‘rotten, stinking’ |
| NCV | Labo | pu-o | ‘to stink’ |
| NCV | Labo | nu-ᵐbu- | [N] ‘smell’ |
| NCV | Naman | -bu | ‘stink; rotten’ |
| NCV | Sa | bo- | [N] ‘smell’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | bo | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell’ |
| NCV | Paamese | vō | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell’ |
| NCV | Nguna | pʷo | [VI] ‘stink, smell bad’ |
| SV | Sye | e-ᵐpu | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell’ |
| SV | Ura | i-bu | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell’ |
| NCal | Nêlêmwa | bo | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | pʷo-i | [N] ‘smell, odour’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | pʷō, pʷowɛ- | [N] ‘smell, odour’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | pʷō | [N] ‘smell, odour’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō | [N, VI] ‘smell, stink’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ɸʷō(maṣ) | ‘to stink, smell bad’ (maṣ ‘be rotten, spoiled’) |
| Mic | Woleaian | fʷō(ŋas) | ‘be fragrant, sweet-smelling’ (ŋas ‘good, nice’) |
| Mic | Woleaian | fʷō(lap) | ‘to stink of armpit smell’ (lap ‘be big, huge’) |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō | [N] ‘smell, odour, aroma’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō(mas) | ‘stink, smell rotten’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō(ŋas) | ‘be fragrant, sweet-smelling’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷō(pa) | ‘smell of shit etc.’ (pā ‘faeces’) |
| Mic | Puluwatese | pʷo, pʷoi- | [N] ‘smell, odour’ |
| Fij | Bauan | bo-i | [VI] ‘have an odour’ |
| Fij | Bauan | bo-ið-a | [VI] ‘(s.t.) smell of’ |
Among the reflexes of POc *bo-an below Manam bʷau requires particular comment. At first sight it looks as if it reflects a POc *baw, i.e. a form in which earlier *-aw has not become POc *-o. It is rather more likely, however, that it reflects POc *baw-an, with regular loss of final *-n and consequent irregular loss of *-a, since earlier word-internal *-aw- did not always become POc *-o-. Gumawana bowana is the only form below which attests to the presence of POc final *-n. Note that the Gumawana and Gapapaiwa forms both serve as verbs as well as nouns.
| PMP | *bahu-an | [N] ‘odour, stench’ (ACD: PWMP) | |
| POc | *baw-an, *bo-an | [N] ‘odour, scent’ | |
| NNG | Manam | bʷau | [N] ‘smell, odour’ |
| PT | Gumawana | bowana | [VI] ‘stink, smell bad’; [N] ‘bad odour’ |
| PT | Gapapaiwa | boa | [VI] ‘rot, smell bad’ |
| PNCV | *boa | [N] ‘odour, scent’ | |
| NCV | Tambotalo | poa | ‘smell’ |
| NCV | Nguna | na-pʷoa | ‘smell’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | e-pev | ‘stink, smell badly’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.) |
| PPn | *poa | [N] ‘fish odour’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | poa | ‘yam with fishy smell’ |
| Pn | Tongan | (namu)poa | ‘fish odour’ |
| Pn | Niuean | poa | ‘fish odour’ |
| Pn | Anutan | po-poa | ‘fishy smell’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | po-poa | ‘fish odour’ |
| Pn | Samoan | poa-poā | ‘fish odour’ |
| Pn | Sikaiana | poa | ‘fish odour’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | poa-poā | ‘smelling of fish’ |
| Pn | Marquesan | poa (ika) | ‘chum, bait’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | poa | ‘fishy (smell or taste); scales, rust’ |
| Pn | Māori | poa | ‘bait; allure by bait, entice’ |
Blust (1988) has reconstructed a family of PAn ‘stench’ words which all contain the phonemic sequence *qaŋe- (*qaŋeSit ‘stench, musky odor of an animal’, *qaŋeliC ‘stench of burning substances’, *qaŋeRiS ‘stench of fish’, *qaŋeRu ‘stench of spoiled or souring organic matter’ and *qaŋeseR ‘stench of urine’). The only clear trace of these in Oceanic languages is in the Gela term: aŋo ‘emit a sour smell, as of urine’.
| PAn | *qaŋeSeR | ‘stench of urine’ (Blust 1988; ACD) | |
| POc | *(q)aŋo(R) | [VSt] ‘smell, as of urine’ | |
| SES | Gela | aŋo | [VSt] ‘emit a sour smell, as of urine’ |
| SES | Arosi | waŋo | [VI] ‘smell (sweet or otherwise)’ |
| SES | Arosi | waŋor-a | ‘to smell of blood’ |
Oceanic languages often have terms for the smell of urine and other body secretions, and terms for various other odours, good and bad. Milner’s Samoan dictionary, for instance, lists soŋo (V) ‘smell of urine etc.’, lalaʔoa (V) ‘smell of fish’, sauŋa (N,V) ‘smell of stale food etc.’, ʔalalā (N,V) ‘smell of meat or fish when cooked’, elo (V, ADJ) ‘give an offensive smell of decomposing flesh’. However, few terms for specific odours have been collected from other languages and we have been unable to make reconstructions other than the one above and the following:
| PMP | *seŋet | ‘acrid, pungent, of odor’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *soŋo | ‘[be] acrid, pungent, as smell of urine’ | |
| NNG | Lukep | -yoŋo | ‘smell s.t.’ |
| MM | Label | soŋ | ‘smell (s.t.)’ |
| MM | Tiang | (mo)soŋ | ‘smell (s.t.)’ |
| MM | Notsi | coŋo | ‘stink’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | (bʷō)ttoŋo-toŋ | ‘smell sweaty, unclean, unwashed’ (bʷō ‘odour’) |
| PPn | *soŋo | ‘smell of urine’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | ho-hoŋo | ‘perceive an odour, smell s.t. (as from a distance)’ |
| Pn | Tongan | ho-hoŋo | ‘smell of urine’ |
| Pn | East Uvean | ho-hoŋo | ‘smell of urine’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | yo-yoŋo | ‘smell of urine’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | soŋo(aŋa) | ‘sex organs’ |
| Pn | Samoan | soŋo | ‘(of urine, etc.) smell, stink’ |
| Pn | Nukuoro | soŋo-soŋo | ‘genitals (male or female)’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | soŋo | ‘female genitalia’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | so-soŋo | ‘smell of urine’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | ho-hono | ‘odour of perspiration’ |
| PMP | *maŋsit | ‘vile smell’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *masi(t) | ‘smell bad; [be] sour, acid, fermented’; [N] ‘bad smell’ | |
| NNG | Manam | masi | ‘smell of fish’ |
| NNG | Manam | masi-masi | [VI] ‘smell bad’ |
| PT | Ubir | mas | ‘to smell’ |
| SES | Gela | mahi | ‘body smell’ |
| SES | Arosi | masi | [N,V] ‘smell of stale fish or urine’ |
| SES | Arosi | masi(ŋaʔi) | [VSt] ‘smell stale, sour’ (ŋaʔi ‘verb suffix’) |
| Mic | Carolinian | mʷas | [VI] ‘stink’ |
| Pn | Tongan | mahi | ‘sour to the taste’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | masi | ‘acid, fermented, preserved by fermenting’ |
| Pn | Samoan | masi | ‘fermented breadfruit’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | masi | ‘pungent, provoking strong sensation’ |
| Pn | Māori | mahi-mahi | ‘rotten, putrid’ |
Familiar smells may be lexicalised, either as a stative verb or noun, e.g. *(q)aŋo(R) ‘smell, as of urine’ (from PAn *qaŋeSeR ‘stench of urine’), *soŋo ‘[be] acrid, pungent, as smell of urine’ (from PMP *seŋet ‘acrid, pungent, of odor’), and *masi(t) ‘smell bad; [be] sour, acid, fermented’ (from PMP *maŋsit ‘vile smell’). Although these three POc reconstructions have here been given a verbal form, it is evident that in two cases the PAn or PMP antecedents are nouns and in the third, many of the lower level reflexes are also nouns. It is noteworthy that in all the cognate sets supporting verbal ‘smell’ reconstructions there are examples of the verb functioning also as a noun. This tendency has not been noted in any of the other sense-related verbs other than in the terms given to specific sounds. We have reconstructed one generic noun, POc *bo[-] ‘odour, scent’ which can also be used as a stative verb, meaning ‘have an odour’.
Taste is the sense that informs us about what we are eating or drinking. Perception of taste is usually the outcome of an intentional act. POc *ñami- (VT) ‘taste s.t., test the flavour of food’ is well attested, with reflexes scattered across diverse subgroups. Reflexes of a partially reduplicated form, *ña-ñami, also occur in some languages as a stative verb, meaning ‘be tasty, taste good’. The attribution of this sense to POc is somewhat strengthened by extra-Oceanic cognates. A fully reduplicated form, *ñami-ñami is also reflected in Ramoaaina (MM), Gela and Longgu (SES), Marshallese (Mic) and Rennellese (Pn), and this may have been an intransitive verb meaning ‘to taste, do tasting’.
*ña-ñami has a PMP antecedent in the form of PMP *ñamñam ‘taste, tasty’ which Blust (1989) reconstructs on the basis of Tagalog namnam ‘savor, taste; palatal sensation’ and Selaru nanam ‘sweet’ together with Oceanic reflexes. POc *ñami appears to continue the PMP root *ñam with the addition of the transitive sufix *-i.9
Except for Tikopia, which has doublets nami ‘taste’ and namu ‘odour, bad smell’, the Central Pacific reflexes of *ñami show a vowel change *i > u. Polynesian reflexes tend to blur the distinction between taste and smell, both senses contributing to the assessment of quality of food. The shift from flavour to odour is complete in Pukapukan, Rennellese and Samoan.
| PMP | *ñamñam | ‘taste, tasty’ (Blust 1989) | |
| POc | *ña-ñami | [VI] ‘[be] tasty, taste good’ | |
| POc | *ñami- | [VT] ‘to taste s.t.’ | |
| Adm | Nyindrou | ñimi-ñem | [VT] ‘taste, test flavour of’ |
| MM | Patpatar | nam-nami-en | ‘be tasty, sweet’ |
| MM | Patpatar | nami-en | [VT] ‘taste s.t.’ |
| MM | Tolai | namene | [VI,VT] ‘to taste’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | nam-nami-an | ‘sweet’ |
| SES | Gela | nami | [VT] ‘to taste s.t.; tasting’ |
| SES | Gela | nai-nami | ‘to taste, tasting’ |
| SES | Bugotu | ñami | [VT] ‘to nibble, bite, taste s.t.’ |
| SES | Ulawa | name | [VI] ‘to taste’ |
| SES | Ulawa | name-li | [VT] ‘to taste s.t.’ |
| SES | Arosi | nami | [VI] ‘to taste’ |
| SES | Arosi | nami-ri | [VT] ‘taste, lick s.t.’ |
| SES | Longgu | nami- | [VT] ‘taste s.t.’ |
| SES | Longgu | nami-nami | [VI] ‘taste’ |
| NCV | Mota | nam, nami-s | ‘to taste, touch with the tongue’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | nɛm | ‘taste s.t. with tongue, lick’ |
| NCal | Nêlêmwa | nām | ‘sweet’ |
| PMic | *ñama | ‘taste’ (also *ñaña ‘taste, flavour’) (Bender et al. 2003) | |
| Mic | Kiribati | na-nama | ‘to taste or test the flavour of s.t.’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | nana | ‘taste, try the taste of’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | na-ẓi | [VT] ‘taste, try s.t.’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | nanna | [VI] ‘to have a certain flavour or taste’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | nam-nam | ‘taste, smell, flavour’ |
| Fij | Bauan | namu | ‘chew and swallow’ |
| PPn | *namu | [V] ‘taste’; [N] ‘odour, flavour’ | |
| PPn | *namu-aqa | [VSt] ‘have a strong smell or flavour’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | namu | [VSt] ‘emit a smell’ (only in compounds, e.g. namu- hohoŋo ‘to smell of urine’, namu kakala ‘be fragrant’, namu-kuu ‘to stink’, namu-toto ‘smell of blood’ etc.) |
| Pn | Tongan | na-namu | [VSt] ‘emit an odour, to smell’; [N] ‘odour, smell’ |
| Pn | Tongan | nāmu-ʔi | [VT] ‘perceive the smell/taste of’ |
| Pn | Tongan | namu-aʔa | [VSt] ‘have a strong or pungent smell’ |
| Pn | Niuean | namu | [N] ‘odour, flavour’ |
| Pn | Niuean | namu-ā | [VSt] ‘smell of fish or the sea’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | namu | [VSt, N] ‘smell s.t., emit an odour typical of s.t.’ (e.g. namu ika ‘smell of fish, fishy smell’, namu ānani ‘sweet smell’) |
| Pn | Pukapukan | na-namu | [VSt] ‘very smelly, putrid’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | namu-aʔa | [VSt] ‘to stink’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | na-namu | [VSt] ‘to smell good or bad’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | namu-namu | ‘to inhale, sniff, as at a distance’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | namu-kū | ‘bad odour, flavour’ |
| Pn | Samoan | nāmu | [VSt] ‘to smell of, have the odour of’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | namu | [N] ‘odour, smell (used of strong or unpleasant smells)’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | nam-i | ‘taste in experimental way’ |
| Pn | Māori | namu-namu-ā | ‘flavour imparted to food by contact with s.t.’ |
| Pn | Rapanui | namu-namu | ‘to taste, chew’ |
There is a formal similarity between *ñami and the next two reconstructions, *tami and *mamis, together with *(d,dr)amʷi ‘lick’ (§4.3.5.2). They may ultimately share descent from a PAn monosyllabic root, *mis (Blust 1988).
| PMP | *tamiq, *tamis | ‘taste, try’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *tami | ‘taste, try’ | |
| MM | Tolai | (an)tamai | [VT] ‘to taste, of food’ (an ‘to eat’; problematic vowels) |
| SV | Anejom̃ | a-temtem | ‘taste s.t. to see if it’s OK’ (John Lynch pers. comm.) |
| Pn | Rennellese | tami | ‘taste’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | tami-tami | ‘taste a little, as to try’ |
It is possible that POc *mamis ‘sweet’ has evolved by a different route from POc *mamis ‘try by tasting’. Whereas the former is derived directly from PAn and PMP etyma, the latter may be the product of contamination between POc *mamis ‘sweet’ and POc *ñami ‘to taste s.t.’.
| PAn | *ma-amis | ‘sweet’ (Tsuchida 1976) | |
| PMP | *mamis | ‘sweet’ (Dempwolff 1938) | |
| PMP | *emis | ‘sweet taste’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *mamis | ‘to try by tasting; sweet’ | |
| PT | Motu | mami-a | [VT] ‘to feel, test’ |
| PT | Balawaia | mami- | [N] ‘taste’ |
| MM | Meramera | mamis-i | ‘sweet’ |
| SES | Gela | mami-a | ‘tasting good’ |
| SES | Sa’a | mami | [VI] ‘to taste’ |
| SES | Kwaio | mami | ‘normal tasting, neither sweet nor sour’ |
| SES | Kwaio | mami toʔona | ‘try food, taste’ (toʔo ‘receive, catch’) |
| SV | Anejom̃ | a-mθa | ‘extremely sweet’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | mæm | ‘sweet’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | mam | ‘be sweet-tasting’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | mami | ‘sweet’ |
| Fij | Wayan | mami | ‘cooking banana, sweet-tasting’ |
POc *ñapi- (VT) ‘taste s.t.’ may have evolved from *ñami by the strengthening of medial *-m- to a prenasalised stop *b, with subsequent devoicing.
| POc | *ñapi- | [VT] ‘taste s.t.’ (Blust 1998b) | |
| Adm | Lou | nap | ‘taste’ |
| SES | Gela | na-napi | [VT] ‘taste, lick s.t.’ |
| SES | Bugotu | ñapi | [VT] ‘to bite, taste s.t.’ |
| SV | Sye | (at)ŋap | ‘taste’ |
| SV | Ura | (ar)ŋap | ‘taste’ |
Some Oceanic languages lack a verb dedicated to the meaning of intentional tasting. Instead, they use a verb whose basic meaning is more general, such as reflexes of POc *topoŋ-i ‘try/attempt s.t.’ or ‘sample s.t.’, or terms for ‘nibble’ or ‘lick’. To limit such a verb to the tasting of food or drink a qualifier is added. Thus in Seimat one says ŋa ani tohoŋi-wa ‘I taste the food’ (ani ‘eat’, tohoŋi (VT) ‘try, attempt s.t.’) and in Tolai an-tamai (VT) ‘to taste, of food’ (an ‘eat’, tamai ‘taste, try’). Kwaio has ʔana toʔona (ʔani ‘eat’, toʔona ‘put to the test’) and mea toʔona (mea ‘tongue’, toʔona ‘put to the test’), both meaning ‘taste (food)’, while To’aba’ita has qani-toʔona ‘taste s.t. by eating it, try the taste of s.t.’ (qania ‘eat’, toʔona ‘test, check’) and kuqu-toʔona ‘drink s.t. to see what it is like’ (kuqu ‘drink’).
| PMP | *tepeŋ | ‘try, test, experiment’ (Blust, pers. comm.) | |
| POc | *topoŋ | [VI] ‘try’ | |
| POc | *topoŋ-i- | [VT] ‘try, test, sample s.t.’ | |
| Adm | Seimat | tohoŋ-i | [VT] ‘try, attempt’ (ŋa ani tohoŋi-wa ‘I taste the food’) |
| Adm | Mussau | tōtoŋa | [VT] ‘taste’ |
| NNG | Gitua | tovo | ‘try’ |
| PT | Gapapaiwa | tovon | ‘feel, squeeze’ |
| PT | Motu | (mami-a)toho | [VT] ‘to test and try’ (mami-a ‘to feel, test’)10 |
| MM | Nakanai | tovo | ‘measure, try out’ |
| SES | Gela | tavoŋo | ‘grope, feel in the dark’ |
| SES | Sa’a | ohoŋ-i | ‘to attempt, make trial of’ |
| SES | Arosi | oho | ‘to contend’ |
| SES | Arosi | ohoŋ-i | ‘try, test, tempt’ |
| NCV | Mota | to-towo | ‘do for the first time’ |
| NCV | Neve’ei | totovuŋ | ‘try’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.) |
| NCV | Neverver | dvuŋ | ‘try’ (John Lynch, pers. comm.) |
| Mic | Ponapean | soŋ | ‘taste s.t., attempt’ |
| Fij | Bauan | tovo(le) | [VI] ‘try, attempt, test’ |
| Fij | Bauan | tovo(le)-a | [VT] ‘try s.t.’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tofo | ‘test, sample; to taste’ (Milner 1966) ; ‘try, tempt’ (Pratt 1862) |
| SES | Gela | tovo | ‘to ask for a wife’ |
A speaker of POc could pass judgement on the taste of something in the mouth by using an adjectival verb, with the source of the flavour as subject. The following verbs are specifically taste descriptors: *mamis ‘[be] sweet, *ña-ñami ‘[be] tasty, taste good’ and *maqasin ‘[be] salty’ (Ross et al., 2003:68). A PPn verb *suqa (VI) ‘have a certain taste or flavour’ is reconstructable, occurring in the compound *suqa-malie ‘taste good; sweet, delicious’. Another strategy is to use a compound of the form V + modifier, where V is a verb meaning ‘eat’ or ‘drink’, e.g. Wayan Fijian kani vinā ‘be tasty (lit. ‘eat well’), kani ðakaðā ‘taste bad’ (‘eat bad’).
While smelling terms are frequently nouns, taste terms are predominantly verbs. The only examples in our cognate sets where reflexes of a reconstructed verb are used as a noun are in Niuean and Tikopia reflexes of POc *ñami- (VT) ‘to taste s.t.’, and in each case the term has changed its meaning from taste to smell.
The sense often labelled ‘touch’ has to do with perceiving pressure on the skin. Awareness of such pressure is expressed in English by the verb ‘feel’, e.g. ‘I can feel the wind in my face’. More commonly the reference is to contact between skin, usually hand, and a solid object, resulting in awareness of some property of the latter’s surface. ‘Feel’ is also used in English to denote awareness of a physiological or emotional condition, e.g. ‘feel sick or frightened or responsible’. We will not be concerned here with the latter sense of ‘feel’.
POc *si(g,k)il ‘touch with the fingers’ is our strongest candidate for a verb meaning ‘perceive by touch’. Reflexes of POc *taŋo(p) ‘take hold of, grasp, touch with the hand’ tend to carry the additional meaning of deliberately taking hold or grasping. In some languages reflexes of a PWOc term *sau ‘reach out with hand, touch’ may be combined with a verb meaning ‘try’ to express that meaning, as in the Motu and Nakanai examples below, but we cannot reconstruct a specific compound verb for PWOc meaning ‘perceive by touch’. Other Oceanic languages use verbs that are either primarily verbs of manipulation (do s.t. by hand, grope, grasp, poke, stroke etc.) or of making contact in a physical sense, without involving awareness (be in contact, reach), although some may have had ‘perceive by touch’ as a secondary sense.
| POc | *si(g,k)il, *si(g,k)il-i- | ‘touch with the fingers’ | |
| MM | Patpatar | sigire | [VT] ‘touch, lay hands on to abuse’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | sigil, siŋl-i- | [VT] ‘touch’ |
| SES | Bugotu | higil-i | ‘touch s.t.’ |
| SES | Gela | higil-i | ‘touch s.t.’ |
| SES | Gela | kisi, gisi | [VT] ‘touch with finger, poke’ (metathesis) |
| SES | Sa’a | siki | ‘tap, touch with fingers’ |
| SES | Sa’a | siki-hi | [VT] ‘infect, carry infection (to s.o.)’ |
| SES | Sa’a | sikil-i | [VT] ‘twang with the fingers’ |
| SES | Arosi | sigi | ‘tap with the finger’ |
| SES | Arosi | sigi-hi | [VT] ‘infect with’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | hiɣ | ‘poke, esp. with finger; point at’ |
| NCV | Ambae | sikel-i | [VT] ‘touch’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | hisi | [V] ‘reach, touch s.t.’ (metathesis) |
| NCV | Namakir | qih | ‘touch, stroke’ (metathesis) |
| NCV | Nguna | kisi | ‘touch with fingers’ (metathesis) |
| Mic | Kiribati | rī(ŋa) | ‘feel (s.t.), handle, touch’ |
| POc | *taŋo(p) | ‘take hold of, grasp, touch with the hand’ | |
| NNG | Sio | taŋo | ‘touch, place hand or fingers on’ |
| SES | Gela | taŋo | [VI] ‘do, touch, be in contact’ (rarely used except in compounds) |
| SES | Gela | taŋo(li) | [VT] ‘hold, touch’ |
| SES | Bugotu | taŋo(li) | [VT] ‘to take, hold, handle, receive’ |
| SES | Bugotu | taŋoli hadi | ‘feel for a thing’ (hadi ‘go up’) |
| PNCV | *taŋo-vi | ‘touch, feel, grope’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | taŋo | ‘touch, feel with the hand’ |
| NCV | Paamese | taŋo-taŋo | ‘place hands on s.t.’ |
| NCV | Sakao | daŋ | [VI] ‘to grope’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | toŋve | ‘to touch’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | taŋo | ‘take hold of, grasp’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋo | [VT] ‘take hold of s.t., touch (and feel) with the hand, feel’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋof-i-a | ‘be touched’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋo-taŋo | ‘lay hold of, touch and feel’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | taŋo | ‘grab’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | taŋof-i-a | ‘have hands laid upon’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | taŋo | ‘grope, feel for’ |
| PWOc | *sau | ‘reach out with hand, touch’ | |
| PT | Motu | dau | [VI] ‘stretch out the arm’; [VT] ‘touch, feel’ (dau-kunu ‘to touch, when fingers touch an object’ (kunu ‘fill, be satisfied’), dau-dae ‘to stretch the arm up’, dau-lata ‘stretch out the arm for s.t. in front’ etc.) |
| PT | Motu | daua(toho) | ‘feel a thing’ (toho ‘try’) |
| MM | Nakanai | sau | ‘place the hand’ |
| MM | Nakanai | sau(lalai) | ‘to feel tentatively (with hand)’ (lalai ‘to try’) |
| PNCV | *tiqel-i | ‘touch, reach’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Paamese | tokol-i | ‘touch, feel with hands, reach, go as far as’ |
| NCV | Kiai | tikel-i- | ‘touch’ |
| NCV | Lewo | tol-i | ‘reach, arrive at, touch’ |
| NCV | Ambae | sikel-i | ‘touch, reach, arrive at’ |
| SV | Anejom̃ | etcai | ‘feel, touch’ |
| PT | Kilivila | (mom)kol-i | ‘taste, sip’ |
| MM | Tolai | tuk | ‘touch with hand or pointer’ |
For the five ‘basic’ senses we can reconstruct at least one POc transitive verb dedicated to a particular sense, namely: *kita- ‘see s.t.’, *roŋo- ‘hear s.t.’, *sa[a,o]ŋin- ‘smell s.t.’, *ñami- ‘taste s.t.’ and *si(g,k)il-i- ‘touch with the fingers’. Certain of these verbs were polysemous but each had a canonical use in which the grammatical subject is the experiencer of an act of perception and the direct object is the stimulus.
Three of the above reconstructions, *roŋo-, *sa[a,o]ŋin- and *ñami- are reconstructable with both ‘sensing’ and ‘attending’ senses, that is both with and without intention. Reflexes of *si(g,k)il-i are apparently typically used with an intentional force. In order to express the meaning ‘listen’ a number of languages (Southeast Solomonic, Fijian, Polynesian) add an intensifying prefix to *roŋo, providing some evidence for PEOc *paka-roŋo(R,n)- ‘listen to s.t.’. This kind of semantic extension was probably not characteristic of *kita- ‘see s.t.’. To denote intentional acts of visual perception POc speakers, like English speakers, could choose from a range of different transitive and intransitive verbs meaning, e.g. ‘look (at s.t.)’, ‘glance’, ‘look intently or closely’, ‘peer (at s.t.)’ and ‘look for s.t.’. There are many more verbs denoting kinds of visual activities than there are verbs denoting kinds of hearing, smelling, tasting and sensing by touch, and many of the former involve intent.
With regard to meanings where the stimulus or source is subject, POc perception verbs vary in their ability to occur as stative verbs. With verbs of seeing and hearing, stimulus- subject verbs are very rare in daughter languages. A single reconstruction, POc *kilat (U-verb) ‘be seen clearly, discerned, recognised’, (A-verb) ‘see clearly, discern, recognise’, has been made. Languages tend instead to use verbs unrelated to the transitive forms to represent meanings like ‘be visible/be seen/appear, be audible/be heard/sound’. When the focus is on the outcome of hearing, languages generally have a range of stative verbs comparable to ‘be noisy, be loud’. We have collected a number of such terms but have made no reconstructions. Languages tend also to have many terms for specific sounds which can be used as stative verbs with source as subject. In such cases the act of perception is implied. A number of these verbs also act as nouns, a feature shared with those smell verbs that refer to specific odours.
In the case of smelling and tasting, however, stative verbs derived from actor-subject verbs are common in Oceanic languages and several such pairs have been reconstructed for POc, e.g. *s[a,o]ŋin (VSt) ‘emit a smell’ (alongside *s[a,o]ŋin- (VT) ‘smell s.t.’), POc *quruŋ (VSt) ‘emit a smell’ (alongside *quruŋ-i (VT) ‘to smell s.t.’) and POc *ña-ñami (VI) ‘[be] tasty, taste good’ (alongside *ñami- (VT) ‘to taste s.t.’). For verbs of smelling and tasting it is also possible to reconstruct stative verbs that refer to qualities specific to one sense, as POc *soŋo ‘be acrid, pungent’, POc *masi(t) ‘smell bad; [be] sour, acid, fermented’ *mamis ‘[be] sweet, *ña-ñami ‘[be] tasty, taste good’ and *maqasin ‘[be] salty’, although only *ña-ñami is derived from an experiencer-subject verb. The others can be attached to appropriate nouns without the need for a verb of sensing.
The variations in the linguistic expression of the different senses that we find in Oceanic languages are grounded, at least in part, in the nature of the senses themselves. Each human sense operates under certain conditions that influence the way it is expressed. See and hear have a degree of commonality in that the experiencer must channel his or her focus on one aspect singled out from the many possible sights or sounds present. For Proto Oceanic, this focus is represented by the object of a transitive verb. In contrast, for smell and taste the sensation is likely to be the only one of that kind available to the experiencer at that moment. As with feel, it is likely that we know already what we are focusing on, particularly if we are in contact with the object perceived. So in Proto Oceanic it is more usual with smell and taste for the source to be the subject of an intransitive verb, if necessary with a qualifier.
Mention was made earlier of the possibility of a universal hierarchy within which the senses are ordered, which will predict the direction of semantic change. Viberg (1984) finds some evidence for the hierarchy sight > hearing > touch > smell, taste. Comparison of a large sample of Oceanic languages shows that most verbs of sensing have remained dedicated to a single sense. For most people, sight is the primary source of objective data about the world, and evidently was treated as such by Proto Oceanic speakers. We have no examples from a sample of many dozens of languages where a verb meaning ‘see’ has extended its meaning to other senses, although it can carry a cognitive meaning like ‘know’ or ‘recognise’.
In contrast, *roŋoR ‘hear’ is the most semantically elastic of the sense terms. In some languages of the Solomons, Vanuatu and Polynesia, reflexes, still with the primary meaning ‘hear’, can be extended to ‘smell’, ‘taste’ and ‘feel’, although never to ‘see’. In the (admittedly very small) sample of eight languages in Table 21 (two from Southeast Solomonic, two from North Central Vanuatu and four from Polynesia) it can be seen that, besides hearing, the bundles of senses included are hearing, smell and taste (4), hearing and touch (2) and hearing and taste (1). There are no cases where touch is grouped together with smell and taste while excluding hearing. Thus, if the descriptions are accurate, it is noteworthy that the pattern of semantic extensions does not correspond exactly to Viberg’s hierarchy in that see remains outside the hierarchy, while in several languages smell and taste outrank touch.
Reflexes of POc *ñami-, PPn *namu ‘to taste s.t.’, have evidently undergone a shift in meaning in a number of Polynesian languages. Some reflexes now refer to odour as well as flavour, and the shift is complete in Pukapukan, Rennellese, Samoan and Tikopia, where reflexes refer to odour alone. In view of this example it is possible that taste should precede smell in the hierarchy, although Viberg brackets the two together.
| see | hear | smell | taste | touch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lau | – | y | y | – | – |
| Gela | – | y | – | – | y |
| Mota | – | y | y | y | y |
| Raga | – | y | – | – | y |
| Samoan | – | y | y | y | – |
| Tikopia | – | y | y | y | y |
| Rennellese | – | y | – | y | – |
| Maori | – | y | y | y | y |
A number of commentators have proposed that, when it comes to extending sensory verbs to refer to cognitive processes, humans are visual-centric. That is, verbs of cognition, like ‘know’, ‘think’ and ‘understand’, tend to be recruited from verbs of seeing. However, Evans and Wilkins (2000:549) write that
in Australian languages it is hearing, not vision, that regularly extends into the cognitive domain, going beyond the expected extension of ‘hear’ to ‘understand’ and on to ‘know’ … and other cognitive verbs.
This contrasts with the Indo-European based pattern described by Sweetser (1990) in which vision is the precursor of knowing. Reflexes of POc verbs *kita and *re(k,q)i ‘see’ and *qilo ‘be aware of, discern, see’, indicate that, as in the Indo-European pattern, ‘know’ is more closely affiliated with ‘see’ than ‘hear’. On the other hand, we have examples where ‘understand’ is an extension of both ‘see’ and ‘hear’. We do not have a large enough sample to draw a conclusion. It may be that context permits either.
Evans and Wilkins (2000:567) also describe the extension of meaning from ‘hear’ to ‘obey’ as common in Australian languages. We have examples of the same link from ‘hear’ to ‘listen’ to ‘obey’ across a number of subgroups (Southeast Solomonic, Micronesian, North and Central Vanuatu, Fijian, Polynesian). Sweetser (1990:42) writes that it is widely attested in Indo-European languages and suggests that the link may well be universal.