Malay for two: dua

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Today I have been thinking about my childhood in Singapore nearly 80
years ago. Something that has puzzled me over the years has been the
Malay word for 2, dua, which looks remarkably like the Latin word for
2. I suppose that it's no more than a chance similarity, as it's hard
to imagine that such a basic word should have been borrowed from a
European language. But does anyone know?

[Ross Clark]

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden
Today I have been thinking about my childhood in Singapore nearly 80
years ago. Something that has puzzled me over the years has been the
Malay word for 2, dua, which looks remarkably like the Latin word for 2.
I suppose that it's no more than a chance similarity, as it's hard to
imagine that such a basic word should have been borrowed from a European
language. But does anyone know?

Yes, it's a chance similarity. Cognates of dua are found all over
Austronesian (Maori rua etc etc).
The chance similarities go a little further: 3, telu (not the basic word
in Malay) and 4, empat.
dua, telu, empat could sound a bit like Latin du-, tri-, quat-. One of
the great early Indo-Europeanists, Franz Bopp, was sufficiently
impressed with this, and with words like kepala 'head' (which are
actually borrowed from Sanskrit), that he proposed a relation between
the two families. This was not generally accepted.

[Christian Weisgerber]

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden
Today I have been thinking about my childhood in Singapore nearly 80
years ago. Something that has puzzled me over the years has been the
Malay word for 2, dua, which looks remarkably like the Latin word for
2. I suppose that it's no more than a chance similarity, as it's hard
to imagine that such a basic word should have been borrowed from a
European language. But does anyone know?

Well, Wiktionary...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dua#Malay

... traces it back to Proto-Austronesian *duSa, and at that entry lists
a sizable number of descendants, i.e., cognates of "dua", such as
Hawaiian "lua".

[Ruud Harmsen]

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden
Today I have been thinking about my childhood in Singapore nearly 80
years ago. Something that has puzzled me over the years has been the
Malay word for 2, dua, which looks remarkably like the Latin word for
2. I suppose that it's no more than a chance similarity, as it's hard
to imagine that such a basic word should have been borrowed from a
European language. But does anyone know?

No, but I can look it up. Why didn't you?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dua#Malay
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dua#Indonesian

So they're unrelated. It's a chance similarity.

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Post by Ruud Harmsen

Post by Athel Cornish-Bowden
Today I have been thinking about my childhood in Singapore nearly 80
years ago. Something that has puzzled me over the years has been the
Malay word for 2, dua, which looks remarkably like the Latin word for
2. I suppose that it's no more than a chance similarity, as it's hard
to imagine that such a basic word should have been borrowed from a
European language. But does anyone know?

No, but I can look it up. Why didn't you?

Ross is expert on Malayo-Polynesian languages, and I have far more
confidence in what he says than in what some unknown person says. Some
of the definitions one finds on Wiktionary are fine; some are not.

Post by Ruud Harmsen
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dua#Malay
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dua#Indonesian
So they're unrelated. It's a chance similarity.

Did you bother to read the earlier answers before repeating them?