Tuarekiuid

[johnbent]

"Tuarekiuid is said to be the first banana known to be in Palau. It is a seeded banana. Tuarekiuid is not as plentiful as before although both Demei and I agree that there are still bananas of this type in different places in Palau. We both remember that there are lots of them in old Ngatpang village and a number of other places in Palau. In the old days, tuarekiuid was mostly planted around cheliuis (raised dirt mounds around taro patches) as boundaries and dikes as well. It was not only a food item; the leaves were great as dekedek (covering) for the dirt surface around newly planted taro plants. The word tuarekiuid derives from the phrase “tuual a kiuid,” meaning Micronesian starling’s bananas, because it was not only eaten by people, it was most frequently eaten by the starling bird. Tuu means bananas and adding an “al,” makes the noun possessive; “kiuid” is the Micronesian starling (Aplonis opaca)."

Found in https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/b766f365-dace-443a-8c5d-8ae772b76675/content

Can anyone confirm please?

Note that we already have this word from Kerresel with a different definition that doesn't sound like a banana: A tuarekiuid a dellomel; ng diak el sal meklou el dellomel; ng di kmeed el ua a teletelel a temring e ng di lmuut el mo metongakl. Ng diak el kall.

[johnbent]

Allen Fritz: has seeds inside so people don't normally eat them

[JimGeselbracht]

The Ethnobotany of Palau (2020) has this as in the zingiberaceae (Ginger) family with genus/species "Alpinia carolinensis Koidz."  It says "Wild pigs eat the whole plant.  Hunters know this and hunt near the plant."   On Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 06:31:27 PM PDT, John Bent @.***> wrote:

Allen Fritz: has seeds inside so people don't normally eat them

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>

[johnbent]

That seems to match the Kerresel definition. I'll go ahead and add that for the English definition of the existing entry. We still have at least one source claiming that another definition of this word is a banana. So I'll leave this open until we can confirm that one way or another.

[johnbent]

Thank you @JimGeselbracht for alerting me to the existence of this excellent reference! I've reached out to someone (Tarita) who was involved in this project and she says there is a database that was used to make this book. That would be awesome because then we could programmatically find and define missing words! Just adding this comment here to help remember to follow-up on this if needed.