ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary Online

*qalesem sourness, acidity

PWMP qalesem sourness, acidity ⇫ ¶

WMP
Isneg	alsám	sourness, tartness, acidity
	n-alsám	sour, tart, acid
Itawis	álsam	sourness
	n-álsam	sour
Ibanag	n-assem	sour
Gaddang	na-ʔaltɨm	sour
Casiguran Dumagat	lasém	sour
Ilokano	apag-alsém	acerb, sourish; half-ripe
	na-alsém	sour, tart, acid
Kapampangan	aslám	vinegar
	pan-aslám	use something to sour
	aslám-an	add vinegar to something
Tagalog	ásim	sourness, acidity
Hanunóo	ʔaslúm	sourness, acidity
Aklanon	áslom	make sour
	pa-áslom	cause to become sour, let get sour
Hiligaynon	áslum	sourness
Cebuano	aslúm	sour; cross, sour in facial expression; be, become sour
Maranao	lasem	sourness of taste, acidic in taste
	asem	sour
Samal	lessom	sour
Acehnese	asam	sour, tart, acid; make something sour; smear with citrus juice (as the blade of a weapon to make it shine); also name of various citrus fruits
Bintulu	səm	kind of sour fruit obtained from a thorny palm tree
Kelabit	laam	sour
Dairi-Pakpak Batak	acem	sour, sour taste of fruits, especially lime juice
Simalur	asem	sour
Toba Batak	asom	sour, sour things
	asom-asom	look sour, sulky, of someone's face
	maŋ-asom-i	make something sour
Karo Batak	ŋ-acem-i	make food sour
	juma acem	a temporary, not well prepared ricefield
	acem	anything used to increase the sourness of desserts, as the fruit of the (Zingiberacea), , etc.
Iban	asam	sour, acid, sulky; plants yielding sour fruit (used in preserves and for flavoring), esp. trees of Mangifera spp.
Malay	asam	acid; sour; generic for acid fruits and preparations
	hasem	acid; sour (W. Sumatra)
	asam-asam-an	sour fruits and sour preserves for flavoring curries
Bidayuh (Bukar-Sadong)	asum	acid fruit, sour fruit
Nias	aso	sourness, tartness, acidity
	aso zaw~a	tamarind
Kayan	sem	sour
Ngaju Dayak	asem	sourness, acidity; tamarind
Rejang	aseum jawai	tamarind
	aseum	tamarind acid, vinegar; sour
Murik	ahəm	sour
Sundanese	hasɨm	sour, taste sour
	ŋa-hasɨm-an	make something sour or sourer
	tanah hasɨm	hard, stony ground
Madurese	accem	tamarind (tree and fruit)
Old Javanese	asem	tamarind
	hasem-hasem	something sour, a dish of various (pleasantly) sour items (fruits, preserves)
Javanese	asem	tamarind; sour
Balinese	asem-asem-an	fruits which taste sour
	ŋ-asem	make something sour
	asem	tamarind; sour, acid
Sasak	asem	tree with sour fruit (not the )

PWMP ma-qalesem sour ⇫ ¶

WMP
Isneg	m-alsám	sour herbs
Sambal (Bolinaw)	ma-ʔalsɨm	sour
Sambal	ma-ʔalsum	sour
Sambal (Botolan)	ma-ʔalsum	sour
Kapampangan	m-aslám	sour
Tagalog	ma-ʔásim	sour
Rhade	msam	sour
Hanunóo	ma-ʔaslúm	sour, acid
Aklanon	ma-áslom	sour
Hiligaynon	ma-áslum	sour
Maranao	m-asem	sour, as vinegar or green mangos
	ma-lasem	sour
Bisaya (Limbang)	musom	sour
Bisaya	musom	sour
Lun Dayeh	me-lam	sour
Acehnese	m-asam	sour tasting
Kenyah (Long Anap)	mesem	sour
Kenyah	mesem	sour
Melanau (Mukah)	mesem	sour
Dairi-Pakpak Batak	m-acem	sour, of the expression on a person's face
Simalur	m-asem	sour
Toba Batak	m-asom	sour
Karo Batak	m-acem	sour
Malay	m-asam	acid; sour; darkened as by acid. Of sour looks, debased silver that will not stay bright, etc.
Ngaju Dayak	m-asem	sour; unfriendly
Javanese	m-asem	sour, unripe
Balinese	m-asem	sour

PWMP qalesem qalesem small sour plant with clover-like leaves ⇫ ¶

WMP
Karo Batak	acem-acem	small sour-tasting plant with clover-like leaves
Sasak	asem-asem	kind of three-leafed clover

Reconstructions

PWMP	qalesem	sourness, acidity
PWMP	ma-qalesem	sour
PWMP	qalesem qalesem	small sour plant with clover-…

Note

Also Isneg lassám ‘vinegar’, Kalamian Tagbanwa ma-kaklem ‘sour’, Kowiai/Koiwai asam jawa ‘tamarind’. Dempwolff (1934-38) reconstructed *asem, and many contemporary languages appear to reflect a disyllable. We might, therefore, posit three variants: *qalesem, *qaRsem and *qasem. Apart from its disturbing proliferation of variants there is a fundamental phonological problem with this interpretation: *qalesem and *qaRsem clearly are distinct, but the evidence for *qasem is generally compatible with *qalesem. On the assumption that the Tagalog and Maranao forms show cluster reduction (with Maranao optionally reducing the cluster or breaking it up by metathesis), no Philippine language supports *qasem. Moreover, as noted in Blust (1982) there is persuasive evidence that Malay syncopated vowels in the environment VC-CV, with reduction of a resulting cluster of two obstruents.

Cognates of the material cited in Blust (1982) suggest that much the same type of change took place in many of the languages of western Indonesia. Evidence for *qalesem is not confined to the languages of the Philippines, but includes two types of Bornean reflexes: 1) Lun Dayeh me-lam ‘sour’ and Kelabit laam ‘sour’ preserve a reflex of *l, with loss of the first syllable (*qalesem > *elesem > *lesem > *lehem > *lahem > *laem > /laam/), 2) forms such as Bisaya (Limbang) m-usom, Kayan sem ‘sour’ contain a penultimate reflex of shwa, not *a. Since all of the North Sarawak and Sabahan languages for which information is available have neutralized the opposition of PAn *a and *e in prepenultimate syllables (Blust 1974) these forms are most simply explained as having undergone the first of the changes just cited (*qalesem > *elesem), followed by syncopation of medial *e, cluster reduction and loss of initial shwa (*elesem > *elsem > *esem > sem). The reconstruction of *qalesem qalesem (rather than *qasem qasem) ‘small sour plant with clover-like leaves’ follows from this wider comparative picture. Finally, since most WMP languages have syncopated *e in the environment VC-CV, there is little direct evidence for the medial vowel in *qalesem. Yet to reconstruct PWMP *qalsem would violate a well-established canonical shape which allows medial consonant clusters to consist only of homorganically prenasalized obstruents (including *-ŋs-), of preconsonantal *R, or of the abutting consonants in reduplicated monosyllables. PAn *qaRsem does not violate this constraint, yet appears to be ambiguous for *qaRsem or *qaResem.