Shore. Mimika tiri, Dungerwab tredre.
Sleep. Mimika ete, Bangu ete-betha, Dungerwab eda-bel, Miriam ut-eid.
Tree. Mimika uti, Kiwai ota.
IV. MALAYAN INFLUENCE ON THE SOUTH COAST OF NETHERLANDS NEW GUINEA.
In a discussion of the languages of the south-eastern shores of Netherlands New Guinea, the extent of Malay influence in that region must be taken into account. Mr. William Churchill has lately put forward a theory that the Polynesian people entered the Pacific not only by coasting along the northern shores of New Guinea to the Solomon Group, but also by a passage through Torres Straits, and thence along the south-eastern coast of British New Guinea to the New Hebrides.[40] On tracing the languages westward from Polynesia, it is an indisputable fact that many words which are identical with Polynesian are found in use along the shores of British New Guinea, though they are not used in a Polynesian syntax, or in the simplified forms usual in the Eastern tongues. It is also a fact that many of these same words are current also in the western islands of Indonesia. For example, hua, fruit; ina, mother; lala, blood; lau, leaf; au, I; ruma, house; inu, drink; utu, louse; tohu, sugar cane, and many other words are identical in the south-east of British New Guinea and in Ceram. But in British New Guinea the languages which show likeness to Polynesian end abruptly at Cape Possession, and are not found west of that point.[41] Hence it becomes important to inquire how far the similar tongues of Amboyna and Ceram have influenced the New Guinea languages to the east of them. That there is such an influence is plain from the vocabularies of the languages. Indonesian words, such as the Onin (10) kayu, wood; tanigan, ear; nifan, tooth; fenu, turtle; mani, bird; afi, fire, are of common occurrence in the islands of the Arafura Sea, and on the coast of the mainland. But these words are more common in the west, and gradually disappear towards Torres Straits, and are not found beyond. In Rosenberg’s Karufa list (12) we find such characteristically Indonesian words as ulu, hair; mata, eye; uhru, mouth; taruya, ear; nima, hand; ora, sun; uran, moon; niyu, coconut. Words of this kind are found also in Lobo (10) and Namatote (13), as, for example, wuran, moon; labi, fire; nima, hand; nena, mother; rara, blood; metan, black; tobu, sugar cane; wosa, paddle; matoran, sit; mariri, stand. Some of these words seem to have passed into Utanata (10) and Lakahia (13), and apparently, though not so freely, into Wuaussirau (13), Mairassis (10), and Mimika (14). The Kiruru vocabulary of Maclay does not appear to show any words of this kind. The following are examples of Indonesian or Ceram words in the Utanata-Mimika group of languages.
Utanata uran, Lakahia bura, Mairassis furan, Mimika pura, Ceram wulana, moon. The Angadi has also pura.
Lakahia bugura, Wuaussirau wara, Mimika pukare, Ceram uhara, mountain. Utanata has pamogo.
Utanata pō, Lakahia boa, Mimika poh, Ceram wosa, paddle.
Utanata kai, Ceram kai, wood. For this the Mimika is uti.
A word of much interest in this region is turika or turi. This is given by Muller in his Ceram list as turika, knife, in Lobo turi, Onin tuni. Maclay gives the Ceram (Keffing) as turito, Namatote and Wuaussirau turi, also for “knife.” The word does not appear in Angadi or in the list of Ekris (19). Though not apparently used in Merauke turik has travelled eastward as far as Torres Straits and the Fly River, and even to the borders of the Papuan Gulf. Thus Bangu turik, Dabu turikata, Sisiami (Bamu R.) turuko, and Tirio turuko mean “knife” (i.e. iron knife). In Bugi, Saibai, Mowata and Kiwai, turika and in Murray Island tulik mean “iron.”[42]