The Proto—Malayo-Polynesian Multiplicative Ligature *ŋa: A Reply to Reid

In seeking a plausible morphological source for the "intrusive velar nasal" of Palauan, Reid has argued that the multiplicative ligature *ŋa posited by Blust is invalid, and that the shape of this morpheme in Proto—Malayo-Polynesian vowel-final numerals from '20' to '90' was *=m, from earlier *na. However, evidence extending from the northern Philippines to eastern Polynesia supports *ŋa, and shows that Reid has confused two distinct morphemes, the attributive ligature *na, and the multiplicative ligature *ŋa. His further attempts to account for the nonetymological velar nasal of Palauan from an independent ligature *ŋ that ultimately reflects *na are unconvincing because they appeal to ad hoc sound changes, because they are largely a prioristic statements of possibility rather than controlled efforts to track evidence in a single language, and because Palauan has a regular reflex of *na in the form of the ligature əl, which closely matches the functions of Tagalog na and the similar attributive ligature in other Philippine-type languages.