Reconstructions

Note

Also Kei umat, Kairiru ramat, Wogeo ramata, Molima tomotau, Proto-Micronesian *aramata ‘person, human being’. Dempwolff (1938) posited *tau-mataq ‘(unripe = not yet dead) living person’, citing an earlier publication by Adriani for the interpretation that the second morphological element in this word is identical to PAn *ma-qetaq ‘raw, unripe, green (fruit), uncooked’. However, no known reflex of this form preserves final consonants, leaving this interpretation uncertain. Whatever this added element was, it contributed nothing discernible to the semantics of the base, as both Sangir and Proto-Oceanic have reflexes of PAn *Cau next to the longer form with no difference of meaning.