*S   

*Sa₁ ligature

Note:   Also Pangasinan ya ‘linking particle’.

*Sa₂ locative particle

Note:   Also Bolaang Mongondow o- ‘at, in, with words that indicate direction’, Motu a ‘postposition: from, with, by’. This particle appears to be fossilized in several reflexes of POc *a nusa ‘name of an island’ (cf. *nusa). For a discussion of the ‘adhesive locative’ in Austronesian languages see Blust (1989a).

*SabaN cloth used to carry a child on the back

Note:   Also Rhade abăn ‘blanket’.

*SabaRat south wind (?)

Note:   Also Casiguran Dumagat balát ‘strong wind from the west (from the mountains, considered a bad wind which blows in stormy weather)’, Mentawai barä ‘west, west wind’, Proto-Sangiric *baRet ‘west wind’, Bolaang Mongondow wagat ‘rainy season’, Wolio bara ‘west, west monsoon’, Rembong barak ‘west wind’, Erai harak ‘west, west wind’, Soboyo bara ‘north’. There is no doubt that this term referred to the west monsoon of island Southeast Asia and portions of western Melanesia, in contradistinction to the east monsoon, *timuR (q.v.).

Apart from a few anomalous glosses (Kavalan balat, Manobo (Western Bukidnon) evaǥat) the references to cardinal directions in the reflexes are consistent with a west wind centered very near the Equator. In Amis (23 degrees n. latitude) this is described as a ‘south’ wind, throughout most of the Philippines (5-18 degrees n. latitude) it is described as a ‘south’ or ‘southwest’ wind, in most of the languages of Indonesia (5 degrees n. latitude to 10 degrees s. latitude) it is described as a ‘west’ wind, and in Merina, the standard dialect of Malagasy (23 degrees s. latitude) the meaning is ‘north’ (presumably a secondary semantic development after the Malagasy migration from southeast Borneo).

In the western Pacific the orientation of the west monsoon to the north-south axis appears to be somewhat different. The languages of the Admiralty Islands (all within 2 degrees s. latitude) and a number of those in southeastern Papua (roughly 10 degrees s. latitude) refer to the west monsoon as a ‘northwest’ wind, whereas the languages of both western and eastern Indonesia at corresponding latitudes refer to it as a ‘west’ wind. Further east, beyond the reach of the monsoon, the term survives as the name of a strong storm wind without reference to cardinal direction.

*Sabij twins of the same sex

Note:   The gloss of *Sabij clearly implies a lexical distinction between twins of the same sex and twins of opposite sex, but no etymon which can be associated with the latter meaning has yet been found. Given the limited data in support of this reconstruction it is possible that the meaning was simply ‘twins’, and that a convergent semantic restriction developed independently both in Paiwan and in Roviana.

*Sabit long cloth wrapped around body and used for carrying

*SadiRi housepost

Note:   Also Casiguran Dumagat adígi ‘housepost’ (probably an Ilokano loan), Kelabit diri ‘house post’, Kiput pəlirəy ‘house post’, Old Javanese ḍiri ‘stand, stand upright, remain standing; be in function, reign; standing alone, outstanding, surpassing all others’, Buginese alliri ‘house post’, Chamorro haligi ‘fence post, pillar, house post used for structural support’ (probably a Tagalog loan). Nataoran Amis salili appears for expected **sarili; the comparative data for this Amis dialect are not yet sufficient to determine whether the assimilation in this form is regular or sporadic, but the cognation of the form is hardly in question. In this connection it is worth noting that among the Formosan aborigines only the Amis, Kavalan and Ketagalan (the latter now extinct) built houses elevated on posts (Ferrell 1969:33).

The necessity of positing PAn *SadiRi ‘house post’ leaves no alternative but to conclude that this type of residential structure has great antiquity among Austronesian-speaking peoples, and that the house types of the Atayal, Tsou, Paiwan, Rukai, Bunun, and Yami, which are constructed either directly on the ground, or in a shallow excavation, represent architectural innovations. Such innovations may well have been motivated by a need to adjust to the colder conditions of life in the mountains, or by a need for protection from the seasonal typhoons that periodically sweep westward across the Pacific to southern Taiwan.

Finally, accounts such as that of Cunningham (1964) and Schulte Nordholt (1971:428ff) make it clear that the dualistic cosmological symbolism embodied in the Atoni house distinguishes ‘male’ and ‘female’ posts, associated respectively with the right and left sides. Although the similar dualistic distinction in Manam appears to be based on the length of the post itself rather than on its position within the larger domestic structure, it appears very likely from this linguistic symbolism that speakers of PCEMP made use of some type of dualistic symbolism which was expressed as a male/female contrast in certain of the supporting posts for the house.

*Sadu many, much, plenty

*Sajek smell; to smell (transitive)

Note:   Also Amis hanek ‘a bad odor, smell’, Tboli melek ‘kiss’, Singhi koduk ‘to smell (something)’, Atoni at nɛk ‘to kiss’, Mono-Alu aho ‘to sniff, smell’, Roviana aho-a ‘to kiss (someone/something)’, vari aho ‘kiss one another’. Although only the general meaning ‘to smell (transitive)’ can confidently be associated with PAn *Sajek, it is clear from the distribution of semantic reflexes that PMP *hajek referred specifically to the traditional nose kiss of Malayo-Polynesian-speaking peoples.

*SakuC transport piecemeal; tranport through repeated trips

Note:   The fundamental idea expressed in this comparison is that of removing a material from one location to another as result of repeated trips between the two sites. The natural prototype for such a concept may have been the activity of the mason bee in securing mud for its nest (see *hakut hakut). However, if this activity served as a model for the semantics of *SakuC it appears that its distinctive feature (repeated trips over the same route) had already been abstracted and put to more general use by PAn times.

*Salas forest, wilderness, woods

Note:   Also Lampung las ‘forest, jungle’, Ngadha kala ‘thicket, forest, jungle’. Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed both *halas (in the form *alas) and *quCaN (in the form *hutan) meaning ‘forest’. It is now clear, however, that PMP *halas was a general term for ‘forest, jungle’, while PMP *qutan (also PAn *quCaN?) referred to a particular category of flora which is perhaps best described by Brown's (1984) term ‘grerb’ (‘small plant relative to the plant inventory of a particular environment whose parts are chiefly herbaceous (green, leafy, nonwoody)’. It thus included various grasses, herbs, bushes and the like (some of which were useful and some not) which probably were conceptually united by their being noncultivated plants associated with the wilderness.

*SameCi a plant: Solanum nigrum

Note:   Also Kanakanabu namíci, Saaroa ɬamici, Ilokano amtík ~ agamtík ‘nightshade plant, Solanum nigrum’, Tagalog antí ‘a plant, Solanum nigrum’, Hanunóo unti ‘a small wild herbaceous plant (Solanum nigrum Linn.); the young leaves are used as a green vegetable by the Hanunóo’, Maranao moti ‘morel plant: Solanum nigrum L.’ Javanese ranti ‘tomato’, Manggarai kenti ‘a wild vegetable: Solanum nigrum’. This word shows multiple irregular variations, making any reconstruction difficult. I have arbitrarily chosen to compare Paiwan sametsi with forms in other languages that are ambiguous for initial *S or zero. Comparison of Tagalog antí with languages in northern Luzon would point instead to Proto-Philippines *amtí.

*SapaR unroll a mat, spread out a mat

Note:   Also Saisiyat (Taai) ʃapəl (< *SapeN) ‘spread a mat, lay a mat’. Despite occasional nominal derivatives, PAn *SapaR, PMP *hampaR clearly was a verb meaning ‘to spread out’. Its prototype referent appears to have been the unrolling of mats onto the ground, although in several witnesses metaphorical extensions refer to the dispersal of small discrete objects. Under his *hampa(r) ‘spread out, stretch out’ Dempwolff (1934-38) also included proposed cognates in a number of Oceanic languages (e.g. Sa'a epa ‘to lie as a mat, of yam vines’, Fijian yabata ‘cover up with mats’, Tongan ʔepa ‘mats (collectively) given to a bride’). None of these appear to belong to the present cognate set, nor to be related to one another.

*Sapejiq smarting, stinging pain

Note:   Also Malagasy fery ‘wound, hurt, ulcer, sore’, Iban pediʔ ‘sharp pain, sting, smart’, Old Javanese pəDe, pəDay ‘to smart (of the eyes; from sleep, bright light, etc.)’, Balinese pedih ‘angry, express anger’. Dempwolff (1934-38) posited *pe[dD]iq ‘hurt, ache’, but his comparison was restricted to languages of western Indonesia. The Malay reflex of *Sapejiq does not show the expected development of an original trisyllable with medial *e (cf. Blust 1982).

*Sapiq flattened

*Sapit press together, press between two surfaces

Note:   Also Buruese afi-h ‘press, clamp’. With root *-pit ‘press, squeeze together; narrow’. Dempwolff (1934-38) included Sa'a äpi ‘hold under the arm, hold close to the body’, Tongan ʔapiʔapi ‘crowded or crammed’, and Samoan apiapi ‘narrow’, apit-ia ‘be wedged in, be confined’ as reflexes of *ha(m)pit ‘hold together’, but I regard these as non-cognate.

In addition to their general verbal meanings, reflexes of PWMP *hapit have two recurrent nominal senses: 1. the members of a wedding party who flank (‘squeeze in’) the bride or groom at the wedding ceremony, and 2. a part of the indigenous backstrap loom. The distribution of forms with the former meaning is limited to two known languages (Bahasa Indonesia, Makasarese), and probably is due to borrowing. Reflexes of *hapit which refer to a part of the backstrap loom are, however, more widespread (Karo Batak, Sundanese, Balinese, Sasak, Tae'), and are less likely to be products of diffusion.

More difficult is the problem of achieving an exact gloss: with reference to the loom PWMP *hapit evidently designated a structure consisting of two wooden slats between which the warp threads were pinched. Judging from the glosses in Sundanese and Tae', this structure extended across the lap of a seated weaver, and was bound at its ends by thongs which extended around her padded hips so as to control the desired tension on the warp threads.

*SapSap feel, grope

*SapuSap feel, grope

Note:   Also Tagalog apuháp ‘feel out by extending the hand’, Bikol hapíhap ‘rub gently; caress, fondle, pet, stroke’.

*Sapuy fire

Note:   Also Kankanaey apey ‘fire; burning; conflagration; combustion; light’, Kapampangan apíʔ ‘fire, flame, spark’, Balinese ampi ‘fire’, Sasak perapen ‘smithy, forge’ (Javanese loan), Rotinese haʔi ‘fire’, Leti w~ai ‘fire’, Lakalai havi ‘fire’. Many reflexes of *Sapuy are affixed in a variety of ways. Some of the cross-linguistic agreements in morphologically complex forms of this morpheme appear to reflect affixed proto-forms, while others appear to be products of convergence. Among the latter are the following:

1) Ifugaw (Batad) i-apuy ‘that with which something is burned, i.e. a fire’, Tontemboan i-api ‘the time specified for a woman who is about to give birth to be exposed to heat; that which is used for warming her’;
2) Kapampangan mam-apiʔ ‘is sparking, is on fire’, Ngaju Dayak mam-apuy ‘roast (fish, etc.) over a fire’; Mandar me-api-aŋ ‘cooking place, hearth’,
3) Itbayaten mapa-hapoy ‘to produce fire’, Tontemboan mapa-api ‘warm oneself, stay by a fire’,
4) Paiwan pe-sapuy ‘catch on fire’, Isneg pag-apúy ‘allow (somebody) to cook rice’, Ngaju Dayak p-api ‘what is roasted in the fire’;
5) Paiwan pu-sapuy-an ‘fireplace’, Ifugaw pun-apuy-án ‘fireplace, hearth’.

In addition, *hapuy hapuy ‘firefly’ may be a convergent innovation (cf. PWMP *qali-petpet ‘firefly’), and various other reduplicated forms of *hapuy almost certainly are products of historically independent innovations, as with Karo Batak api api ‘caterpillar with hairs that cause strong itching’, Old Javanese apuy apuy ‘light a fire; sit near a fire (?)’, and Tontemboan api api ‘kind of bird, named from its red breast’.

*SaRuŋ snore, groan, etc.

Note:   Also Hanunóo, Cebuano háguk ‘snore’.

*Sasak ripe; cooked

*Sasaq whet, sharpen

Note:   Also Bunun asaq ‘rub, grind, whet, sharpen’ (Nihira 1983 [1932]), Bintulu aseʔ ‘whetting, sharpening’, Iban asah ‘sharpen’, Gedaged yase ‘sharpen, abrade, rub (down), file, pulverize’, Lau tata ‘scrape, sharpen by rubbing’, Sa'a ata-ata ‘diamond-shaped yam grater; to grate’. The etymon of this widespread cognate set clearly referred to the sharpening of worn tool edges, and not merely to grating or grinding in general. It is compatible with a hypothesis that either edge-ground stone tools or metal tools of some type were in use among PAn speakers (c. 4,000 B.C.). Paiwan tataq is assumed to result from assimilation of *S to *s prior to the regular change *s > /t/.

*SateD accompany, escort; send, return

Note:   Also Itbayaten hatid ‘deliver, accompany’, Tiruray odor ‘go along, accompany’, Acehnese euntat ‘escort, accompany, convey, bring, transfer’, Balinese (High) ater ‘lead (an animal), escort, lead away (prisoners)’, Sasak anter ‘escort, accompany’, TND antar ‘wedding gold’ (= Malay loan with semantic change?), Banggai antok, maŋ-antok-kon ‘lead, escort, bring’, Bimanese oto ‘escort, accompany’.

Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *ha(n)teD ‘bring, escort, conduct, deliver’. However, this gloss fails to account for the fact that reflexes of *SateD refer not just to this general semantic range, but more specifically to 1. a ceremonial escorting of the bride to the wedding or to her new husband (in connection with patrilocal residence?), and 2. to some form of material exchange, probably involving bridewealth (Bikol, Bolaang Mongondow, Numfor). The clear references to food exchanges or distribution -- whether connected with marriage or not -- in at least Javanese, Madurese, Sasak, Makasarese and Palauan further suggests that by at least PWMP times *hateD included as an important part of its denotation gifts of food from a wedding feast which were evidently carried home for consumption.

*Sauni in a little while, momentarily, later

*Saw question particle

Note:   If the Amis and Philippine forms are cognate the latter show an irregular loss of expected initial h-.

*Sawak waist, back of the waist

Note:   Also Hanunóo áwak ‘back of waist’, Kelabit awaʔ ‘waist’, Maloh awaʔ ‘waist’, Dairi-Pakpak Batak awak ‘waist, hips’, Rejang awaʔ ‘body, abdomen, trunk’. The precise semantic agreement in the glosses of Kavalan sawaq and Hanunóo háwak ‘back of the waist’, and the somewhat wavering English gloss ‘waist, hips’ in several languages suggest that the referent of *Sawak did not correspond exactly to any semantic category of English. Rather, the available information suggests that PAn *Sawak and PMP *hawak referred to the unprotected space between the rib cage and the pelvic bone which is not covered by the muscles of the abdominal diaphragm, hence a part of the body corresponding roughly to the English concept ‘waist’, but applying only to the sides and back.

*SawSaw wash, rinse

Note:   Also Amis sasaw ‘generic word for wash’.

*SayaN termite

*SebaN carry a child with a carrying cloth