Re: english words absorbed into Asian languages during WW2

Seán O'Leathlóbhair wrote:
>
> John Atkinson wrote:
> > "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...
> > > John Atkinson wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Boondocks was borrowed into English by American soldiers stationed in
> > > > the Philippines following the Spanish-American War (1898). (There was a
> > > > thread on it here some months ago)
> > > > John.
> > >
> > > And the New Yorker writer, E. J. Kahn, in A Reporter in Micronesia (or
> > > else another journalist looking into the aftermath of the War there),
> > > stated that it came into English from one of the Caroline Islands
> > > languages during WWII.
> >
> > You brought that up last time. I thought it was pretty well established
> > in that thread that Kahn didn't know his arse from a hole in the ground.
> > It's from Tagalog, and was used in English, especially by the USA
> > military, for several decades before WWII.
> >
> > J.
>
> I don't know Kahn and cannot comment on his claims but my Tagalog
> dictionary lists "bundo'k" as if it is a native word. I checked with a
> couple of Filipinos today and they do not regard it as foreign. It
> participates in Tagalog grammar as if it were native e.g.
> "ma'mumundo'k" = "mountaineer". (The ' marks should be read as acute
> accents on the preceding vowel).

Why would a Tagalog word not have a cognate in a Micronesian language?
I.e., what's your point? No one is suggesting Tagalog borrowed it from
English or anywhere else.

> The meaning is "mountain" or "large hill". It can be used in a similar
> sense to "from the boondocks" but it is also used in a more prosaic
> manner.
>
> "Boondocks" does not appear to be common in UK English. I learnt the
> word in Tagalog before I learnt it in English.

Were there British soldiers in the North Pacific during WWII?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.

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