Re: OT: Junk

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.
>
> Does that ring any bells?  Roger?
Your msg. arrived just as I returned from a trip to my Shorter OED, which
gives much the same info, suggesting that the Engl. word is "adapted from"
either the Eur. forms or the Malay/Jav. forms, which are given correctly as
"djong" (modern "jong") /dZoN/.  In view of the -k, I'd guess Portuguese via
Chin. Pidgin Engl.

Most Chinese loans in Indonesia seem to come from Southern Chin. dialects--
do they have /-N/ for Mand. /-n/ ?  Or voicing of the initial?

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