Talk:blotto

Etymology

@Lambiam: Do you think "Mol. Maleisch" could be "Moluccan Malay"? — SGconlaw (talk) 14:40, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

I think the abbreviation stands for “Moluks”, which then would indeed make this into “Moluccan Malay”. But this is not a generally recognized language label, so the next question is then, which of the many Malay-based dialects, creoles and pidgins associated in some way with early 20th-century Malaku is “Moluccan Malay”? I now think the most likely candidate is Ambonese Malay. Ambon is the Moluccan island closest to Sulawesi; the distance between the two islands is “only” about 300 km. It is possible that the person reported on in De Indische Gids, Mr. Michielsen, had a guide with whom he conversed in Ambonese Malay. However, Ambonese Malay is not among the languages spoken on Sulawesi, and it is extremely unlikely that all these European travellers on Sulawesi who mention the term blotto somehow learned the word from someone speaking the local creole from another island hundreds of kilometers away.  --Lambiam 19:49, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

*Thumbs up* — SGconlaw (talk) 01:41, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

I have found more complete bibliographic information on the 1913 article in De Indische Gids and added it to the ref. The W.J.M. Michielsen referred to is Willem Jan Maria Michielsen, born 1844 in Breda, who became administrator in Menado in 1868 and made an expedition to Lake Poso in 1869. The term blotto explained to the reader in the 1913 article in De Indische Gids apparently occurs in a quotation from Michielsen’s notes in which he simply writes, “we crossed the Posso river in a blotto”. The etymology supplied is by the hand of N. Adriani, the author of the 1913 article.  --Lambiam 06:34, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

That's excellent. Thanks! — SGconlaw (talk) 06:59, 6 September 2018 (UTC)