Re: Weekly Vocab 19

Adam Walker wrote:

> --- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote:
> > It looks a lot like Malay _mungkin_  'possible,
> > ---ly', also used for
> > 'maybe, perhaps'.  AFAIK it's not Arabic but I could
> > be wrong.
>
> Well, actually it is arabic.  I can't currently
> remember which dialect I borrowed it from.  In
> Egyptian it's yimkin.  I'm thinking I used a Dardja
> pronunciation, but it could have been Morrocan.  I've
> had great trouble choosing a dialect for my Arabic
> borrowings.
>
Well, something new every lesson.  You are correct.
_Mungkin_ is the only form listed in my modern Bah.Indo. dictionary, which
doesn't give origins; while the big Wilkinson 1903 Malay gives only
_mumkin_, < Arab. Makes me wonder if it's a fairly recent loan.  I also find
"mongken < Arab." in the 1934 Atjehnese dict. which I've never gone thru
word by word.