Re: CHAT: coincidence

Nik Taylor wrote:
> _lika_ (l(a)- is a gender prefix, so _ika_ is the root) is "fish" in
> Kasshian.  I later learned that many Polynesian languages have _ika_ for
> "fish" (presumably, then, Proto-Polynesian must've had _ika_ for fish).
>   Japanese also uses _ika_ for "squid".
>
I seem to recall hearing that Japanese "chumi" (my impressionistic
rendering) means 'ink' or the ink-block used in writing with a brush. Is
that correct? If so, consider Malay/Indonesian [tSumi] 'squid' (at least one
source of ink)...

(Polyn. ika = Ml/In. ikan 'fish', one of the few words (like mata 'eye')
that is recognizable--with only minor sound changes--in almost every MP
language.)

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