*ba₁conjunction:or,if;perhaps;because

Note:  The appropriateness of including all of these forms in a single cognate set is perhaps open to question. However, reflexes of *ba appear to function as conjunctions in nearly all of the languages cited, and semantically many of them introduce an element of doubt, qualification or negation. BothBare'e andUmaba are said to be shortened forms ofbara (< *baraŋ ‘marker of uncertainty, conditionality or hope’), but the basis for this interpretation is unclear.

*ba₂interjectionorexclamation

Note:  AlsoIlokanobaá ‘an interjection to startle people or to make children laugh’,Ngaju Dayakbah ‘interjection of astonishment’,Balinesebah ‘interjection of amazement’,Umabaʔ ‘interjection’,Nggelambaa (with nasal grade initial) ‘exclamation, look out!’. The lengthened or doubled vowels in theIlokano andNggela forms and the occasional final /h/ inWMP languages may be motivated in different ways by the emotive character of this word.

*ba₃preposition:at,on,in,to

Note:  PMP has well-established generic locative prepositions *i and *di which appear to cover approximately the same semantic range as *ba. The semantic distinction betweenTetunba ("arriving" at, etc.) andiha ("being" at, etc.) may also have applied toPMP *ba and *i, *di, but there is as yet no comparative support for this interpretation.

*ba₄under,below

Note:  Presumably connected with *babaq ‘under, below’, though the connection remains obscure.

*ba₅postverbalinterrogativeparticle

Note:  This grammatical marker appears in several languages of the central and southern Philippines, but thus far is attested outside the Philippines only inMalagasy (Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *ba based on reflexes inTagalog andMalagasy, and I have been able to extend his documentation very little). All languages that contain a reflex of *ba are verb-initial, and in all cases the reflex of *ba is postverbal.Panganiban (1973:93) givesTagalogba in the Manila-Bulacan area, butga orbagá inKumintang. Reid (p.c.) speculates thatTagalogba is a reduction of earlier *bagá, and attempts to relate this interrogative marker toIlokanobagá ‘say, tell, speak, declare, utter, relate’ and similar forms in other northern Philippine languages.Ilokanobagá, however, almost certainly reflects *bajaq ‘say, relate, announce’, and the broader comparative evidence suggests thatKumintangTagalogbagá is compounded of earlier monosyllables.

*ba₆go

Note:  Paton (1973) describesLonwolwolva as a short form ofvan ‘go, pass’ (<POc *pano). Since original medial nasals are otherwise retained inLonwolwol and since none of the other languages from which cognates are cited here could regularly reflectPOc *pano (orPMP *panaw) Paton's interpretation of theLonwolwol form appears to be unjustified.

This cognate set appears inBlust (1993b:254), where it is observed thatNothofer (1992), favors a comparison withMongondowbayaʔ ‘go’ <PMP *bayaq. Nothofer's proposal has the advantage of eliminating a canonical anomaly (sincePMP monosyllabic content morphemes are otherwise virtually unknown), but conflicts with theMotu reflex (*bayaq should > **hala). AlternativelyMongondowbayaʔ and all of the items cited here exceptMotuha could be assigned to *bayaq.

This is one of the extremely rare monosyllables that appears to have been a content morpheme inPCEMP. Although the glosses for CMP languages suggest that it was a main verb, several of the Oceanic reflexes indicate that it was an auxiliary, and as such it may have been unstressed and so a part of the following phonological word (hence the comment byCodrington and Palmer (1896) thatMotava ‘go or come’ is sometimes hard to distinguish from the causative prefixva-).

*baba₁carry apersonpick-a-back;ridepick-a-back

Note:  AlsoMalagasybabi (expected **vavi) ‘carrying on the back’,Motapepe ‘carry a child on back or hip’. If there is one prototype meaning that can be identified for *baba it is ‘to carry a child pick-a-back’. The term presumably also extended to the transport of sick or injured adults in a similar manner, but its full semantic range remains unclear. The nominal referents inCasiguran Dumagat,Kelabit andWolio fail to agree, and probably are secondary.Bimanesewaʔa ‘carry’,Manggaraiba,wa ‘carry, accompany, take along’ exhibit an apparent semantic generalization similar to that seen inMalay,Karo Batak,Old Javanese and some of the languages of Sulawesi, but show phonological irregularities which cast doubt on the appropriateness of including these forms in the present cognate set.

*baba₂father

Note:  AlsoMakassaresebaʔba ‘father (esp. as an address tohajis)’. As part of universal nursery language this item could have arisen independently in all or many of the languages in which it appears. At the same time universal tendencies were no less operative in proto-languages than they are in attested languages, and *baba is just as likely to be an inherited form which resisted regular sound change in languages such asMalagasy,Atoni,Fordata andKei as a result of the recurrent reinforcement that nursery language provided. In any event the term evidently was used in child language or intimate address rather than as the normal adult word for ‘father’ (*ama).

*babaDreproduce,multiply

*bábadsoak

Note:  Hanunóobadbád appears to be a secondary development from a form which originally lacked a medial cluster.

*babakstrike,chipstone

*babangroup,company,collection,swarm

Note:  With root *-ban ‘group, company’.

*babaq₁lowersurface,bottom;short,low;below,beneath,under

Note:  Although aPAn term for ‘under, below’ is unknown, *babaq₁ and *babaw₃ should be treated as a contrast set inPMP. Syntactically both followed *i ‘generic marker of location’, a fact reflected not only in the syntax of many daughter languages, but also in occasional lexicalizations of the preposition + nominal expression. In isolation both *babaq₁ and *babaw₃ probably were nouns meaning ‘lower surface/bottom’ and ‘upper surface/top’. Since they typically followed a preposition, however, their more common English translations would be ‘below, beneath, under’ and ‘on, upon, over, above’.

The following semantic problems are also noteworthy:

(1) reflexes of *babaw refer to high country (headwaters of a river, highlands) in a number of languages. These usages could be products of convergence or could be retentions of a figurative usage similar to the literal senses of the directional terms *daya ‘upriver, toward the interior’ and *lahud ‘downriver, toward the sea’. By contrast, a reflex of *babaq meaning ‘lowlands’ has been noted only inBontok.

(2) reflexes of *babaq mean ‘short in height, low’ in several widely separated languages. This usage could be a product of convergence or may have been a figurative counterpart ofPMP *pandak ‘short’. An analogous usage *babaw = ‘tall’ is attested only marginally inBanggaibabo ‘high-rising forest’.

(3) reflexes of *babaq inChamorro and in severalCEMP languages refer to cardinal directions (‘South’ inChamorro,Fordata andYamdena, ‘West’ inKomodo andKambera, ‘North’ inKei andSoutheast Ambrym). By contrast, no reflex of *babaw is known to refer to a cardinal direction.

(4) perhaps the most intriguing problem concerning the comparative semantics of *babaq and *babaw are the semantic equations ‘above’ = ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ = ‘below’. To grasp the full set of interrelations it will be necessary to considerPAn *dalem ‘inside; deep’ as well. In bothBare'e (WMP) andGilbertese (OC) the reflex of *babaw refers both to the upper surface and to the outside of things. In thePolynesian languages as a group the reflex of *babaw refers only to the outside. No comparable change has been noted for reflexes of *babaq, but reflexes of *dalem ‘inside; deep’ have come to mean ‘beneath, below, down, under’ in a number ofWMP andOC languages:Ifugawdalóm ‘under, beneath, deep, low’,Cebuanodálum ‘beneath, below’,Samoanlalo ‘down, under’,Tuvaluanlalo ‘under, below; the bottom; deep; low; humble, humility’. Moreover, reflexes of *dalem have followed the same semantic trajectory as reflexes of *babaq in coming to refer to the cardinal directions, as inNiuelalo ‘below, under; the bottom; the west’,Rarotonganraro ‘beneath, under, below; down; the under or lower portion; west, westward, towards sunset, to leeward’,Maoriraro ‘the bottom, the under side; down; beneath, under; North’ andHawaiianlalo ‘down, downward, low; under, beneath; leeward, southern’. The equation ‘above’ = ‘outside’ suggests that *i babaw referred prototypically to the surface of water or the earth. Given a parallel semantic equation for reflexes of *i babaq we would expect ‘below’ to sometimes develop the meaning ‘inside’. For a more detailed treatment of these problems cf.Blust (1997).

*babaq₂width,breadth

Note:  AlsoMotulababa ‘wide, as cloth, road, etc.; breadth’,Tolaitabābā ‘wide, broad, spacious (as a cloth); breadth’.

*babasblownoffcourse

Note:  At first glance this appears to be a straightforward comparison. However,Malay should reflect *babas as **bawas.Malay has reduced original obstruent clusters in reduplicated monosyllables, and there is some evidence that cluster reduction occurred after the change *-aba >-awa-. If so,Malaybabas could reflect *basbas. However, there is no evidence thatIlokano has reduced obstruent clusters in reduplicated monosyllables. It is possible that this comparative irregularity is a product of borrowing. SinceIlokano is far more likely to have borrowed fromMalay than the reverse, a borrowing hypotheses implies thatMalaybabas reflects apre-Malay innovation *basbas which reachedIlokano via Malay sailors (who were perhaps blown off course?) at some time after the reduction of medial obstruent clusters inMalay. Alternatively the comparison -- despite its strong appeal -- may be an etymological siren.

*babatbelly of ananimal

Note:  IfBahasa Indonesiababat is directly inherited the etymon must have been *batbat, as the sequence *-aba- normally becameMalay,Bahasa Indonesia-awa-.

*babaw₁rat,mouse

*babaw₂shallow

Note:  In the dictionaries of several languages (e.g.Bikol,Nias) the reflexes of *babaw₂ and *babaw₃ are combined as differing senses of a single polysemous form. Given the semantics of e.g. Englishsuperficial this interpretation has some a priori plausibility. However, the occurrence of a monosyllabic root *-baw₂ ‘shallow’ in this and other forms (seeroots) strongly suggests that ‘shallow’ is theprimary sense of *babaw₂, not a secondary extension from the meaning ‘upper surface; top’. The two forms are accordingly regarded as distinct, despite certain points of semantic similarity.

*babaw₃uppersurface,top;highlands;on,upon,over,above

Note:  AlsoBintuluɓaw ‘above, on top of; tall’.

*babaw₄toweed (agarden, etc.)

Note:  Based on theNgaju Dayak andToba Batak formsDempwolff (1934-38) positedPAn *babaw ‘to weed’.Milke (1968), on the other hand, proposedPOc *wawo ‘to weed; weed’ uncultivated land’, a form that could not directly continue Dempwolff's reconstruction.Blust (1970) comparedMaranaowawaw with Milke's *wawo and suggested "PAn" (=PMP) *wawaw as a disjunct of Dempwolff's *babaw. However, of the seven morphemes from six languages cited by Milke in support of *wawo only one (Nggelavavo) can possibly be considered a regular reflex (*w- sometimes disappears and sometimes appears asv-). We are left with no alternative, then, but to dismiss bothPOc *wawo andPMP *wawaw as unmotivated by the evidence.

*babuy babuysowbug,woodlouse:terrestrialisopod of thegenusOniscus

Note:  AlsoMalaybabi tanah ‘insect, unident.’. Presumably a reduplication of *babuy ‘pig’. Although the conceptual basis for a connection between pigs and sowbugs remains obscure, it is noteworthy that a similar association appears in e.g.Spanishcochina ‘sow’,cochinilla ‘sowbug’ (lit. "little sow"), and, of course, in theEnglish word itself.

*babuy₁bird sp.

*babuy₂epilepsy

Note:  It seems likely that thePWMP word for ‘epilepsy’ was a longer expression (perhaps *sakit babuy), but the available evidence does not permit this inference. Because it reflects a distinct morpheme (PMP *beRek ‘domesticated pig’),Nggelambolo ‘pig; foam from the mouth, epilepsy’ confirms that *babuy ‘epilepsy’ derives from *babuy ‘pig’, and indicates that this puzzling association was already present inPMP. For evidence of a wider Southeast Asian distribution of the association ‘pig’ + ‘crazy/illness’ = ‘epilepsy’ cf.Matisoff (1978:70), where it is noted that similar expressions also occur inKhmer,Mon,Thai andBurmese.

*babuy₃pig

Note:  AlsoAnsustapuy,Serui-Lauttafui,Palauanbabíi,Ulithianpa:bwi ‘pig’,Yapesebæbiy (<Palauan),paabuuy (<Ulithian) ‘pig; bulldozer’,Chamorrobæbuy ‘pig, swine; a term used in keeping track of score by counting the number of games won in tres siete (card game), all of which appear to be loans from languages of the Philippines or eastern Sulawesi (the nearest areas where *-uy did not merge with *i), or possibly from the central Moluccas before *-uy was reduced to–u.

Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *babuy ‘pig’.Blust (1970) reconstructed *babuy ‘wild pig’, *beRek ‘domesticated pig’. At the time this semantic distinction appeared to be justified since:

a) the semantic profiles of their reflexes suggested that the two terms were not synonymous,
b) the semantic categories ‘wild pig’ and ‘domesticated pig’ are represented by distinct morphemes in many of the languages of Taiwan, the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra,
c) although reflexes of *babuy refer distinctively both to the wild pig and to the domesticated pig, reflexes of *beRek refer distinctively to the domesticated pig in Taiwan and Borneo, but never refer distinctively to the wild pig,
d) reflexes of *babuy are found in eastern Indonesia as far as the central Moluccas, but nowhere further to the east and e) apparent loanwords resemblingPOc *mpoRok are found in a number of the Papuan languages of New Guinea (Blust 1970,Blust 1976).

It now appears necessary to alter this interpretation in the following way: although *beRek evidently meant ‘domesticated pig’ *babuy referred to pigs in general, with qualifications where needed. In other words, the glosses of *babuy and *beRek were not perfectly complementary, but partially overlapping. There are four types of evidence which support this conclusion:

(1) If *babuy meant ‘wild pig’ it has undergone a semantic change to the meaning ‘domesticated pig’ in a disconcertingly large number of widely dispersed languages. Examples include: (Taiwan)Seediqbabuy,Saisiyatbaboy,Bununbabu,Sirayavavoy, (Philippines)Atta (Pamplona)bábi,Gaddangbabuy,Casiguran Dumagatbábuy,KAKIbebuy,Isnegábuy,Tiruraybabuy, (Malaysia-Indonesia)Oya Melanau,Narum,Miri,Kiputbabuy,Kedayanbawi,Lemanakbabi,Simalurbafu,Javanesebabi ‘domesticated pig’.

(2) The word for ‘pig’ has been borrowed into a number of the languages of western Micronesia from an unknownAustronesian source. In each case the borrowed morpheme reflects *babuy, never *beRek. Since domesticated pigs are more likely to be borrowed than wild pigs, the borrowed reflex of *babuy must have referred, at least optionally, to the domesticated pig. While this does not mean that *babuy referred to the domesticated pig, the probability of such a reference is strengthened in direct relation to the age of the loan. Examples are:Palauanbabíi ‘pig’ (expected **bab),Chamorrobabui ‘pig, swine’ (expected **papi),Yapesepaabuuy ‘pig; bulldozer’,Woleaianpaabiiy ‘pig, hog, boar, sow, swine’ (expected **faf). The agreement ofChamorrobabui ‘term used in keeping track of score by counting the number of games won intres siete (card game)’ withMalaybabi ‘"pig", as a name for the fifth chicky-suit’ points to what may be an independentChamorro borrowing (from a Philippine language?) of the same morpheme in a symbolic context.

(3) Comparative evidence supports the reconstruction ofPMP *babuy banua, domesticated pig’, *babuy halas ‘wild pig’. No similar descriptive terms have been reconstructed with *beRek.

(4) The reconstruction ofPAn *babuy-an ‘pigpen, pigsty, piggery’ is inconsistent with the reconstruction *babuy ‘wild pig’, since it is the domesticated, not the wild pig that would be kept in pens.

The comparative evidence under (3) and (4) could conceivably be a product of convergence. However, convergent innovation is an unlikely explanation of the forms assigned to *babuy banua.Ibanmenoa means ‘an area of land held and used by a distinct community’,Bare'ebanua means ‘house’ andYamdenapnue means ‘village’. If the association of *babuy with *banua is historically secondary it has no obviously semantic basis. ButPMP *banua ‘inhabited territory; area supporting the life of the human community’ forms a rather clear contrast set withPMP *halas ‘forest, uninhabited land’, and this same opposition is seen in *babuy banua vs. *babuy halas (*babuy lebu evidently contains a variant of *lebuq ‘village’, and may be a product of convergence).

In conclusion,Blust (1970) unjustifiably assumed the necessity of reconstructing semantically complementary terms ‘wild pig’ and ‘domesticated pig’. While *babuy halas meant ‘wild pig’ the domesticated pig was called either *beRek or *babuy banua (with *babuy lebu a less convincing third alternative). These observations undermine the suggestion inBlust (1976) that a reflex of *babuy was lost when Austronesian speakers moved into the Pacific because they entered a region in which wild pigs were not yet present. Reflexes of both *babuy and *beRek are found inFormosan andWMP, but only *babuy is reflected inPCMP and only *beRek in OC (despiteAnceaux 1961:35) neither term is clearly reflected inSouth Halmahera-West New Guinea). Given this perspective, the absence of a reflex of *babuy inOceanic languages is no more in need of special explanation than the absence of a reflex of *beRek inPCMP.

*bacakmuddy,waterlogged (ofground)

Note:  AlsoDobelbasa ‘mud’. With root *-cak₁ ‘muddy’.

*baciRsexuallyimpotent

*bacuktohoe,chopupsoil

Note:  With unexplained change *u >o inSundanese,Javanese, andBalinese.Bulibacu ‘axe’ appears to be a loan.

*baCaRbroomcornmillet:Panicummiliaceum

Note:  AlsoMalaybatari ‘Andropogon sorghum’. The following more restricted reconstructions have been proposed:Proto-Central Philippines *batad ‘a plant: Andropogon sorghum’ (Zorc 1979:43), "Proto-Indonesian *bataD ‘grain sp., millet’ (Mills 1981:65). In addition, Mills notes the material earlier assembled byHeyne (1950). The correct interpretation of the shape and meaning of this comparison is due to Laurent Sagart (p.c.).

*badasgrit,coarsesand,gravel

Note:  AlsoKamberawara ‘sand, gravel’ (expected **warahu). Although most recorded reflexes of *badas are glossed ‘sand’, it appears likely from theSundanese,Javanese, andNgadha reflexes and the competing form *qenay that *badas referred to coarse sand or gravel, while *qenay indicated fine sand.Paiwanbaras,varas ‘pebbles, ballast’ is given byFerrell (1982) as a loan fromEnglish throughJapanese (also cf.Javanesebalas ‘a weight for holding or steadying something; ballast’).

*bad(e)risdraw aline

Note:  With root *-ris₂ ‘scratch a line’.

*badinervousspell

*badiqdagger

Note:  AlsoNgaju Dayakbadek ‘a 6-9 inch dagger, with a cutting edge on only one side’,Ibanbadi ‘dagger’,Malaybadik ‘small dagger’,Javanesebaḍik ‘poniard’. It is possible that this is a loan distribution that originated withMalaybadik.

*baduŋbolousedinagriculturalwork

*badutjackfruit sp.

*bagahakfish sp.

Note:  AlsoMalaygahak ‘large silurid fish:Belodontichthys dinema’.

*bagakfoolish

Note:  Possibly with root *-gak₁ ‘proud; boast’.

*bagalovergrown,clumsy,sluggish

*bagaŋaplant:Amorphophallus sp.

*bagaysamekindortype;fitting;well-matched;suitable

*bágaything;detail

Note:  Possibly a Central Philippine loanword inKapampangan.

*bagbágtodestroy,ruin

Note:  TheCasiguran Dumagat form shows an irregularity that suggests borrowing fromTagalog. However, this explanation is harder to apply toIbaloy, and the comparison is therefore assumed to be valid.

*bageqaŋmolartooth

Note:  All languages cited here exceptKapampangan,Hanunóo,Mandar, andSoboyo have mergedPAn *R and *g as /g/.Kapampanganbágaŋ,Hanunóobagʔáŋ ‘molar tooth’ areCentral Philippine loans. SinceSoboyo normally reflects *b as /f/,Soboyobagaŋ also appears to be a loan (presumably from a language of northern Sulawesi or the southern Philippines). We might therefore dismiss the present doublet of *baReqaŋ as a product of irregular sound correspondences introduced through borrowing. However, for this to be possible it would also be necessary to dismissMandarbagaŋ as a loan, despite the lack of a clear source language and the generally low probability that the same body part term would be borrowed independently by more than one language. For the present *bageqaŋ is thus maintained as a rather precarious doublet of *baReqaŋ.

*bag(e)quttopullout

Note:  With root*-gut₂(or *-gequt?) ‘pull with a jerk’.

*bag(e)sákfallto theground, ofsomethingheavy

Note:  Possibly aTagalog loanword inIlokano.

*bagiatanklet,ribbonwornaroundleg

*baguhashrubortree:Gnetumgnemon

Note:  Where a specific identification is not given in the source reflexes of *baguh can easily be confused with reflexes of *baRu ‘Hibiscus tiliaceus’ in languages that merge *g and *R, as both are small trees which yield a strong bast fiber used in making cordage. Unlike theHibiscus tiliaceus, theGnetum gnemon is further useful as a source of food, since its leaves serve as an important vegetable in some areas (Merrill 1954). The semantic distinction betweenPMP *suka (q.v.)Gnetum gnemon and the present etymon remains unclear.

*baguqdiseasethatcausesswelling ofbodyparts

*baguttopullout, ashair

Note:  AlsoIlokanobagɁut-én ‘to pull out; uproot’;ag-pa-bagɁut ‘to have one’s tooth extracted’. With root*-gut₂ ‘to pull with a jerk’.

*bahaklaughboisterously

*bahaqmouth

Note:  Although this form is reflected as a monosyllable in most languages,Kenyah (Long Anap)p andBintuluɓ indicate an earlier cluster. If the complex stops of North Sarawak languages assigned byBlust (1969),Blust (1974) to *bS, *dS, *jS, *gS sometimes derive from the medial clusters in reduplicated monosyllables, *baqbaq would have yielded reflexes with first-syllable shwa and "complex" medial consonant. Some of the above forms could conceivably reflect such a development, with further loss of the first syllable. On the other hand,Manobo (Sarangani)bahaʔ suggests that there was a disyllabic word base with medial *S which could have yielded the North Sarawak initial consonants as reflexes of *bS. If valid, this implies that *baqbaq -- presumably a reduplication of *baSaq -- actually was *baSaq baSaq.Buludupibabpa ‘mouth’, cited byRay (1913), may support this interpretation. For the agreement in the extended meanings ofKayanba,Sikawa, cf.note to *baqbaq.

*bahaRloincloth

Note:  The use of this term in reference to the rainbow both inTagalog and inKayan (Busang) (Kayan dialect of the Kapuas basin), suggests that one way of referring to this phenomenon inPWMP was through a figurative expression which represented it as the loincloth of a deity.

*baháyavine,possiblyarrowroot;faminefood

*bahéntosneeze

Note:  AlsoAgutaynenbaken ‘to sneeze’.

*bahiwoman,female