Re: Teaching and Learning English in Hong Kong

From: Seán O'Leathlóbhair (jwlawler_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 02/28/05 

Date: 28 Feb 2005 01:50:16 -0800

Lee Sau Dan wrote:
> >>>>> "Geoff" == Geoff <grw888@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> Geoff> David Rheault wrote:
> David> ketchup (or catsup, appar. from Cantonese: Ke tziap),
>
> Geoff> English dictionaries seem to say it is from Malay
> Geoff> kechap. Cantonese (fan) ga jap may be a fortunate
coincidence?
>
> Not "ga" but "keh".
>
> Given that Cantonese "keh" means tomato and "jap" means juice/sauce,
I
> don't think it's a coincidence. "kehjap" is obviously a compound
word
> that conveys the meaning. I'd suspect that Malay borrowed it
from
> Cantonese. Do the individual syllables "ke" and "chap" carry
any
> meanings in Malay? Are other sauces called "X-chap" or "ke-X"
in
> Malay? Are other tomato-related things called "ke-X" or "X-chap"
in
> Malay? (The answers are yes for Cantonese.)
>
>
>
> --
> Lee Sau Dan 李守敦
~{@nJX6X~}
>
> E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
> Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

A search of my small Malay dictionary does not reveal any such words.
On this limited evidence, it would appear that kecap is a single
morpheme in Malay. Also, qualifiers go the other way around in Malay.
So, "ke cap" would be a type of "ke" rather than a type of "cap".

Note the lack of h in "kecap". In the current spelling, "c" represents
/tS/ by itself. 

--
Seán O'Leathlóbhair

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