ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary Online

*buliq₁ cowrie shell: Cypraea mauritiana

PMP buliq₁ cowrie shell: Cypraea mauritiana ⇫ ¶

WMP
Isneg	bulí	lead; lead sinker of a fishing net
Bontok	bulí	lead (metal)
Ilokano	bulí	lead; wharve, whorl; sinker (any of the pieces of lead or balls of earthenware that are attached to one of the sides of several kinds of fishing nets)
Palauan	búiʔ	cowrie shell: Cypraea mauritiana
CMP
Fordata	vuli	porcelain shell, egg cowrie
Yamdena	fuli	kind of shellfish
Ngadha	vuli	large cowrie shell used for war necklaces; the necklace itself
Rotinese	fuli	kind of shell; shells or bits of lead used as sinkers for a fishnet

POC buliq₁ cowrie shell: Cypraea mauritiana ⇫ ¶

OC
Yapese	wul	type of shell, large cowrie
Woleaian	u-bili	white shell, cowry
Puluwat	pwiil	cowrie shell scraper, as for green breadfruit
Pohnpeian	pwili	cowrie, any species of sea shell
Nukuoro	bule	cowrie shell, many species
Gedaged	bul	a white shelled mollusk (Ovula ovum) used as an ornament, a medium of exchange, and in divination
Cheke Holo	buli	cowrie shell
Lau	buli	white cowrie, Ovula ovulum, ornament for canoes and men
Tuvaluan	pule	shellfish sp.: Pila conica
Kwaio	buli	white cowrie variety, used as ornament
Nggela	mbuli	generic for all cowries
'Āre'āre	puri	cowrie (shellfish), the shell being used as sinkers for fishnets
	tara ni puri	string of white cowrie shells around the neck or on the forehead
Sa'a	puli	cowrie shell, used as sinkers for nets
Arosi	buri	cowrie; the has a sacred character and should only properly be worn by chiefs. Cowries were placed with dead chiefs
Rennellese	puge	cowries, including American and Indo-Pacific ones; spotted, dotted, or checkered, esp. with large multi-colored spots
Samoan	pule	molluscs belonging to the genera Cypraea (cowries) and Ovulum. Cowrie shells are used as sinkers and for making squid lures. Ovulum shells were once widely used for the decoration of bonito canoes
Fijian	buli	the cowrie shell: Cypraeidae
	taba buli	a cowrie necklace
	buli-ta	to adorn with cowries, as a house -- the prerogative of chiefs
Niue	pule	cowrie shell
	pule-tua	cowrie shell used as octopus lure
	pule-pule	stiped, variegated, spotted
	pule-oto	cowrie shell; vagina
Tongan	pule	kind of shellfish, the cowrie; be marked with spots or colored patterns
Maori	pure	arrange in tufts or patches
	pure	bivalve mollusks: Notovola novaezelandiae and other Pectinidae
	pure-pure	in patches or tufts, spotted; contagious disease which causes spots on the skin
Proto-Micronesian	pwuli	cowrie shell

Reconstructions

PMP	buliq₁	cowrie shell: Cypraea…
POC	buliq₁	cowrie shell: Cypraea…

Note

Also Iban buriʔ ‘cowrie shells, Nassa spp.’, baju buriʔ ‘jacket decorated with cowrie shells; formerly it was fashionable to sew small white cowrie shells onto a black jacket or skirt in lines and patterns’, Sasak boléʔ ‘a larger kind of cowrie shell’, Gitua bule ‘kind of white shell, fam. Ovulidae’, Mota pule ‘a very dark cowrie shell’. To judge from the attested semantic reflexes, this visually striking shell probably was used both for ornamentation and for various utilitarian purposes connected with fishing (net sinker, lure for squid or octopus). The three reflexes from northern Luzon are at least in part due to borrowing from Ilokano, and they could be treated as distinct from this comparison. However, to do so would slight the striking formal and semantic agreement between Ilokano bulí and Rotinese fuli. It is assumed that the semantic change in Philippine languages reflects a transfer of function from the old material used for net sinkers (cowrie shells) to a newer replacement. The lowered last vowel in all Polynesian forms is not the normal reflex, but a similar change is attested in a number of other lexical items.