Re: [tied] Just a word about Austronesian

26-07-03 01:13, Almogàver wrote:

> I was browsing the Net when I found a list of cognates between several
> Austronesian languages and their meanings.
>
> The line corresponding to "head" started with an Indonesian "kepala"
> that didn't seem to match any of the other languages (Tagalog "úlo",
> Fijian "ulu", Maori "uru" and Hawaiian "po'o" - well, maybe the last
> ones does).
>
> Can I take this as just a coincidence with Greek?

I'm sure it's a borrowing from Sanskrit (<-- Skt. kapa:la- 'cup, dish;
shell; skull, cranium'; the semantic development was like that of Lat.
testa 'pot' > French tête 'head'), one of a great many such loans in
Indonesian. The word is unrelated to Gk. kepHale:.

Piotr