Table 2 Formosan language evidence for the meaning of eight reconstructed agricultural words
From: A northern Chinese origin of Austronesian agriculture: new evidence on traditional Formosan cereals
Rice-specific PAN meaning acc. to (Blust and Trussel 2016) | PAN form | Evidence cited in (Blust and Trussel 2016) in support of rice-specific meaning | Foxtail millet-related cognate forms from our fieldwork |
|---|---|---|---|
cooked rice | *Semay | Amis hmay ‘cooked rice’ Kavalan mːay ‘cooked rice’ Pazeh sumay ‘cooked rice’ | Amis (Dulan) hmay ‘cooked grain, as of foxtail’ Kavalan mmay ‘cooked grain, as of foxtail’ Kaxabu su'maj‘cooked grain, as of foxtail’ |
rice between harvesting and cooking; husked rice | *beRas | Amis felac ‘milled rice grain’ Atayal buax ‘hulled, uncooked cereal; grains (of rice or millet)’ Kanakanabu və’əra ‘husked rice’ Kavalan beRas ‘rice that has been harvested but not yet cooked’ Paiwan vat ‘seed, kernel, grain; testicles’ Puyuma (Tamalakaw) veRas ‘husked rice’ Rukai (Maga) bósə ‘husked rice’ Rukai (Tona) bəʔásə ‘husked rice’ Saaroa ə-vəraə ‘husked rice’ Tsou fərsə ‘husked rice’ | Amis (Dulan) flac ‘dehusked grain of foxtail’ Atayal vuax ‘dehusked grain, as of foxtail’ Kanakanabu vura ‘dehusked grain, as with foxtail’ Kavalan vχas ‘dehusked grain, as of foxtail’ Paiwan (Daniao, Taiban, Dewen) vat ‘dehusked grain, as of foxtail’ Rukai (Dewen) ‘bəratə ‘dehusked grain, as of foxtail’ Sediq beras ‘dehusked grain, as with foxtail’ |
rice bran/husk | *qeCah | Amis ʔtah ‘chaff’ Proto-Rukai *eca ‘husk of rice’ Puyuma (Tamalakaw) HeTa ‘rice husk and bran’ | Amis tah ‘chaff, as of foxtail millet’ Rukai (Taromak) eca ‘chaff, as of foxtail millet’ |
rice mortar | *iŋsuŋ | Kavalan iŋsuŋ ‘mortar’ | Kavalan insuŋ ‘dehusking/crushing mortar, used for foxtail millet’ |
rice seedling | *bunabun | Paiwan vunavun ‘seedlings of grains or grasses’ | Rukai (Dewen) bunabunu ‘germinated grain, seedling, as with foxtail millet’ |
seed rice, rice set aside for the next planting | *bineSiq | Bunun binsiq ‘seed preserved (as millet seed)’ Puyuma bini ‘seed of grains’ Saisiyat binSi seed of grains Thao finshiq to sow, scatter seed in planting | Saisiyat binʃiʔ seed for sowing (as of foxtail millet)’ Thao kamar a vavinçeq ‘foxtail millet seeds for sowing’ Bunun binisjɪq ‘seed for sowing (as of foxtail millet)’ |
sticky rice cake | *qemu | Amis ʔəmu ‘New Year's cake, made of sweet sticky rice’ Paiwan qemu ‘something that has been beaten in a mortar, as millet into flour’ Puyuma Hemu ‘flour’ Thao qmu ‘sticky rice; sticky rice cake’ | Paiwan (Daniao, Taiban) q < in > əmu ‘flour, as of foxtail millet’ |
to pound rice | *bayu | Bunun ma-bazu ‘to pound’ | Bunun maɓaðu ‘to pound grain to remove seed coat, as with foxtail millet’ |