Proto-Austronesian language

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[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] Numerals

Proto-Austronesian	Malay	Modern Javanese	Batak (Toba)	Tagalog	Malagasy	English meaning
*(e)sa	satu	siji	sada	isa	iray	'one'
*duSa	dua	loro	dua	dalawa	roa	'two'
*telu	tiga	telu	tolu	tatlo	telo	'three'
*S(e)pat	empat	papat	opat	apat	efatra	'four'
*lima	lima	lima	lima	lima	dimy	'five'
*(e)nem	enam	enem	onom	anim	enina	'six'
*pitu	tujuh	pitu	pitu	pito	fito	'seven'
*walu	delapan	wolu	uwalu	walo	valo	'eight'
*Siwa	sembilan	sanga	sia	siyam	sivy	'nine'
*(sa)puluq	sepuluh	sepuluh	sampulu	sampu	folo	'ten'
*(sa)Ratus	seratus	satus	saratus	isang daan	zato	'a hundred'
*(sa)ribu	seribu	sewu	saribu	isang libo	arivo	'a thousand'

*(e)sa

Originally, Proto-Austronesian numeral for ‘one’ is *sa. Like other monosyllabic Proto-Austronesian words, it is often preceded by particle e-. *sa is used for indefinite article (referring number) and written as prefix. So *sapuluq, *saRatus, *saRibu actually mean ‘a ten’, ‘a hundred’ and ‘a thousand’; *sarumaq means ‘a house’, *sabuaq means ‘a fruit’, etc. Tagalog and Hiligaynon isa, Achinese sa, and even Sawu ahi are directly derived from *(e)sa. Several languages add Proto-Austronesian adjectival particle *ma- in front of *(e)sa such as Ilocano maysa, Torajan misa and Mandar mesa.

Malay satu is derived from two Proto-Austronesian words *(e)sa and *Cau. *Cau means ‘man, people, person’, as in Austronesian languages Torajan tau, Mandar and Tagalog tao, Hiligaynon tawo. Meanwhile in other Austronesian languages, *Cau is added with suffix –an as *Cauan to get the meaning ‘lord, lordship’ or just for honorific title to a person as in Malay tuan ‘lord, master’, Tuhan ‘Lord (God)’, tuanku ‘my lord, my master’ or Achinese tengku and teuku for honorific titles (both originally mean ‘my lord, my master’; but tengku is derived from Proto-Austronesian *Cauan and *–ku, while teuku is derived from *Cau and *–ku). As numeral, *Cau also performed in Old Javanese *tunggal. It is also suggested that Oceanic word for ‘one’ come from *Cau (Maori and Rapanui tahi and Hawaiian (e)kahi). Madurese also use settong as Malay satu.

Sundanese and Modern Javanese hiji and siji have older forms sahiji and sawiji. Both come from two Proto-Austronesian words *sa and *biji. *biji means ‘seed (of a fruit)’ as Malay word biji. So sahiji and sawiji originally mean ‘a seed’.

Like Malay satu, Batak sada is derived from two Proto-Austronesian words, *(e)sa and *da. *da also means ‘man, people, person’, but *da is always used for honorific title to a person as in Balinese ida (as Brahmin caste titles : Ida Bagus, Ida Ayu) and Minangkabau uda (means ‘elder brother’). Often, *da and *tu are combined as *datu for superior honorific as Malay datuk (title for landlord, chief), and Javanese ratu (means ‘king’, but in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia, ratu means ‘queen’). Javanese also use dhatu beside ratu (both come from *datu) in confixed words kedhaton and k(e)raton (from Proto-Austronesian *qadatuan), both mean ‘palace’ in Javanese, but only k(e)raton also means ‘kingdom’). As numeral meaning ‘one’, *da also performs in Tetun ida, Fijian (language) dua and Malagasy iray. Nias sara is also derived from *(e)sa and *da.

*duSa

*duSa means ‘two’. This original form only appears in Formosan languages (as Bunun and Paiwanic dusa), meanwhile Malayo-Polynesian seems to prefer form *dua as in most Austronesian languages such as Malay, Sundanese, Balinese, Batak and Torajan dua, Madurese duwe, Achinese duwa, Hiligaynon duha or even Nias rua, Malagasy roa and Oceanic languages (Maori, Fijian and Rapanui rua, Hawaiian (e)lua).

Tagalog dalawa (older form : dadawa) also seems to be derived from *dua or exactly the reduplicaton of *dua as *duadua (as Mandar daqduaq).

Actually the numeral ‘two’ in Javanese is ro (derived from Old Javanese *rwa for Modern Javanese does not allow diphthongs, and derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *dua as Nias, Malagasy and Oceanic languages change phoneme d into r). Javanese loro has older form roro, the reduplication of ro. Single ro only appears for referring number of noun as rong(ro + particle –ng, just like Tagalog dalawang from dalawa + -ng) in rong puluh, rong atus, rong ewu, mean as follows ‘twenty’ or ‘two tens’, ‘two hundreds’ and ‘two thousands’ (cf. Tagalog dalawampu, dalawang daan, dalawang libo); rong omah ‘two houses’ ('Tagalog dalawang bahay); rong tahun ‘two years’ (Tagalog dalawang taon), etc.

It is false cognate to correlate Minangkabau duo ‘and Latin *duo ‘two’. Minangkabau duo is derived from Malay dua and from Proto-Austronesian *duSa. Meanwhile Latin *duo was derived from Proto-Indo-European *duwo and cognate with [[English] two.

*telu

Most Austronesian languages including Oceanic languages agree to use *telu for numeral ‘three’ as Javanese telu, Sundanese tilu, Batak and Nias tolu, Malagasy telo, Mandar talluq, Maori toru, Hawaiian (e)kolu, etc.

Tagalog tatlo seems to be derived from Proto-Austronesian *telutelu, the reduplication of *telu.

It is interesting to discuss the etymology of Malay mysterious numeral tiga. It is said that tiga (‘three’) correlates philosophically with another Malay word telur (means ‘egg’, from Proto-Austronesian *qiCeluR). The (philosophical) correlation is that an egg has three parts : shell, albumen and nucleus. It is also mysterious in most Austronesian languages such as Mandar word for ‘egg’ is talog, Tagalog itlog or Balinese talur, sounds like talluq, tatlo and telu (‘three’)., meanwhile Javanese has word tigan (possibly from tiga + suffix –an) for polite form (krama) of endog (‘egg’)