Seeding Bale/Sejiq Balay (Beautiful, Truly, People) - Anthropological Perspective (Note 286-287)

@Cairo Egypt

Bee symbolism is universal. Recently from a brief chat with Pedro Cuni (who is in Taipei for an "Encaustic painting" exhibition) , I learned something new about beeswax - Encaustic art is an ancient, durable painting technique using molten beeswax. 

Pedro asked me if I have been to Pompeii which I have twice - and he said ancient painting including Pompeii, Greek and Egypt all used beeswax because there was no knowledge (and technique) to use anything else. 

I asked if he had spent time in Egypt from a painting 'The Egyptian Museum' displayed in the exhibition - he said in 2023 he spent six-month researching and working in Cairo for a collaboration project with the Museum. 

"Were you there in October 2023?" I asked because that was when I visited the Museum. "Yes" Pedro replied. (!!)

Ask indigenous people what their distinct group name （族名) means, the standard (and predictable) answer in many cases is 'PEOPLE' 'HUMAN'.

For PLACE (either of origin or of significance) - the standard (and predictable) answer is  - " A type of TREE".

 1935 'Myth and Traditions' could have offered something 'surprising' and 'unpredictable' from an anthropological perspective - at least for me. 

Note 286

PEOPLE and TREE  (Indigenous name and place meaning)

Seeding (Sediq)/Sejiq Truku

Where did Sediq/Sejiq (Truku) word come from and developed into meaning People/Human under revitalizations? 

(And undoubtedly and predictably  - same goes to the rest of the indigenous groups who call themselves 'People')

Hypothetical-claims under revitalizations are encouraged in Taiwan  - people participating entitled to make  hypothetical claims and produce prolific (and sometimes) unsubstantiated outcomes is not an uncommon practice.  Diversity-of -loanwords often randomly and casually promoted as Diversity-of- languages based on under-analyzed data and information. 

I believe 'origins' of these PEOPLE names are developed from this one page  (1935). (Note the Hakka involvement).

Details HERE. 

 

Note 287 Bale/Balay/Balai/Bulay 美/實 (Beautiful and Truly - 1935)

美麗（bí-lē) meaning Beautiful/Elegant in Hokkien - 

is the strongest candidate in this etymology and it is 'Formosan' language. 

Where does this word (Atayal, Sediq, Truku, Paiwan etc) Balai meaning 美/實  (Beautiful and Truly) come from or developed from - appears a lot more interesting ...

First - Balai (美 Beautiful) and Balai (實 Truly) both appear on 1935 reports. (Under probably Atayal and /or Amis. I only took photos and kept less than 10% of the book.)

Balai - 美 Beautiful

Balai - 實 Truly

NOTE - 

Japanese identify SE Asian Language root all through the reports. Balai - in both cases are not identified as SE Asian word root, so quite possibly Balai meaning 'Beautiful and Truly' is 'Formosan' and not PAN (Proto Austronesian). (Japanese could have limited repetitive root-words mentions. Yes. Possible)

美麗（bí-lē) meaning Beautiful/Elegant in Hokkien therefore is the strongest candidate in this etymology and it is 'Formosan' language. 

NOTE - Bai/Balay - Building - Village Hall exist in the Philippines, Indonesia and Palau (my photos @ Palau) and undoubtedly elsewhere too. 

It is therefore quite possible Balay meaning of 'home' 'building' 'strength' and 'consolidated' did come into Indigenous usages and may have influenced some indigenous groups such as Atayal.

(Incidentally - Atayal word for 'crazy' is also in 1935 report. Pretty sure on 'diseases' word list but I didn't take photos)

Other Interesting Comparison 😀 - 

Bella (Spanish and Italian) is an interesting comparison meaning 美 Beautiful. 

Bale (Spanish) Sounds good. Smoothly. No problem.

Cleopatra modern meaning - beauty, elegance, strength and powerful. 😊

Balai word roots meaning the above mentioned - 

Atayal - Maibarai (Beautiful) Mountain 

Atayal - Building/Crazy

Paiwan - Beautiful, Glory, Truly, Powerful