Talk:sombalaʼ

Etymology

@Alexlin01 It seems to be a wanderwort. Mills (1981) lists some "cognates" here (p. 70). The distribution is unusual, because you find it all over the place in Maluku (in both SHWNG and "CMP" languages), also in Sulawesi concentrated around South Sulawesi, but apparently not in Nusa Tenggara. Austronesier (talk) 13:48, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

@Austronesier: Thanks for sharing that! I can't figure out anything from that list either. But, I noticed his entry #9, Proto-Toraja *bola ("house, village"), which is really really similar to a reconstruction I have: PNH *pola ("house") (and possibly further out with Tehit bol ~ mbol ~ mpol ~ bo'ol ~ mbor ("house")). I can't match it to Proto-Oceanic *pale, since most other suspected EMP loans are perfect phonetic matches. Do you know if there's a currently-accepted form of this PToraja *bola? Alexlin01 (talk) 22:52, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

@Alexlin01 I find Mills' *bola problematic in many ways, with irregularities that suggest borrowing, but at the same time, the proposed direction of borrowing appears to be somewhat implausible (e.g. Pamona > Ledo). For the time being, I would treat PHN *pola as not borrowed; but who knows? :) –Austronesier (talk) 19:38, 24 September 2022 (UTC)