A MALAY WORD IN TAMIL

F, B. J. KUIPER
Leiden

1. As late as 1914 a Tamil scholar could write that, while foreign nations had settled in the Tamil country, there was no indication to show that the Tamils "ever visited any foreign countries for the purpose of commerce, though in later times they had ships and were experts in navigation". 1 However, it cannot be questioned that when the large stream of Indian civilization reached Indonesia, the r61e of Dravidian India in this civilizing process was no unimportant one. This is particularly true of the sea-navigation, which continued in later times. James Hornell, in his important study of the boat designs, 2 rightly stressed the fact (p. 222) that the names for small boats used for fishing and inshore purposes are wholly different in Malay and in Tamil, but that for a large or sea-going vessel the Malay of the Straits and the Tamil of India and Ceylon use the same word. From this he inferred "that the first large over-seas vessels seen by the Malays were Dravidian ships from South India". Indeed, just as Malay has borrowed a word for " b o a t " from Chinese, 3 so it has borrowed the word for "ship" (kapal) from Tamil kappal, which is a genuine Dravidian word. 4 Even in the eastern part of the Archipelago the non-Indonesian language of Alor has adopted the word kapal (from Malay) to denote the ship in contrast with the simpler native boat, which is denoted by the native word pela~. In Malay the kapal is in the same way contrasted with the p~rahu (although the latter word has also been explained as a loan-word from Tamil). 5 Such a Tamil nautic term is only a particular case of the considerable 1 See M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, Tamil Studies (Madras, 1914), p. 49. "The Origins and Ethnological Significanceof Indian Boat Designs", Memoirs As. Soc. Bengal, 7 (1918-1923), pp. 139-256. s Malay sampan (also Mort, Khmer sapan), from Chinese sam-pan. , Thus already Pijnappel (see n. 6). The word, wide-spread in the languages of the Archipelago (see A. Lafeber, gergelijkende Klankleer van het Niasisch, I, p. 98) occurs also in ~am and Khmer. For the Dravidian character of Tam. kappal see BurrowEmeneau, A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (1961), Nr. 1022. As suggested by Hornell, op.c., p. 249 n. 3: Mal. pgrahu from Tam. pat.aku 1. "small

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number of Tamil words which have been adopted at different dates by one or more of the Indonesian languages. The first Malay-Dutch dictionaries to draw attention to Tamil words in Malay were those compiled by Pijnappel ~ and Von de WallY In 1902 Ph. S. van Ronkel presented a critical survey o f more than 100 Tamil loan-words, s and in the next year he added a number of new instances to those already pointed out by cartier scholars. ~ A useful r6sum6 of the explanations put forward by Dutch philologists has recently been published by Mrs. Audilakshmi Anjaneyulu (Leningrad) in the latest issue of Tamil Culture. 1~ It must be regretted, however, that the authoress only once mentions in passing the name of "Dr. K. Ronkel, the Dutch philologist" (p. 45) but omits to note that the list of Tamil words in Malay on pp. 48-51 is for the greater part a mere abstract of van Ronkel's first article, whereas the words discussed on pp. 52-54 are only a brief summary of van Ronkel's article of 1903Y It would seem that the statement on p. 54, according to which the words presented in this survey "were gleaned by a sort of random sampling from chance acquaintance with books on linguistics and dictionaries as well as casual talks with Indonesian and other scholars" is not a quite exact definition of the procedure actually followed. Nevertheless this English r6sum6 may be useful to the Indian readers who are not in a position to read the more extensive original studies. boat" 2. "dhoney, large boat" (but this word, if adopted in Malay, would regularly have become *pEdagu. Cf. however Telugu pad.am, Marathi pad.aw, paddw, etc. and Wilkinson In. 14] s. vv. pgrahu and pilau). 6 j. Pijnappel, Maleisch-Hollandsch Woordenboek, derde vermeerderde uitgaaf (Haarlem-Amsterdam, 1884). H. Von de Wall, Maleisch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek, uitgegeven door H. N. van der Tuuk (Batavia, 1877-1884), 3 vols. s "Het Tamil-Element in her Maleisch", Tijdschrift Bataviaasch Genootschap, 45 (1902), pp. 97-119. * Cf. TBG, 46 (1903), p. 71f. (Mal. euma from Tam. cumma), p. 92f. (Mal. bEnara, binara from Tam. va.nna.r), p. 469ff. (Mal. pawai), p. 476f. (Mal. kamandikai), pp. 532-557 ("Tamilwoorden in Maleisch gewaad"). Cf. also H. Kern, Bijdragen Koninklijk Instituut, 54 (1902), p. 311 (Mal. bgdil "firearm, gun" from Tam. vet.il), vol. 55 (1903), p. 358ff. ("Drawidische Volksnamen op Sumatra"), p. 422f. (Old Javanese caweli and Tam. eavali), and further A. Lafeber, Vergeliikende Klankleer van bet Niasisch, I [Thesis Leiden 1922], pp. 97-99; Gonda, Sanskrit in Indonesia (1952), p. 89ff. lo "Tamil Words in Indonesian and Malayan Languages", Tamil Culture, IX]I (Jan.-March, 1961), pp. 43-55. 11 Ten out of the eleven words discussed can be found in TBG, 46, pp. 533, 533, 536, 542, 543, 545, 546, 547, 548, 557. An exception must be made for the Malay word for "to scratch, sharpen, polish", which the authoress seems to derive from Tam. ca.nam "whetstone", if she refers to Mal. sEnam "indigo blue, dark background, etc." But cf. Mal. batu canal "whetstone" (from Tam. cfz.nai?Cf. Gonda, Skt. in Indonesia, p. 90), to which Prof. G. W. J. Drewes kindly drew my attention.

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2. Other words besides kapal also testify to this influence of the language of Tamil sailors in the Archipelago. Van Ronkel has drawn attention to Malay andai-andai "hook-cleats for the stays or sheets in a boat", which he derived from Tamil an.t.ai "prop, support". 1~ In this connexion another nautic term, which seems so far to have escaped notice, calls for some comment. The Malay dictionaries record a word s~tinggi "dew, brail, trice" (cf. s~tinggi layar "to clew up the sail"). It should be noted that this is not the common native term, which is according to Pijnappel and Klinkert p~nc~rut, 1~ and according to Wilkinson tali dahi layar: ~ A direct indication of a foreign origin of the word s~tinggi is contained in Wilkinson's statement that in the "Laskari" dialect a variant form istinggi is u s e d : 5 Indeed, all Malay words beginning with ist- are of foreign origin, mostly from Sanskrit or Arabic, sometimes from Portuguese or Dutch36 Thus istanggi = s~tanggi (Minangkabau sitanggi) "incense" stands for Sanskrit a.st.~hga-, and istinggar = s~tinggar "flintlock or matchlock gun" is from Port. espingarda. Our conclusion that sgtinggi must be a foreign word is confirmed by other considerations. Although Wilkinson does not explain in vol. II, p. *658, what exactly is meant by the term "Laskari", it is clear from incidental remarks (vol. II, p. 521a and elsewhere) that the "lascar" terms are connected with ships, as opposed to the Malay prau, and that they are mostly foreign (sometimes Indian) words. Thus p~rdi "stays" represents "Laskari" farodi, (tali) s~kat "ratlines" is from Port. escada "ladder", utara "downhaul" is derived from Hindustani utdrnd "to haul down", and daman "sheet of a sail" is the Hindustani word ddman, id. So the origin of Malay s~tinggi must obviously be sought in the same direction, and a corresponding Indian word is indeed found in Tamil cati~ki [sAti~gi] "dew-line", recorded by the Tamil Lexicon. Some details, however, make it doubtful that the Malay word has actually been borrowed from Tamil.

,3 See TBG, 46 (1903), p. 535f. Is Pijnappel, p. 176b, Klinkert, Nieuw Maleisch-Nederlandsch Woordenboek, 3rd ed. (Leiden, 1916), p. 345b; pgncgrut means "fastening by constriction" (cf. cgrut "to compress on all sides"). 1~ See R. J. Wilkinson, A Malay-English Dictionary (Romanised), II (Mytilene, 1932), p. 521a. x5 Not recorded by any of the Malay-Dutch dictionaries accessible to me, viz. (Marsden-)Elout (1825), Badings (1875), Von de Wall (1877-1884), Pijnappel (1884), Klinkert (1916), Mayer (1932), van Ronkel (1939), Poerwadarminta-Teeuw (1950), and van Pernis (1950). x, Cf. e.g. Klinkert, pp. 23a-24b, Wilkinson, I, pp. 431a-432a.

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3. In most Tamil dialects the phoneme It/is intervocalicaUy pronounced as [6], and the Malay loan-words, accordingly, have as a rule the phoneme [d[ in this position. Cf. e.g. Malay idam "morbid craving" (from Tamil itam), modal "working capital" (from Tam. mutal), s6d6linggam "minim , red-lead" (from Tam. catilihkam "vermilion, red sulphurate of mercury"). 17 There is only one counter-instance of an indonesian word with an intervocalic t which may have been borrowed from Tamil, viz. Malay satai, Javanese sate "pieces of flesh or fish roasted on a skewer". Since this word has been explained from Tamil catai [sA6ei] "flesh, pulpy part of fruit", is the question arises if it may perhaps have been taken from the dialects of the southernmost part of the subcontinent or from the Jaffna district of Ceylon, where intervocalic /t/ is said to be pronounced as It]. However, even if it might be taken for granted that in some Indonesian words t corresponds to an intervocalic ]t/of Tamil39 this does not necessarily imply that the same explanation holds good also for Malay s~tinggi. As a matter of fact, Tamil catihki is isolated both in Tamil itself and in Dravidian generally and does not seem to be a native word. Now the t in Malays~tinggi could be explained in a far more natural way if this word and Tamil catihki could be shown both to reflect a foreign word *stitigi. This ultimate origin of both words is actually found in the language where we may expect it a priori, viz. in Portuguese estingue [i~ti13gz]. This original is most faithfully reproduced by the Hindustani word istihgf. ~~ Apparently the variant form istinggi of the "Laskari dialect" of Malay is simply the word as spoken in the idiom of the North Indian sailors (like utara, daman, etc., referred to above). The relation of Malay istinggi:s~tinggi is paralleled by istanggi:s~tanggi "incense" (from Sanskrit a~t.a~ga-). In such couples the variant with initial s~tis the result of a normal Malayization of initial ist-, owing to the fact that the phonological system of Malay does not admit of the cluster -st-. Cf. also Port. espingarda > Malay istinggar > s~tinggar; Port. escada > Malay (tali) s~kat (see above). Accordingly, Malay s~tinggi represents a secondary Malayization of istinggi, which has been borrowed from Hindustani. On the other hand, traces of an analogous Tamilization of x~ See van Ronkel, Bijdragen Koninkliik Instituut, 55 (1903), p. 50. x8 See van Ronkel, BK/, 55, p. 48ff. and TBG, 45 (1902), p. 108, 46 (1903), p. 539. According to Wilkinson, I, p. 392a and Klinkert, p. 529a, Malay satai (sate') is a Javanese loan-word. x9 Thus H. Kern, BK/, 55, p. 52, who holds the difference between d and t to be "futile". 2o Only recorded by the Hind~-,~abdsagar,IX, p. 293 (where it is incorrectly derived from Engl. string).

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such foreign words as Tam. ismvd, istikpdr, istikpdl, istimirdr, istiydr, istil~kku do not occur in Tamil. So we are driven to the conclusion that Tamil catihki [sASi~gi] is a borrowing from Malay and reflects s~tinggi [soti~gi]. The mutual relations between the various words discussed above can be represented as follows: Port. estingue > Hindustani istihgf = Laskari istinggi > Malay s~tinggi > Tamil catiftki. But where has the Tamil word been found in use?