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Fun Fact: the malay word for “island” is “pulau.” As in Pulau Penang. I always wondered if there was some Indonesian influence in places like Palau, Micronesi

Fun Fact: the malay word for “island” is “pulau.” As in Pulau Penang. I always wondered if there was some Indonesian influence in places like Palau, Micronesia, etc.

brudgers 2y ago
When making maps, describing features is simpler than naming things, e.g. Del Rio; Las Vegas; Sierra Nevada; etc. I suspect something similar at work. But I could be wrong.
sddsdd 2y ago
Indonesian and all the Polynesian/Micronesian languages are in the Malayo-Polynesian language family and share a common ancestor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayo-Polynesian_languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayo-Polynesian_languages
tdeck 2y ago
Here's the Wiki etymology https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology These are both austronesian languages and you can see they inherit from "proto-Malayo-Polynesian" so there is indeed a link, even if this specific word may have evolved from something different.
noobermin 2y ago
So, going to dox myself since there are likely under 50k of us on earth, but I'm palauan. I told my malaysian colleagues this and they mentioned this very thing to me about the word pulau. Palau is anglicisation of the palauan world "belau" although the 'b' can be a soft 'p' or vice-versa in the language depending on the word. I haven't learned too deeply about what athropologists generally think of palau's original settlement and the carolines in general but likely my ancestors were part of the Austronesian migration as other commentors said, although most of the maps I see show it coming from the philipines instead of indonesia/malaysia, so it might be from the same original source albeit on different branches. We share some similar words (babii=pig and I find a striking similarity between "makan" and "mengang" which is palauan for "eating") but the language structure seems quite different to me than bahasa melayu/bahasa indonesia generally. Also, given the cross colonisation/migration of colonised people as labourers from before WWII, I'm not really sure which words are palauan or just imports from SEA generally in the modern era after european and japanese contact. For example, we eat rambutan which we call "rambotang" although I think the fruits were just imported by the colonisers. That said, I now live in singapore and the first time I saw images of Batak houses it was jarring because they look a hell lot like our traditional chief houses called "bai" [1], and I had never seen anything else like them in elsewhere in the world. Due to historical reasons since the end of WWII we don't have many dealing with indonesia today. [1] http://underwatercolours.com/travel-tales/the-palauan-bai http://underwatercolours.com/travel-tales/the-palauan-bai
- metaphor 2y ago
  > ...I had never seen anything else like them in elsewhere in the world. The indigenous people of the Mariana Islands built somewhat similar dwellings atop a foundation of large stone structures called latte[1]. The latte today is a distinct symbol of Chamorro[2] identity (e.g. prominently represented in the flag of the CNMI[3] and surrounded by a mwarmwar, a symbol of Refaluwasch[4] identity). P.S. Not Belauan, but sis-in-law is. Almost certainly just dox'd myself as well. I suspect the aggregate of us are truly ultra minorities in these tech backwaters. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_stone [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_people [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_I... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinian_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinian_people
- balls187 2y ago
  Randomly, one of my good highschool friends is Paluan. One of the best guys I know.
kmm 2y ago
According to the etymology section on the Palau Wikipedia article, there is no relation. Palauans calling themselves Belau makes the similarity less remarkable as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology

Fun Fact: the malay word for “island” is “pulau.” As in Pulau Penang. I always wondered if there was some Indonesian influence in places like Palau, Micronesia, etc.

brudgers 2y ago

When making maps, describing features is simpler than naming things, e.g. Del Rio; Las Vegas; Sierra Nevada; etc. I suspect something similar at work. But I could be wrong.

sddsdd 2y ago

Indonesian and all the Polynesian/Micronesian languages are in the Malayo-Polynesian language family and share a common ancestor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayo-Polynesian_languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayo-Polynesian_languages

tdeck 2y ago

Here's the Wiki etymology https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology These are both austronesian languages and you can see they inherit from "proto-Malayo-Polynesian" so there is indeed a link, even if this specific word may have evolved from something different.

noobermin 2y ago

So, going to dox myself since there are likely under 50k of us on earth, but I'm palauan. I told my malaysian colleagues this and they mentioned this very thing to me about the word pulau. Palau is anglicisation of the palauan world "belau" although the 'b' can be a soft 'p' or vice-versa in the language depending on the word. I haven't learned too deeply about what athropologists generally think of palau's original settlement and the carolines in general but likely my ancestors were part of the Austronesian migration as other commentors said, although most of the maps I see show it coming from the philipines instead of indonesia/malaysia, so it might be from the same original source albeit on different branches. We share some similar words (babii=pig and I find a striking similarity between "makan" and "mengang" which is palauan for "eating") but the language structure seems quite different to me than bahasa melayu/bahasa indonesia generally. Also, given the cross colonisation/migration of colonised people as labourers from before WWII, I'm not really sure which words are palauan or just imports from SEA generally in the modern era after european and japanese contact. For example, we eat rambutan which we call "rambotang" although I think the fruits were just imported by the colonisers. That said, I now live in singapore and the first time I saw images of Batak houses it was jarring because they look a hell lot like our traditional chief houses called "bai" [1], and I had never seen anything else like them in elsewhere in the world. Due to historical reasons since the end of WWII we don't have many dealing with indonesia today. [1] http://underwatercolours.com/travel-tales/the-palauan-bai http://underwatercolours.com/travel-tales/the-palauan-bai

metaphor 2y ago
> ...I had never seen anything else like them in elsewhere in the world. The indigenous people of the Mariana Islands built somewhat similar dwellings atop a foundation of large stone structures called latte[1]. The latte today is a distinct symbol of Chamorro[2] identity (e.g. prominently represented in the flag of the CNMI[3] and surrounded by a mwarmwar, a symbol of Refaluwasch[4] identity). P.S. Not Belauan, but sis-in-law is. Almost certainly just dox'd myself as well. I suspect the aggregate of us are truly ultra minorities in these tech backwaters. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latte_stone [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_people [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_I... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinian_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolinian_people
balls187 2y ago
Randomly, one of my good highschool friends is Paluan. One of the best guys I know.

kmm 2y ago

According to the etymology section on the Palau Wikipedia article, there is no relation. Palauans calling themselves Belau makes the similarity less remarkable as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau#Etymology