Reconstructions

Note

Also Mbula kiliigi ‘pillow (something on which to rest one’s head, traditionally made out of wood)’. Osmond and Ross (1998) give POc *kalik ‘native wooden pillow’, based on a similar distribution. This form is in competition with POc *quluŋan for the same meaning, thus raising a question about possible semantic distinctions. A clue is found in Futunan where Moyse-Faurie (1993) gives kali ‘wooden headrest with short legs’, but ʔuluŋa ‘wooden headrest without legs’. Since reflexes of the latter are considerably more common than reflexes of *kalik, it is likely that headrests without legs were more commonly used than those with legs, perhaps correlating with a distinction of social class (*kalik ‘wooden headrest with short legs’ being the prerogative of the upper class?).