Reconstructions

Note

Also Amis ʔoner ‘snake’, Casiguran Dumagat uhéd ‘caterpillar, generic for any larva which will turn into a flying insect’, Simalur ulag, ulaʔ ‘caterpillar, maggot; blowfly’, Nias ulo-ulo ‘maggots’, Sundanese hileud ‘caterpillar, maggot, grub’, Rennellese ugo ‘maggot, as found in dead matter’, Kapingamarangi ila ‘maggot’.

The irregular vowel change in Sundanese hileud is assumed to be independent of that in the Polynesian languages, but for the latter it is simplest to assume a single innovation (hence PPn *ʔilo). Since the reduplicated forms of *qulej show little semantic agreement the doubling of this stem may have occurred independently in various languages. Nonetheless, in view of the inescapably collective character of the referent and the common use of reduplication in Austronesian languages to indicate plurality or intensity, I tentatively reconstruct PMP *qulej qulej as a collective or intensive form (‘lots of worms’, ‘crawling with worms, extremely wormy’).

Perhaps the most challenging feature of this comparison is its meaning. On present evidence all that can safely be reconstructed for PAn is the meaning ‘maggot’. It is clear that PMP retained this meaning, but added the referent ‘caterpillar’. PMP *qulej thus meant essentially ‘larva of a flying insect’. This meaning persisted in PCEMP and Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, but POc evidently innovated *muno in the meaning ‘caterpillar’, thus once again restricting the referent of the present form to ‘maggot’. Most problematic is the evidence from Puyuma, Manobo (Western Bukidnon) and Tboli that PAn *qulej meant not only ‘maggot’, but also ‘insect’. Brown (1984) has argued that generic labels for an insect ( = ‘wug’) lexical category develop late in the history of languages, and it seems likely that the sparse and scattered agreements cited here are convergent.

Finally, the specific agreement of Cebuano ulud-úlud and Malagasy olitra in referring to tooth decay suggests a PWMP belief that dental caries are caused by a burrowing worm in the tooth.