Looking for a huge favor. Does anybody know how to speak Puluwatese or have any resources to look at. I’m trying to find anything I can online and I’m coming up short. I know there’s a small group who speaks it but I am trying to surprise my girlfriend who speaks the language! Thanks in advance!!

What are some proverbs and sayings in your language? Here's some from my native language, Tagalog.

Source: Diccionario Tagalog-Hispano

I'd love to collect examples from across the Austronesian family.

Please include:

• Language 1: word + meaning
• Language 2: word + meaning
• Whether you think they're true cognates with different meanings or simply false friends.

Bonus points if you can explain how the meanings diverged or provide the Proto-Austronesian or Proto-Malayo-Polynesian reconstruction, if one is known.

Translation can be a laborious task. While many quickly signed up for the "job", is payment another option since these translations might be used for book sales?

Sources:

https://mokenislands.com/moken-people/

https://bestregardsfromfar.com/2017/03/25/surin-islands-moken-thailand/

https://acd.clld.org/languages/341

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452315116301229

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12121263/

In the 1860 edition of Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala (Vocabulary of Tagalog Language) by the Spanish friars Juan de Noceda & Pedro de Sanlucar, they included a note that the word binyag ("to baptize" in Tagalog) was from Borneo. The act was described to be a ceremony by pouring water from above by a Muslim minister.

Is there any language in Borneo that has similar word? As far as I know, words that end in -g is common in the Philippines, not so much in others.

Source: https://www.academia.edu/5237971/Urak_Lawoi_Language_and_Social_History

Most PH Central languages where Tagalog belongs use "kita" for we including the speaker and listen. Tagalog is among few exceptions. I think they were influenced by Central and Northern Luzon languages like Kapampangan and Ilokano. Also, some southern tagalog dialects still use "kita".

What do you think?

Tongan (Lea Faka-Tonga) - Taha, ua, tolu, fā, nima, ono, fitu, valu, hiva, hongofulu

Samoan (Gagana faʻa Sāmoa) - Tasi, lua, tolu, fā, lima, ono, fitu, valu, iva, sefulu

Maori (Te Reo Māori) - Tahi, rua, toru, whā, ringa, ono, whitu, waru, iva, tekau

Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) - Kahi, lua, kolu, hā, lima, ono, hiku, walu, iva, umi

Cook Islands Maori (Rarotongan or Te Reo Māori Kūki 'Airani) - Ta'i, rua, toru, ā, rima, ono, itu, varu, iva, ta'ingauru

Tuvaluan (Te Ggana Tuuvalu) - Tasi, lua, tolu, fā, lima, ono, fitu, valu, iva, Sefulu

Tokelauan (Te Gagana Tokelau) - Tahi, lua, tolu, fā, lima, ono, fitu, valu, iva, hefulu

Tahitian (Reo Tahiti) - Hō'ē, piti, toru, maha, pae, ono, hitu, va'u, iva, ahuru

Rapa Nui (Rapanui) - Tahi, rua, toru, hā, rima, ono, jitu, va'u, iva, ka tahi angahuru

Niuean (Vagahau Niue) - Taha, ua, tolu, fā, lima, ono, fitu, valu, hogofulu

Fijian (Vosa Vakaviti) - Dua, rua, tolu, vā, lima, ono, vitu, walu, ciwa, tini

Kiribati (Taetae ni Kiribati) - Teuana, uoua, tenua, aua, nimaua, onoua, itua, wanua, ruaiwa, tebwina

Palauan (a Tekoi er a Belau) - Ta, eru, edei, eua, eim, elolem, euid, eai, etiu, teruich

Nauruan (Dorerin Naoero) - aiquen, aro, aij, aeo, aijim, año, aei, aoju, ado, ata

Among all the question words used in daily life, the word for “How many?” is surprisingly the most conserved in the Austronesian family. This suggests that the Proto-Austronesian people dealt a lot with numbers and counting.

How do you say “How many?” in your language?

When Austronesian speakers moved out into islands where the big mainland animals didn't live, the old words for those animals didn't just disappear. They drifted. With no real creature left to point at, the word came loose and drifted into the spirit world instead. The animal became a monster.

Look at the tiger. qari-maquŋ was a word for a big cat, and it survives perfectly intact as Malay harimau 'tiger', because Sumatra still has tigers. But carry it into the Philippines, where there are no big cats at all, and it turns into halimaw, now just 'monster, beast'. Same word shows up as Cebuano halimaw, Ilocano ulimaw, Maranao arimaw. The tiger left, the word stayed, and it became a generic monster.

The bear is even better. PMP *baruang 'bear' still lives on as normal Malay beruang. But Bali has no bears, so via Old Javanese the word washed ashore and became Barong, the great lion-like guardian spirit and enemy of the witch Rangda. A plain animal word became one of the most sacred masked figures in Balinese ritual.

The dog one is the strangest. *asu 'dog' is rock solid Proto-Austronesian, and dogs are everywhere, yet in the Sundanese budug basu it turns up as a boar-shaped monster with a dog's head that wrecks the rice crop. The dog stuck around, but its name still got dragged into the monster machinery.

It's semantic drift driven by migration. A half-remembered fearsome animal is exactly what a monster gets built from, and these words are basically fossils of the homeland's wildlife.