Talk:Tapanuli

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Etymology[edit]

comes from "Tapian Nauli" which means West Bank apparently — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.36.145.224 (talk) 10:01, 9 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Tapian Nauli is the name of a district of Central Tapanuli (see the Indonesian Wikipedia). Various sources claim that this is the Batak Toba name for Lake Toba, and that the literal meaning is "beautiful lake". Other sources give "beautiful spring" or "beautiful coast". I think that nauli indeed means beautiful, but could not verify the meaning of tapian; our article on Lake Toba states that its name in Batak Toba is Tao Toba, and the lake is not located in the Tapian Nauli district. While there is some plausibility in the suggestion that the name "Tapanuli" arose as a contraction of "Tapian Nauli", we cannot add this to the article without giving a reliable source. --Lambiam 15:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]