<Notes>The relationship between “wine” and “wash utensils” in the Atayalic languages

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  • <研究ノート>アタヤル語群の「酒」と「器具を洗う」のつながり
  • アタヤル語群の「酒」と「器具を洗う」のつながり
  • アタヤルゴグン ノ 「 サケ 」 ト 「 キグ オ アラウ 」 ノ ツナガリ

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Abstract

This paper suggests that “wine” is derived from “wash utensils” in the Atayalic languages (Austronesian), including Atayal and Seediq. In Seediq, “wine” is sinaw, which is the identical form for “wash utensils.” These seem to be homonyms. However, Atayal has an overlapping situation. In Atayal, “wine" is quaw, which resembles quax, the form for “wash utensils” In addition, the word-final w and x date back to the same phoneme in Proto-Atayal. It is unlikely that the similarities in the forms for “wine” and “wash utensils” observed in these closely related languages is merely a coincidence. In Seediq, sinaw “wash utensils” reflects the Proto-Austronesian *Siiiaw “to wash.” Therefore, Seediq sinaw originally meant “wash utensils.” It probably gained the meaning of “wine” afterwards. The same semantic shift might occur in Atayal as well. That is, *quag (a Proto-Atayal form) originally meant “wash utensils, ” and it gained the meaning of “wine” afterwards. In present-day Atayal, the two meanings are differentiated by the final consonants: “washutensil” has the final x, and “wine” has the final w. Furthermore, a proto-form for “wine” cannot be reconstructed for Proto-Austronesian. This also supports the idea that the word for “wine” was innovated at a later stage.

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  • 京都大学言語学研究

    京都大学言語学研究 40 25-38, 2021-12-31

    Departmental of Linguistics, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University

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