*w   

*wáak crow

Note:   Forms such as Hanunóo wák suggest that this reconstruction is identical to *uak ‘crow’. Bontok wáak, however, appears to be incompatible with this interpretation.

*wada be, exist, have; wealthy; not exist, not have

Note:   Also Isneg wadʔóy ‘there is (used in songs)’, Bontok wadʔáy ‘bring about; make; form; create; father a child; there is, there exists’, Ifugaw wa ‘there is’, Ilokano addá ‘to have; to be (somewhere), there is, there are, there was, there were; some’. Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *wada ‘Vorhandensein, Nichtsein’. This apparently contradictory gloss is difficult to improve: the idea of existence or possession is clearly reflected in the northern Philippines, in Iban, Malay, Mentawai, and Chamorro, while a negative sense is clearly reflected in the central and southern Philippines, in Maloh, in Old Javanese and Modern Javanese, and in Uma (Toraja) of central Sulawesi. These opposing senses do not coexist (without some morphological or lexical modification) in any attested language, and it is unclear how they can be reconciled in a reconstructed gloss. Forms such as Tagalog waláʔ and Cebuano waráy appear to be morphologically complex, and show a puzzling parallelism to the morphology of vocatives (Blust 1979).

*wadaŋ collarbone, clavicle

Note:   Also Kankanaey ali-madáŋ ‘clavicle, collarbone’. Although this morpheme took the *qali-, *kali- prefix, the particular prefixal variant is presently indeterminate, as Puyuma reflects *qaNi-, Itbayaten reflects *qari-, the Cordilleran languages reflect *qali-, and Toba Batak reflects *kali-.

*wagwág₁ rice variety

*wagwág₂ shake something vigorously (as a sack to

Note:   Also Bontok wayagwag ‘shake something, as clothes in order to remove ants’.

*wahiR fresh water; stream, river

Note:   Also Ifugaw waél ‘creek’, Iban aiʔ ‘water, liquid, liquor, juice, sap’, Sasak aiʔ ‘water’, Manggarai wae ‘water’, Rembong waeʔ ‘water; river; liquid’, Ngadha vae ‘liquid, juice, water, brook, lake’, Rotinese oe ‘water, liquid, sap, juice, semen’, Tetun we ‘water’, we-n ‘juice, sap’, Paulohi waele ‘water’, Kamarian waer ‘water’, Buruese wae ‘water, stream, creek, river’, wae-n ‘fluid’. PMP *wahiR, one of the most widespread and characteristic Austronesian morphemes, often has reflexes in place names.

*wai mango sp.

Note:   Also Maranao wani ‘Mangifera odorata Griff.’. Chowning (1963) reconstructs "Proto-Melanesian" *wai ‘Mangifera indica’. Since PMP *pahuq evidently referred to the Mangifera indica, I assume that PMP *wai designated other varieties, although *wai may well have become a generic term in POc. Tsuchida (1977) attributes Tsou suai, Bunun (Ishbukun) suaiʔ ‘mango’ to borrowing from Southern Minangkabau soai-a. If the direction of borrowing was the reverse of that assumed by Tsuchida, however, these forms, in conjunction with the above cognate set, may indicate a PAn etymon *Suai.

*waip water container

Note:   The Oceanic forms cited here may reflect POc *waiR ‘fresh water’. If so, all that can be inferred is a second gloss for this reconstructed form.

*waka knob on the head of a club

*waŋka canoe

Note:   Based on the comparison Javanese waŋkaŋ ‘ship’, Ngaju Dayak waŋkaŋ ‘Chinese junk’, Fijian waŋga ‘canoe’, Tongan, East Futunan vaka, Samoan vaʔa ‘canoe’ Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *waŋkaŋ ‘water vehicle, ship, canoe’. This long accepted etymology actually is highly problematic.

First, reflexes with a final nasal are known in only five languages, and in each case these refer specifically to Chinese junks: Ngaju Dayak waŋkaŋ ‘Chinese junk’, tanah waŋkaŋ ‘China’; Malay waŋkaŋ ‘Chinese ocean-going junk’, limau waŋkaŋ ‘imported Chinese oranges’; Acehnese, Javanese, Makasarese waŋkaŋ ‘Chinese junk (boat)’.

Second, neither the Malay nor the Javanese words can regularly reflect *waŋkaŋ, since *w- disappeared in Malay and *wa- became Javanese o.

Moreover, the word in Ngaju Dayak, which is spoken in the interior river systems of Southeast Borneo, clearly is a loan from the coastal Banjarese. It appears likely, then, that waŋkaŋ is a loan from some southern form of Chinese (Fukienese? Hakka?) which was borrowed into Malay and Javanese.

In apparent contradiction to this conclusion are reflexes in Central Malayo-Polynesian, South Halmahera-West New Guinea, and especially Oceanic languages, where the probability of early borrowing from Chinese is all but non-existent. Since most Oceanic languages have lost original final consonants, many Oceanic reflexes could derive from *waŋkaŋ. In those languages which normally preserve the final consonant, however, no final consonant is found in this word (Dobuan, Roviana), thus supporting *waŋka, not *waŋkaŋ. Doran (1981) has chosen this form as the title of a book on Austronesian canoe origins, but he combines a genuine Oceanic cognate set with such non-cognate Western Malayo-Polynesian forms as Tagalog baŋkaʔ ‘boat’, Malagasy lakana (Prov. laka) ‘canoe’.

It is now simplest to conclude that *waŋka was an innovation which appeared in northeastern Indonesia prior to the separation of the Central Malayo-Polynesian and Eastern Malayo-Polynesian language groups from one another, but after the separation of PCEMP from all other Austronesian languages. Under this interpretation, the similarity of the native term *waŋka to the apparent loanword waŋkaŋ must be considered a remarkable coincidence. Under this interpretation, Bolaang Mongondow waŋga (for expected **waŋka) ‘boat’ is best regarded as a loan from some still undetermined Central Malayo-Polynesian source.

*waŋkaŋ spread the legs apart

Note:   With root *-kaŋ₁ ‘spread apart, as the legs’. Amis wakaŋ ‘lie on one's back’ may be related.

*wakaq split

Note:   With root *-kaq₂ ‘open forcibly, split’.

*wakaR root

Note:   Also Bintulu bakəh ‘large root, vine’. Reflexes of *wakaR ‘root’ and *wakat ‘mangrove root’ may be difficult to distinguish in Oceanic languages (which typically have lost original final consonants). However, close attention to the semantics suggests that only *wakaR survived in POc. This conclusion is strengthened by reflexes of *wakaR in Oceanic languages which preserve final consonants (as Mussau), and by the apparently suffixed forms with *-a and *-i (although the morphology of these longer forms remains obscure). Despite its reflexes in many Western Malayo-Polynesian languages, PMP *wakaR evidently did not mean ‘vine’ (cf. *waRej ‘vine’), although in addition to ‘root (generic)’ it may have referred more particularly to creeping roots.

*wakas loosen, undo, uncover

Note:   With root *-kas₂ ‘loosen, undo, untie’.

*wakat₁ mangrove root

Note:   Also Seru ukat ‘root’. Although no Central Malayo-Polynesian language apart from Atoni is known to reflect *wakat in the meaning ‘root’, it seems clear from Bikol, Aklanon, Cebuano wákat and from Bolaang Mongondow wakat-an that we are dealing here with a single cognate set. Since PMP *wakaR evidently meant ‘root’ (generic) and PMP *teŋeR meant ‘mangrove’ the most likely meaning of *wakat is ‘mangrove roots’. Dempwolff's (1934-38) attempt to relate Malagasy vahatra ‘a colony in progress of settlement’ to *wakaR appears to be misguided, but the Malagasy form may be a metaphorical development from *wakat.

*wákat₂ scatter, strew about

*waket mangrove root (?)

*wakir kind of root

*waksí shake off, flick off

Note:   Also Casiguran Dumagat wagseh ‘push or shake something off you; flick or throw something off to the side’.

*wakwak bird sp.; to caw, crow

Note:   Also Puyuma (Tamalakaw) waHwaH ‘crow’. This form appears to be onomatopoetic, and may ultimately be a reduplication of *uak ‘crow’.

*wali to paint; smear or rub on

*wáliŋ wáliŋ orchid sp.

*walu eight (of non-humans)

Note:   I interpret the agreement of the following morphologically complex reflexes of *walu as products of convergence: 1. Paiwan kaR-waru waru ‘eight each’, Bikol kag-waló ‘eighteen’, 2. Bikol ka-waló-an ‘eighths’, Madurese ka-ballu-an ‘group of eight’.

*walwál, walwáR work (object, instrument) from side to side

*wanaN, waNan right (side, hand, direction)

Note:   Also Saisiyat kaʔnal, Ma'anyan kawan, Uma kaʔana ‘right side’. PAn *ka- may have distinguished right/left hand from right/left side/direction, but the function of this minimally productive affix remains unclear. I take the similarity of the longer affixes in Gorontalo olo-wala, Bolaang Mongondow kolo-anan, and Soboyo kala-wanañ ‘right side’ to be a product of convergence.

Unlike PAn *wiRi ‘left side’, there is little evidence that PAn *wanaN, waNan was prefixed with *ma- in POc. Ali mawaŋ ‘right side’ may indicate that the prefixed form occurred, but the reflexes in Manam, Wogeo, and some other languages show clearly that *wanan was found in POc, whereas *wiRi was not. Finally, at least three widely separated languages reflect *nawaN rather than *wanaN. I take this to be the result of independent metatheses rather than as evidence for a doublet.

*wane wane straight, direct; flat, level

Note:   Proto-Eastern Admiralty *mʷanen (Pak mʷanen, Loniu mʷenen, Nali monen, Penchal mʷanen(-en), Ahus monen-en ‘straight’) may be related if the following assumptions are justified: (1) POc *wane wane sometimes took the attributive suffix *-na; (2) In Proto-Eastern Admiralty the syncopation of a vowel in the environment VC__CV, which is attested in some other forms, produced *wanwane-na; (3) The derivative cluster *nw assimilated to *mw, yielding *wamwane-na; (4) The initial syllable was then lost. POc final vowels were regularly lost in all languages of the Eastern Admiralties.

*wani honeybee

Note:   Also Iban mañi ‘bees’, Jarai heni ‘honeybee’, Makasarese bani ‘bee’, Sika wane ‘honeybee’. PMP *ñ, which is suggested by the Melanau (Mukah), Iban, Singhi and Maloh reflexes, is contradicted by Jarai, Bare'e, Proto-South Sulawesi, and Hawu. I assume that the Bornean witnesses show secondary palatalization of *n. Mills (1975:883) posits "Proto-Indonesian" ? *wani ‘bee’. The prototype of this comparison may have been *qawani.

*waŋáwaŋ wide open space

Note:   With root *-waŋ ‘wide open space’.

*waŋis bare the teeth

Note:   Also Kanakanabu anísi, Tsou hisi, Proto-Rukai *valisi, Puyuma (Tamalakaw) wali, Amis wadis ‘tooth, teeth’, Bunun vani ‘boar’; Cebuano waŋsiʔ ‘having one or both of the lips turned up so that it is impossible to close the mouth’. With root *-ŋis ‘bare the teeth’.

*waŋwáŋ gaping expanse

Note:   Also Bikol waŋíwaŋ ‘gaping (a hole)’. With root *-waŋ ‘wide open space’. Bontok waŋwáŋ ‘river’ and similar forms in other languages of northern Luzon may also be related (cf. the semantic range of reflexes of *bawaŋ ‘open expanse of land or water’).

*wao forest, uninhabited land

Note:   Also Proto-Micronesian *walu ‘forest, woods, bushy area’.

*waqay foot, leg

Note:   Also Manggarai waʔi ‘leg, lower part of something’, Rembong waʔi ‘leg’, Ngadha vai ‘foot, leg; footprint; rung of a ladder; fencepost; lath’, Sika waʔi(-ŋ) ‘foot’, Mambai oi-n ‘foot, leg’, Gedaged wae-n ‘the arms of an octopus’. Palauan oach and Central Malayo-Polynesian forms such as Manggarai waʔi may reflect a doublet *waqi.

*warák scatter, strew

*wáras distribute, deal out

*waray to separate, as two people

*wari sing; song

Note:   The Nali and Loniu forms probably reflect *wari-a.

*waRej vine, creeper

Note:   Also Karo Batak waren ‘vine, liana (generic); also a substitute term for "snake"’, Mussau oasa ‘vine; rope’. As noted in Blust (1985) the PMP generic term for ‘vine’ contradicts certain proposed universal evolutionary sequences in Brown (1984). In private correspondence Brown has maintained that *waRej probably meant ‘tying material’. There is, however, no empirical basis for Brown's conclusion. PMP *waRej clearly contrasts with PMP *talih ‘rope, string, cordage’, and the semantic contrast is maintained in some attested languages, as Nauna (Admiralties), where way means either ‘vine’ or ‘rope’, but tɨl (< *talih) means only ‘rope’ (never ‘vine’).

The semantic extensions to ‘rope’, ‘snake’ (PMP *nipay) and ‘vein, tendon’ (PMP *uRat) are all easily understood as modifications of an original meaning ‘vine’. Examples of the transfer of a term for a raw material to some useful product made from it are cited in Blust (1985). The English word ‘rope’ is not only applied to vines, but is extended to veins and tendons in New Guinea Pidgin, and in Borneo and Sumatra the word for ‘vine’ is often used as a benign substitute for ‘snake’ when one is exposed to the danger of snakes in the jungle. Significantly, reflexes of *talih rarely mean ‘vine’, and never mean ‘snake’.

*waRi₁ day; sun; dry in the sun

Note:   The initial *h which appears in this form in Malay and the Chamic languages is clarified by the alternation in Iban (and Malay (Sarawak)) ari ‘day’, mata hari (< earlier *mata ni waRi) ‘sun’, where consonant epenthesis prevents the coalescence of what otherwise would be adjacent like vowels in the compound expression. Other languages in which *w- has disappeared, as Toba Batak and Balinese, maintain a reflex of the genitive marker *ni, and hence are not confronted with the problem.

The semantic distinction between PAn *waRi and *qalejaw is not entirely clear, although judging from the agreement of Formosan and Central Malayo-Polynesian languages the former term included the meaning ‘dry in the sun’, while the latter did not. Finally, Jarai yaŋ hrəy, Rhade yaŋ hruê ‘sun’ (< yaŋ ‘deity, god’ + ‘day’), and Old Javanese textual references to saŋ hyaŋ we (Zoetmulder 1982, Subanen/Subanun we) suggest that in pre-Indic western Indonesia the sun was conceived as a deity.

*waRi₂ past, of time

Note:   Possibly related to *waRi(n)sa ‘day before yesterday’ (q.v.).

*waRi(n)sa day before yesterday

Note:   Also Mailu arie ‘day before yesterday’, Gedaged wozi ‘day before yesterday; a few days ago, recently’, Vitu varira ‘day before yesterday’, Sa'a waite ‘of old, a long time ago, some days ago’, wäite ‘the day before yesterday’, i weite ‘two days ago’. Dempwolff (1934-38) attempted to relate Ulawa wälita to *waRi ‘day’, but the etymology is dubious.

*wasay axe

*wasay wasay insect sp.

*wa(n)se divide

Note:   Milke (1968) includes forms from several other languages, but on closer inspection these appear to be non-cognate.

*wasíwas wave back and forth (hand, flag)

*waswás₁ shake something, rinse clothes by shaking in

*waswás₂ tear apart something that one has made; undo

*watawat wave, flutter (as a flag)

*wati₁ (X + wati₁) earthworm

Note:   PMP *wati clearly was used with some variant of the *qali-, *kali- prefix. The agreement of Itbayaten alu-ati, Bolaang Mongondow olu-asi may be taken to support Proto-Philippines *qalu-wati, but the PMP variant of this prefix with *wati remains unclear.

*wati₂ spouse

Note:   The relationship of this term to POc *qasawa is unclear. It is possible that *wati₂ meant ‘marry’.

*watnág scatter, disperse

Note:   It is unclear whether the reduction of Proto-Philippines *-tn- clusters is a recurrent sound change in Cebuano.

*wáwaq mouth of a river

*waywáy dangle, hang down loosely

Note:   Also Bontok wayáway ‘to swing; to sway, as something hanging, a child's legs from a carrying blanket or the tail of a waist belt’.

*wigwíg shake, shake something

*wikwik chirp, whistle

Note:   Also Bontok wíik ‘squeal of a piglet when it is hungry’. Possibly a convergent innovation.

*wili return, come back

Note:   Tsuchida (1976:145) reconstructs *w₁iliq₂ ‘return, come back’, but presents no clear evidence for the reconstruction of the final consonant.

*wiŋawiŋ wag, shake, move repeatedly from side to side

*wiŋis bare the teeth

Note:   With root *-ŋis ‘bare the teeth’.

*wíqwiq slit open

*wirit twist

Note:   Oceanic reflexes of *wirit are not to be confused with phonetically and semantically similar forms reflecting POc *piri ‘twist’.

*wiRi left side or direction