A Comprehensive Comparison of Lexemes in the ... - SIL International

20
means ‘dig’ and kɨt means ‘lead.’ These are two separate entries, confirming that
there is no semantic connection; they are simply homonyms in SW Tanna. 10
(21) dig V/TR lead V/TR
Kwamera: eri Kwamera: iri
Lenakel: ilh Lenakel: ir
N Tanna: el, il N Tanna: it
SW Tanna: kɨr SW Tanna: kɨr
Vaha: kɨl Vaha: kɨt
Whitesands: il Whitesands: it
The SW Tanna name for Aniwa Island, situated off the east coast of Tanna,
is imɨr, which seems to be derived from i (from ikɨn ‘place’) + mɨrh ‘sun,’ i.e.,
‘place where the sun rises.’ However, when the lexeme is compared to
Whitesands, it becomes apparent that it is a coincidence that SW Tanna’s name for
Aniwa could mean ‘place of the sun.’ In Whitesands, the name for Aniwa is imɨt,
but the word for sun is mɨtɨgar.
As shown in example (22), the word for ‘festival of exchanging food with
cousins’ and ‘casuarina’ (a kind of tree) are both nier in SW Tanna, while in
Lenakel, N Tanna, and Vaha they are both niel. Do we have here a case of two
homonyms or of multiple senses of one lexeme? In Whitesands, ‘casuarina’ is niel,
but ’festival of exchanging food with cousins’ is nieli, and in Kwamera the contrast
is between nier and nieri. As shown further in example (22), the word for ‘crosscousin’
patterns like ‘festival of exchanging food with cousins.’ Since there is no
obvious semantic correlation between ‘casuarina’ and ‘cross-cousin’ or ‘festival of
exchanging food with cousins,’ and taking into account the phonological
differences between the lexemes in Whitesands and Kwamera, we may conclude
that they are just homonyms in Lenakel, N Tanna, SW Tanna, and Vaha.
(22) festival of exchanging
food with cousins N casuarina N cross-cousin N
Kwamera: nieri Kwamera: nier Kwamera: *ieri
Lenakel: niel Lenakel: niel Lenakel: ta* iel
N Tanna: niel N Tanna: niel N Tanna: rəh* iel
SW Tanna: nier SW Tanna: nier SW Tanna: kapa* ier
Vaha: niel Vaha: niel Vaha: kapa* iel
Whitesands: nieli Whitesands: niel Whitesands: rəh *ieli
In Kwamera, ‘take feces out of intestines from an animal’ and ‘dip’ are both
eitesi, as shown in example (23). Based just on this data, it seems possible that
there is a semantic connection between the two. However, comparison with the
lexemes in the other languages of Tanna indicates that the two are not
semantically related. They are just homonyms in Kwamera.
10 There is the possibility that kit and kil were originally one lexeme with multiple senses but the two senses
then took on idiosyncratic phonological changes to distinguish between them. However, this seems less likely
given the fact that the senses are quite distinct to begin with.