Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

Lars (I think) wrote:
>> >    Why would TP borrow a word for grass before a word for hair?
>>
>> It's both.
>
>That the TP word for hair comes from English grass is only mildly
>interesting. Weirder things can be found in an English dictionary.
>
>What makes this 'hilarious' to some people is the implied claim that
>TP has no word for hair, and has to use the circumlocution gras bilong
>hed every time hair is mentioned.>

Bear in mind too that Caucasian/Chinese/Malay head hair is straight and
quite "grassy" vis-a-vis the generally wooly hair of Melanesians & Papuans.

Indonesian also distinguishes between head-hair (rambut) vs. body-hair
(bulu, rare amongst them)-- bulu is also the word for _feather_.

Going offtopic a bit, in the Javanese/Balinese shadow-puppet plays, the good
guys are always quite small, make restrained & elegant gestures; monsters
and bad guys are BIG, fat or muscular, with lots of body hair.