Re: Another attempt to introduce myself

Barry Garcia wrote:
>>Indonesian has "baca" [batSa] 'to read', presumed to have developed from
>>Skt. _vacayati_ 'speak', root /vac/ (?) 'voice' (Lat. vox).  Or could it
>>be
>>a "corruption" of  _bhas.a_ 'language'??
>
>I always wondered if Tagalog "basa" which means "to read" was from bhasa
>also?
>
This came up recently on one of the Austronesian lists-- the consesus (with
which I agree) was that Tag. basa is most likely borrowed < the Malay.  Even
if directly borrowed from Skt. (which could be possible) the borrowed /c/,
like AN *c, would > Tag. /s/.  There may be some contamination from bhasa,
but Ml. has bahasa (which Tag. would probably borrow as a trisyllable), but
other possible sources could have been Javanese/Bugis/Makassarese basa.
(Those langs. would have had _baca_ for 'read' too.) OTOH Tag IIRC preserves
a native word for 'language'...

More recent (probably post-Eur.-contact) borrowings from Ml. et al. often
have /ts/ for original /c/.