I have recently been writing a lot about a place that I refer to as “Jāba,” a kingdom that I argue was based in the area of what is now Songkhla in southern Thailand and which from the fifth to fourteenth centuries was an important node in a trans-peninsular trade network.
Recently, however, I came across some information about Jāba that I cannot figure out. The History of the Song (Songshi 宋史; completed in 1346) has a section on Jāba (Shepo 闍婆) that lists the local pronunciations of certain words.
方言謂真珠為「沒爹蝦羅」，謂牙為「家囉」，謂香為「崑燉盧林」，謂犀為「低密」。
In particular, this text provides the local pronunciations for the words pearl (zhenzhu 真珠) [elephant] tusk (ya 牙), incense or fragrant wood (xiang 香), and rhinoceros [horn] (xi 犀). As is obvious, these are all the names of valuable exotic products, and it, therefore, makes sense that these would be names that Chinese merchants would be familiar with.
The word provided for “[elephant] tusk,” ya 牙, literally only means “tusk” or “tooth,” however in the context of the trading world in exotic products, it can mean specifically “elephant tusk” or “ivory.” Similarly, the word for “rhinoceros [horn],” xi 犀, literally only refers to the animal, however, again, in such a context, it can refer to the part of that animal that was most valuable to merchants, its horn. This is why I have put the words “elephant” and “horn” in brackets.
I have consulted Edwin Pulleyblank’s reconstructions of Chinese pronunciations to get the following approximations of how these words might have sounded during the Song Dynasty period:
mut tia xhja la 沒爹蝦羅 = pearl
kja la 家囉 = [elephant] tusk, ivory
kun tun lie lim 崑燉盧林 = incense or fragrant wood (or perhaps a particular type of fragrant wood)
tiaj mjit 低密 rhinoceros [horn]
The first one, for pearl, is easy. This is “mutiara.” This term appears in modern languages like Malay and Javanese. In checking dictionaries, this word is said to be of Sanskrit origin.
As for the others, I cannot figure them out. I’ve checked Malay, Javanese, Mon, Acehnese, and Cham dictionaries and glossaries and a Mon-Khmer etymological dictionary, and haven’t been able to find a common source for these terms.
The best I’ve been able to do is to find “bala” in Cham for “elephant tusk” and “rɔmieh” in Khmer for “rhinoceros” (see the images below). These are not exact matches, but they are close, especially when we consider that 1) we are working with transliterations into Chinese characters by people who were not professional linguists, and 2) we cannot be 100% sure how those characters were pronounced during the Song Dynasty period.
Further, while these words are listed in the History of the Song as coming from the “local dialect/language” (fangyan 方言), given that Jāba was an international trade hub, it is possible that the names that people used for certain products could have come from different languages.
That said, the real key here, I think, would be to find out what the equivalents for these words are in languages like Pattani Malay and Kelantan Malay. However, I have not been able to find any resources that can provide me with that information.
Therefore, if anyone who reads this post knows Pattani Malay or Kelantan Malay or has any other ideas, please share what you know!!!
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Could these words be somehow related:
Gading gajah – elephant tusk
Cula/ tanduk / sumbu badak – Rhinocerous horn
Kuntum – almost blooming flower/counting measure
Yes, I’ve seen some of these, but, unfortunately, they’re too dissimilar to the transcribed words. It’s really a mystery because the one for pearl, mutiara, is very close, so that makes it seem like the others should be close to an actual word as well, but. . . what were those words?
Something like “kuñjara” apparently is the Sanskrit root for elephant (=the tusked one).
The databases also propose “kunduru” for various fragrant resins.
Ah, yes, “resin” is perhaps the better way to think of this. And thank you for pointing out “kunduru”!!
So “kunduru” is the tree that produces frankincense:
http://iu.ff.cuni.cz/pandanus/database/details.php?id=313
In Chinese, frankincense is apparently “ru-xiang” 乳香 or “the ru fragrance. I don’t know if that “ru” originally came from the final “ru” of “kunduru” but that definitely appears to be what is being referred to here (kun tun lie lim 崑燉盧林 ).
Actually, in this case, the modern transcription of the first three characters would get us closer: Kun-dun-lu. That is definitely “kunduru.” The final character, “lin” in current pronunciation, literally means “forest.” The word for wood, mu 木, is very similar. I don’t know if originally someone intended to create a hybrid term there meaning “kunduru wood” or if that is meant to be part of the word.
Whatever the case may be, we definitely have “kunduru” here (thanks again!!).
The final two, however, do not strike me as Sanskrit-based.
kja la (jia-luo) 家囉 = [elephant] tusk, ivory (yes, gajah is kind of close, but that “l” sound is a bit too far off, in my opinion, and this is referring to the tuks/ivory, not the animal)
tiaj mjit (di-mi) 低密 rhinoceros [horn]
Hi Kelley. The pearl comes from the sea, therefore, its local name is possibly Austronesian word. However, the ivory/tusk, scented wood, and rhinoceros’s horn all come from jungle, they should be Austroasiatic words.
1/ kja la 家囉: You can fast check the dictionary in sealang.net which shows that in Kui language (Katuic) /klɑɑj/ means fang, tusk, crooked, protruding tooth. In Khmer language (Khmeric) /knaaj/ means tusk (of a wild boar); spur (of a rooster). Their proto form is /*gnaiŋ/.
2/ kun tun lie lim 崑燉盧林: not sure the original name yet
3/ tiaj mjit 低密: In Halang language (Bahnaric) /rəmaːs/ means rhinoceros. In Bru language /ramais/ means rhinoceros. Their proto form is /*rmaas/. How the first consonant “r” can become “t” is an interesting thing. I think the people who participated the trade in the South Sea were whether Hokkien, Hainanese or Cantonese. There is no consonant “r” in these three provincial languages. May be the entrepreneurs in this trade were Min Nan speaking people. Pronunciation of Teochew people for 低密 can be ge mig or ge bhag. The confusion between “r” and “g” is very popular until now in Vietnam Mekong Delta where “Dưới sông cá chốt trên bờ Tiều châu”. For instance, cá rô = cá gô, rồn rột = gồn gột… It’s difficult to know the original words because they were written down by Min Nan people and we read them now using official pronunciation.
“How the first consonant “r” can become “t” is an interesting thing.”
Interestingly, there is phenomenon in Old Javanese that consonant of “r”, “d”, and “ḍ” can be interchange one to other.