Yumi - shock, horror ... pronoun discoveries!

[John Burton]

I was away and have only just read this very interesting exchange on yumi.

1.
---
Lise Dobrin has very correctly picked up the stepping-out-of-literalness
'yumi' ('yumi bai wokim nupela haus kuk gen') and this really merits
extended discussion + plenty of live examples. (Richard Scaglion says
speakers from other areas pick this as a Sepik trait, but I can't agree that
this is so. It's much more widespread.)

Miriam Meyerhoff calls the non-standard usages 'metaphorical' ones, but I
may have missed something because metaphor doen't seem to fit what is going
on in TP when I have heard examples similar to Lise's. However, she also
uses 'felicitous'; this is nearer the mark.

I once listened to a land mediator trying to help a group of men decribe
their land. Obviously, being from elsewhere, none of it was his. But he
still asked 'graun bilong yumi stap olsem?' pointing along a boundary,
because, during the conversation at least, he was 'with' the party who
should say 'yumi'. It was felicitous - intimate, polite - for him to speak
as one of them (although it is obvious he was not). Lise's example fits this
type (unless she REALLY was expected to stay behind to fix up the haus kuk).

Another angle is comparison with the use of the anonymous pronouns in
English. English has a choice of (at least) 'you', 'one' and 'we'. For
example, 'you may say ...', 'one may say ...', and 'we may say ...' can all
be used when you don't really mean anybody in particular. In TP, 'yumi'
appears to be the only viable choice. (Rebuttals??)

We need more examples. I will listen out for variants.

2.
---
Expatriate influence, especially in 'late' TP areas? This seems unlikely to
me.

3.
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Yumi vs mipela among speakers of Papuan languages which do NOT distinguish
yumi = inclusive and mipela = exclusive (Jacka; Lynch).

Can we check with some Engans? Are their other places that reinforce/refute
this? Also, who uses the pretty bloody awful 'yumipela' and when?

4.
---
Tupela & mitupela. At first (a long time ago) I thought that speakers with
dual in their 1st language could be characterised by their usage of the the
2nd person pronoun 'tupela' (e.g. 'moning tupela' as two of you walk past).
This may be so (weakly) but 'mitupela' is so common as to be universal
(rebuttal?).

Mitupela is so commonly shortened to 'mitela' (e.g. 'mitela go nau'), that
this may warrant the award of 'new pronoun' status. Along with 'tupela', of
course. Does anyone agree with me?

John Burton