AUSTRONESIAN ORIGIN

In the English speaking world, chicken is just chicken. But in certain other languages the terms for “chicken” has become more profuse, the terms vary with the age, gender, and other conditions of the chickens. 

 

How to call chicken in Taiwan and adjacent places is an interesting linguistic issue.  Chicken in Taiwanese is “ge”, in Thai is “gai”, and in Vietnamese is “gà”. It's obviously due to the fact that Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam are located in the distribution center of the Red Jungle Fowl, the ancestor of modern chicken. If chicken distribution to the other parts of the world is from there, then it is possible to discover that the terms used for chicken in other languages must relate to “ge”. By checking the languages around Europe, we have found there are many terms related to “ge”.  Such as “gallina” in Latin, Catalan,Galician, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and “găină” in Romanian for hen. And as “gallus” in Latin, “gjel” in Albanian, “gall” in Catalan, “galo” in Galician, “gallo” in Italian, “gailis” in Latvian, “gaidis” in Lithuanian, “galo” in Portuguese, and “gallo” in Spanish are for rooster.

 

In the language of Taiwanese, chickens have different names according to their gender and age. Such as “ge nua” is for young hen before egg-laying, “ge ka” is for young rooster, “ge toa” is for the juvenile chicken before showing their sexual sign, “ge gang” is for mature rooster, “ge mu” is for laying hen. We can see from there, the grammar of Taiwanese is to put adjective after the noun, just like the Hawaiian and Maori, the other members of Austronesian language family. Compare the Taiwanese with the European languages for the terms of chicken, we can find “ge nua” may relate to “gallina”, and “ge ka” may relate to “gallus”. 

 

After the Columbus era, the Spanish had conquered the Americas and brought their terms of chicken there too. In Latin America and Caribbean, if you don’t know the difference between “gallina” and “pollo”, you will look ridiculous to the locals.

 

The domestication of chicken is dated to 8,000 years ago, in the  same time, their distribution also began. It is much earlier than the ancient civilizations, such as Greek, Indus river, Mesopotamia, and Egyptian.  The first introduction of chicken to Europe might be via the routes over the oceans directly from Southeast Asia. Therefore the Latin names for chicken originated from Taiwan and adjacent areas, and are not related to the Indian languages.  

 

Over thousand of years, chicken did not serve as a meat provider, but as a performer in cockfighting.  From some descriptions to ancient Greek culture, we can see cockfighting was a popular sport for Greek and Roman. Apparently in ancient times people raised chicken for its brave virtue, not for its meat. Roman army even used cockfighting to show their warriors how to fight to die. 

 

Other than Southeast Asia, in South Asia, the Indian Subcontinent was another chicken distribution center. In addition, the routes of distribution via land arrived in the Arabian Peninsula, Middle East, Central Asia, and even reached northern China. Since the language variation was quite big in India we cannot find a distinct vocabulary of chicken being consistent along this route.  But the syllable of “ci”, “ji”, and “ki” are commonly used among those languages.  The distribution of chicken via the land route was much slower than via the route of sea.  This model of distribution is quite similar to the distribution of tea, the terms of cha and chai are via the land, and teh and tea are via the sea. (See “Teh, Tea, Cha and Chai, An indicator for tea distribution”. )

 

Through the evolving vocabularies for chicken, we can divide it roughly into two groups.  One is the languages using  “ge, ke, gai” in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and southern China. See table 1.  Another is the languages using  “ci, ji, ki” in India. Arabia, Central Asia, and northern China. (Table 2)

 

When and how did chicken arrive Europe? To answer this question we can refer to some definite description in history.  Firstly, Greeks sometimes called chickens “the Persian bird”. That demonstrates their chicken come from India, then through Persia to Greece via the route of land. Secondly, chickens were brought to Britain (c. 500 BC), hundreds of years before the Romans arrived.  Possibly the chicken were brought there via the route of sea.  Then another question is raised, who brought the chicken to the British Isles? At that ancient times, Phoenician might be an apt candidate who brought it from Egypt, where the chicken arrived Africa in the first time.

 

As to Latin language family, why their terms of chicken are so closely related to “ge”, the typical usage for chicken in Southeast Asia. Definitely they got the chicken in a different way, differing from the sea. But when and how they got it has already become obscured in history. Maybe there are occurrences like a wrecked ship, already sunken in the bottom of sea, with just a few debris scattered on the beach.

 

In Southeast Asia, the homeland of both the Red Jungle Fowl and the term of “ge”, the distribution of chicken is not so obscure there. The use of “ge, ke, gai” for chicken is widely distributed in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, Korea, and southern China. (Table 1) This big area with its center at Taiwan, is just like the distribution of Austronesian languages, from Taiwan to adjacent regions. In China, another term is used for chicken, “ji”, now become the official language of China. Different terms of chicken, “ge” and “ji”, are separated by Yangtze River. “Ge” is used in south to the river, and “ji” is in north to the river.  It also reflects the fact that Taiwanese belonging to Austronesian language family and Chinese belonging to Sino-Tibetan language family. The usage of “ji” may derive from Altaic* “civciv”, or even the more distant Arabic “dijaj”.

​

*Altaic: Denoting or belonging to a phylum of languages that includes the Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusic, and Manchu languages.