Re: OT: Junk

On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 10:53:03AM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> H. S. Teoh scripsit:
>
> > > I thought this would be the best forum I've got access to to learn i) if
> > > that's true, ii) if so, do the Chinese have a special term for the
> > > ship-types we westerners call "junks" and iii) from what kind of Chinese
> > > is the word "junk" derived - it does not look much Mandarinesque.
> > [snip]
> >
> > I've no idea if it's true. The common word for ship or boat is /chuan2/.
>
> m-w.com says junk in this sense is < Pg junco < Javanese jon, which I'm
> willing to bet is a Sinitic loan, probably not from Mandarin, more like
> Cantonese or Minnan.
[snip]

Hmm, the Hokkien (Minnan) word is [tsu:n]. That sounds a bit closer.

The Malay word for small boat (skiff?) is /sampan/, which is awfully close
to /sampah/, "trash". Not that this has anything to do with "junk", of
course. ;-)


T

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Some days you win; most days you lose.

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