AUSTRONESIAN ORIGIN

“Mata” is an indicative cognate in the Austronesian language family. Among the 1268 Austronesian languages, most of them use the term “mata” for the eye. The consistency of “mata” in so many different languages is not an ordinary phenomenon, especially for those languages that are spread so far apart to each other. “Mata” and a few cognates like “lima”, “walu”, “ina” form the key words that establish the Austronesian language family. For everything we know today, we must thank Dr. Robert A. Blust for his major contributions to the field of Austronesian linguistics.

 

Being the cradle of all Austronesian people, Taiwan might be the dispersal center for the word “mata”. From the most westward, “maso” in Malagasy, to the most eastward, “mata” in Rapanui. From most northward, “maka” in Hawaiian, to the most southward, “mata” in ‎Aotearoa Maori. 

 

The distribution of the word “mata” even extended beyond the traditional range of Austronesian. Such as “me” in Japanese, “mắt” in Vietnamese, and “máti” in Greek.  For explanation of these occurrences,  we need some more exploration through their background. As to the location of Japan, which just nearby to Taiwan,  30% of the Japanese language has originated from Austronesian. As to Vietnamese，one of their main ethnic groups consist of the Cham, a group of Austronesians from the Malay Archipelago. So it is reasonable to see their words for eye is similar to “mata”. To the more distant Greek, they use “μάτι(máti)” for eye, that is quite similar to “mata”. The relationship between the Austronesian and Greek language belongs to an unexplored linguistic area and will be discussed later if possible.

 

In Chinese Mandarin, they use both “yan” and “mu” for eye. The word “yan” may relate with the Arabian “eayan”. And the word “mu” may relate to “mata” of Austronesian.  So we can say Chinese Mandarin is a mixture of the languages of the Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian.

 

What is the etymology of “mata”?  In southern Africa, there are Khoisans who are recognized presently as the most ancient human beings. Their language also use “mu” for eye.  If we follow the theory of “Out of Africa”, that modern human beings come from Africa, then the term “mu“ may be the origin of “mata”.