Reconstructions

Note

Also Maranao abo ‘father’, Moken apoŋ ‘father’, Bare'e ambo ‘stepfather’, Mandar abi ‘father’, Buginese amboʔ ‘father’, Wolio awo ‘stepfather, stepmother, etc.’, Yamdena abe ‘mother-in-law’. Apparently a nursery word which has resisted normal sound change in a number of languages (e.g. Tiruray, Malay, and Bimanese, where we would expect -w-; Malagasy, where we would expect -v-).

Although the Wolio form is cited in Anceaux 1987 as an Arabic loan, Wilkinson 1959 lists Malay aba ‘father (Arabic)’, but Malay abah ‘father; papa’, without indication of borrowing. Together with Atayal aba these facts suggest that this cognate set is more likely to be a native form than a loan.

Finally, although Malay abaŋ ‘elder brother’ could be analyzed as aba-ŋ (with fossilized vocative suffix), and hence compared with the other forms cited here, I prefer to treat it as distinct and to withdraw the etymon *ab(ae)ŋ ‘elder brother’ proposed in Blust (1970).