a page about Changhua (彰化) place namesGot a new one. I was reading , and the entry about Hemei (和美) struck me. When you get to Hemei’s etymology, it’s a really common Austronesian place name, as common as Taowan, Pattsiran, Pulauan, Saisiyat, and Bali.
[quote]Hemei, once known as khah-lí-siān (卡里善), lau-lî-sán (朥狸散), has its etymology from the Babuza language, originally meaning “the boundary between hot and cold”. The subsequent 和美線 and 和美散 are variant phonetic transliterations, because 善, 散 and 線 has similar pronunciations.
『和美,曾經叫做「卡里善」、「朥狸散」,這是源自於巴布薩族的發音,意指「冷與熱的交界」,所以後來出現「和美線」、「和美散」的稱呼,因「善」、「散」、「線」音接近。』[/quote]
By the time the Japanese took over, they changed the old transliterations to 和美線, probably because 和 in Japanese can be read as Ka. So at least in the beginning of the Japanese rule, it was probably still called Ka-bi-sen.
According to August 13, 1920’s Taiwan nichi nichi shinpō (臺灣日日新報), the newest location name reform shortened the name from 和美線 to just 和美.
From then on the place was called Wabi, at least that’s what was written on the US WW2 surveillance map.
So the name of 和美 evovled as such:
? → Kalisian (Taigi) → Kabisen (Japanese) → Wabi (Japanese) → Hemei (Mandarin) → Hōbí (Taigi)
As previously mentioned, Kalisian is a common Austronesian place name. There are at least two places that shared similar transliteration prior to Chinese settlements reaching the area during the Qing rule.
One is 佳里 (Taigi: Kali) in Tainan, right next to Mattau, which used to be called 佳里興 (Kalisin) and 傀儡興 (Kalesin).
The other is the locative name 傀儡大山 (ka-lé mountain, probably Dawushan 大武山 today). According to the Aboriginal historical and linguistic encyclopedia, the possible etymology for 傀儡 is a Paiwan locative name Karisi.
There is a place in Northern Philippines called Carasi. I tried looking for the etymology for that place, but I get a pretty made up answer like it’s a combination of Spanish words carayo (love) and caasi (charity).
goo.gl/maps/GBgivdAGA172
So it’s possible Hemei’s name also shares this etymology, although the encyclopedia did not provide an explanation for why the Paiwan village was called Karisi. I don’t know how accurate “the boundary between hot and cold” etymology for Karisi is either…