🌏 Region(s): Ryukyu (Kunigami: Sesoko, Okinawa, Iriomote, Yaeyama)
まやー・まやあ【猫】 : mayaa | define meaning
mayaa
Pronunciation: [majaː]
Definition
Noun
- Cat (Felidae); Iriomote cat; Maya cat; wildcat; domestic cat
- やままやー【山猫】
yama mayaa
"Mountain cat" (esp. Iriomote cat) - ぴんぎーまやー
pingii mayaa
"Small cat" (esp. Iriomote cat) - がちまやー
gachi mayaa
"a greedy person" (lit. "greedy cat") - まやーぬどぅくゎたる
mayaa nu du kwataru
"It was the cat that ate"
- やままやー【山猫】
Etymology
Cognate with Amami まや maya and まやー mayaa; Okinawan まゆー mayuu and まやー mayaa; Miyako まよ mayo and まゆ mayu; Yaeyama まゆ mayu; and Yonaguni まーゆ maayu "cat". Possibly of onomatopoeic origin. Cf. みゃーみゃー myaamyaa or みゃうみゃう myaumyau "meow"; via Chinese 【貓・猫】 "cat" (cf. Mandarin māo; Cantonese maau1, mao1 and mao2; Min Nan niau; Siyan Hakka meu5; Hailu Hakka ngiau5; Vietnamese miêu and mèo; Sino-Korean myo; Sino-Japanese みょう myou and びょう byou), reconstructed for Middle Chinese as *mjew and *maew.
Historical Ryukyuan attestations
- Konkoukenshuu (混効験集, 1711), "Words of the Royal Palace", records まや maya (p. 11)
- Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo Island, in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford, records "Cat. Mía, or My'a (Chinese)".
Discussion
- The final vowel -a in some Ryukyuan varieties likely reflects a bound diminutive morpheme *a.
Notes
Variants:
まゆー mayuu "cat" (uncommon; considered refined language)
まーゆー maayuu or まーうー maauu "cat; kitty" (considered baby talk)
Spelling
| Orthography | Form |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 猫 |
| Kana | まやー まやあ |
| Romanization | mayaa |
| Pronunciation (IPA) | [majaː] |
意味：ねこ【猫】、イリオモテヤマネコ【西表山猫】