Comment on Old Easter Island genomes show no sign of a population collapse
jack@hexbear.net 2 months agoIt seems likely that the Polynesian word(s) for sweet potato is a direct borrowing from Quecha. Beyond that I don’t think there’s accepted evidence for vocabulary exchange.
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 months ago
I gave it a check. It’s hard to take a lot of conclusions from a single word, but
This got to be at least two instances of borrowing, since either Rapa Nui picked another variant of the word to borrow or solved the issue with the ending consonant in a different way (by eliding it instead of adding a new vowel).
The Hawaiian cognate underwent /k/→/ʔ/ (spelled ʻ), so it’s probably really old.
Based on that, if I had to take a guess: Polynesians contacted the Amerindians multiple times across the centuries, and it was kind of a big deal for Rapa Nui ones.