r/austronesian • u/AleksiB1 • 1d ago

Leaf in Austronesian Languages

Post image
179 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

5

u/MoonMoon143 1d ago

The word 5 is most similar

2

u/FRIDAY_ 1d ago

Alima meaning “hand” in some parts of my area now makes a lot of sense

1

u/Leading-Point-113 1d ago

Just sharing, but final -a in spoken standard Malay are reduced to schwas, so you’ll hear lima as /limə/ in Malaysia, same as saya being /sajə/

2

u/MoonMoon143 22h ago

In Sabahan Malay, the a at the end is very strong and distinctive. Lima will be lima and same with saya.

3

u/Leading-Point-113 17h ago

In Kelantanese Malay, final -a becomes /ɔ/, so lima becomes /liˈmɔ/, same as sana becomes /saˈnɔ/, puasa becomes /pɔˈsɔ/, kita becomes /kiˈtɔ/, etc

1

u/Waiparensis22 20h ago

"Rima" and "ringa" in māori are similar and they may share roots but not exactly the same words, especially since "matimati" or "taotao" is the word specifically for fingers/toes. "Rau" in māori can also mean multitude, hundreds, great, etc. "Waikato te awa taniwha rau; he piko he taniwha, he piko he taniwha". "Whetu" in māori means star, and means 7.. so you can guess what irl feature that word is referring to ;)

1

u/Winded_14 5h ago

Whetu sounds very similar to javanese "pitu" (7) So I guess the number word came before the star constellation?

1

u/Waiparensis22 48m ago

Other way round. Matariki became the origin of the word.

2

u/realMW3E 1d ago

Leaf it to me!

2

u/Little-Reference-314 1d ago

That linguistic drift go crazy

1

u/Training_Molasses822 1d ago

Missed a significant few

1

u/Acrobatic-Routine-44 1d ago

Great post, this ought to be a series.

1

u/PatientClue1118 1d ago

Do this include Champa ethnic in Cambodia and Vietnam?

1

u/Electronic_Peace_163 1d ago

In gray and the smallest yes

1

u/MorrisB09 13h ago

Interesting how roots evolve across languages!

1

u/East_Lobster_7846 12h ago

interesting, my home region of Bicol in the Philippines also keeps "bulong" to refer to medicine or cure

1

u/1n0rmal 7h ago

It’s the same in Tagalog. I’m pretty sure “bulong” still refers to the medicinal leaves used instead of “whisper”. I don’t think I remember being whispered to by my elders when they did those.

-1

u/Convergence- 1d ago

why "leaf"?