Kalaw Lagaw Ya - Outside Influences

Outside Influences

The language also has some vocabulary from languages outside the Torres Strait area, from the Indonesian, Malay, Filipino, English and other 'outsiders'. Where loan words from the Western Austronesian (Indonesian, etc.) loans are concerned, it is possible that some such came into the language in pre-European contact days, with the Makassans and similar fishermen/traders who visited northern Australia and Torres Strait.

Examples of post-European contact Western Austronesian loan words:

Some words in the language, assuming that they are Western Austronesian loans, appear to be pre-contact words. This is suggested both by their forms, but also that their use in the language (and in neighbouring languages) seems to indicate this.

Possible pre-European Contact Western Austronesian words in Kalaw Lagaw Ya (Some of these words are ultimately from Arabic, Sanskrit and possibly Portuguese. Ngajedan 1987.)

In the KKY dialect of Kalaw Lagaw Ya, waterspout is markai gùb(a) spirit wind; waterspouts were one of the weapons of the markai who mainly came from the west/north-west i.e. from what is now Indonesia) in the NW monsoon season (when waterspouts are common), and went back to the west/north-west with the SE trades.

The postulation of pawa as being an early loan from Malay is extremely hypothetical - and suggested not only by the form of the word, but also the loss of the final -l. Two early English loans underwent a similar change, which in essence is a back formation from what in the language appeared to be a plural. Most nouns (a) form the plural with an -l suffix, and (b) in the nominative-accusative singular elide the stem final vowel, as in tukuyapa- same-sex sibling, plural tukuyapal, nominative-accusative tukuyap, and under this model custard-apple became Kalaw Lagaw Ya katitap, plural katitapal, and the word mammy-apple (pawpaw/papaya) became Kalaw Lagaw Ya mamiyap, plural mamiyapal

Assuming that Malay paal was borrowed as *pawal, with the glottal stop being converted to w, as the language does not have the glottal stop, *pawal would be seen as a plural, with the singular *pawa, under the model (in this case) of kawal islands, kawa island.

Modern Eastern Austronesian Loans (Polynesian and Melanesian) into the language are mainly of religious or 'academic' use. In general such words are terms for objects that are strictly speaking European goods. One exception is the last in the following table, which has virtually replaced the traditional words imi spouse’s opposite-sex sibling, opposite sibling’s spouse and ngaubath spouse’s same-sex sibling, same-sex sibling’s spouse. These have also similarly been replaced by the English loan woman (pronounced ) in the meaning of sister/daughter-in-law.

Other biblical loans are from Greek, Latin and Hebrew: