Reconstructions

Note

Also Paiwan ŋida ‘when?’, Hanunóo kapirá ‘when? when’, Maranao igira ‘when, while, during; whenever’, Sika rema pira ‘when?’, Tetun wen hira ‘when?’, Masiwang bot fila ‘when?’, Buruese beton pila ‘when?’, Buli ma-fis ‘when? (future)’, op-fis ‘when? (past)’, Dobuan ma-isa ‘when?’. Tagalog ka-ilán, Tboli k-ilon, Santa Catalina ka-ita ‘when?’ may point to an additional affixed form *ka-ijan. In any event, it is clear that the initial consonant of Tboli kilon is a fossilized affix rather than evidence for *qijan, since both Puyuma (Tamalakaw) a-ydan and Chamorro ŋa-iʔan contradict initial *q.

The reconstruction of *p-ijan is problematic. In many languages reflexes of *ijan are confused with reflexes of *pija ‘how much? how many?’ (see above), and it is possible that *p-ijan is a monomorphemic product of contamination. Whatever the case, *p- does not appear to be separable in any CMP language. Similarly, the great majority of OC languages (like Chamorro) reflect a form with prefixed *ŋa-, suggesting that POc *ŋaijan was monomorphemic. Contrary to this interpretation, a few languages in the Solomons (Mono-Alu, Santa Catalina) reflect *ijan without *ŋa-. Finally, both in Karo Batak and in Chamorro a reflex of *ijan is commonly used together with a morpheme nai. Attention to the glosses (Karo Batak nai ‘marker of past time’, Chamorro nai ‘where (relative), when (relative)’, however, suggests that this agreement is convergent, as apparently is that of Buli ma-fis ‘when (future)’, Dobuan ma-isa ‘when?’.