Comments on Pacific Pidgin English (PPE) etymology
BURTON John
john.burton at tsra.gov.au
Mon Jul 29 17:06:53 EST 2002
Thomas and all
Ah good, I was hoping someone would take this up. I agree with the criteria,
however I would like to qualify the first one.
It seems unfair to disqualify words which have paralelled the English
meaning, though they may well have entered PPE in 1850. I agree that the
main danger is that there is an overlay effect when English comes into
contact with the word from time to time. An example may be 'bihain', which
should mean 'later in time' but you also hear contemporary speakers use for
'at the back of' (e.g. bihain long haus - doesn't sound right to me!).
I will find more examples to illustrate what I have in mind. Thomas' list is
a good start.
John Burton
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas H. Slone [mailto:THSlone at yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 26 July 2002 1:16 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Comments on Pacific Pidgin English (PPE) etymology
John Burton recently indicated a PPE etymology for some Tok Pisin words and
gave equivalent words in other Melanesian (Bislamic) pidgins for them. I
think that we can apply two tests to convince ourselves that a word passed
through PPE:
1) Is there an equivalently derived word in other Melanesian Pidgins that
has a different meaning than earlier etymology (usually English). For
example, "wan" does not count because it has the same meaning as "one" in
English, whereas "kilim" does count because it has a different meaning in
all Bislamic pidgins than it does in English (i.e., "to hit").
2) Is there evidence for the PPE root word in early documentation?
Churchill (1911) is an excellent source for this because he summarized
pidgin English from several sources across the South Pacific from 1844-1911.
Abbreviations used below: Tok Pisin (TP), Vanuatu Bislama (VB), Solomon
Islands Pidgin (SIP), and Torres Straits Creole (Broken) (TSC), Pacific
Pidgin English (PPE)
Note: Churchill's spellings are Anglicized and I have phoneticized them
below.
The Bislama reference is Crowley (1995), the SIP reference is Simons & Young
(1978), and the TSC reference is Shnukal (1988).
Part I: words of PPE origin as indicated by John on the Web site (for these,
I mostly fill in the SIP words not given by John)
TP: baga, bagarap, bagarapim
SIP: bagarap, bagarem ap (p. 29)
VB: baga, bagarap, bagaremap (p. 39)
TSC: baga, bagarap (p. 112)
PPE: *baga
TP: baut, bautim (to turn)
SIP: no equivalent?
VB: baut (to tack [nautical]) (p. 41)
TSC: no equivalent? (baut in TSC = nabaut in TP [pp. 113-114])
PPE: *baut [John Burton thinks this is from PPE, but I'm not convinced.
There's no equivalent in SIP or TSC and it's not in Churchill (1911).]
TP: bruk, brukim
SIP: brek, brekem (p. 34)
VB: brek/brok, brekem/brokem (pp. 55-56)
TSC: brok (p. 119)
PPE: *brek (according to John) but Churchill (1911: 36) quotes Wawn (1891:
97, 144) with "Cappen he broke." [The captain is injured.] and "Man Sandwich
make big wind, big wind broke ship belonga me." so maybe *brok is correct?
TP: holim
SIP: holem (p. 56)
VB: holem (pp. 97-98)
TSC: no equivalent?
PPE: *holim
TP: inap, inapim
SIP: inaf/naf (p. 58)
VB: inaf/nap (pp. 100, 155)
TSC: inap (p. 138)
PPE: *inap
TP: nambis
SIP: sanbis (p. 99)
VB: sanbij (p. 293)
TSC: sanbis (p. 194)
PPE: *sanbis
TP: narakain
SIP: narakaen (p. 82)
VB: narakaen (p. 164)
TSC: nadakain (p. 168)
PPE: *nara + *kain
TP: narapela
SIP: narafala (p. 82)
VB: narafala (p. 164)
TSC: nada (p. 168)
PPE: *nara + *fala
TP: pikinini
SIP: pikinini (p. 91)
VB: pikinini (p. 184)
TSC: piknini (p. 180)
PPE: *pikinini
TP: planti
SIP: plande (p. 91)
VB: plante (p. 187)
TSC: plenti (p. 183)
PPE: *plenti
TP: sanap, sanapim
SIP: stan ap (p. 107)
VB: stanap, stanemap (p. 230)
TSC: stanap (p. 206)
PPE: *stanap
TP: wokabaut
SIP: wokabaot (p. 119)
VB: wokbaot (p. 263-264)
TSC: wagbaut/wogbaut (pp. 220, 227)
PPE: *wokabaut (Churchill, 1911: 52)
Part II: More words with PPE origin
TP: kaikai/kaikaiim
SIP: kaikai/kaikaiim (p. 60)
VB: kakae (pp. 106-107)
TSC: kaikai (p. 140)
PPE: *kaikai (Churchill, 1911: 44)
TP: bulmakau
SIP: bulumakao (p. 128)
VB: bulumakao (archaic) (p. 58)
TSC: bulmakao (p. 120)
PPE: *bulamakau; Churchill (1911: 37) reports "bullamacow" and "pulumakau"
TP: meri
SIP: mere (p. 78)
VB: meri (obsolete) (p. 150)
TSC: no equivalent?
PPE: *meri (Churchill, 1911: 46)
TP: bilong
SIP: blong (p. 32)
VB: blong (p. 50)
TSC: blo, blong (p. 117)
PPE: *bilong (Churchill, 1911: 35)
TP: dispela
SIP: desfala (p. 37)
VB: disfala (p. 63)
TSC: dis (p. 126)
PPE: *dis + *fela; Churchill (1911: 51) says that "this" is "the near
demonstrative, idiomatically supported by fellow."
TP: giaman/giamanim
SIP: giaman/giamanem (p. 49)
VB: giaman (p. 84)
TSC: geman, gyeman, gyaman (p. 134)
PPE: *gamon (Churchill, 1911: 41) or *kiaman (specific to New Ireland
[Churchill, 1911: 44])
TP: i
SIP: i (p. 57)
VB: i (p. 99)
TSC: i (p. 138)
PPE: *i (Churchill, 1911: 42)
TP: kanaka
SIP: kanaka (p. 61)
VB: kanaka (p. 109)
TSC: no equivalent?
PPE: *kanaka (Churchill, 1911: 44)
TP: long
SIP: long (p. 73)
VB: long (p. 138)
TSC: long (p. 157)
PPE: *long (Churchill, 1911: 45)
TP: sapos
SIP: sapos (p. 99)
VB: sapos (p. 208)
TSC: no equivalent ?
PPE: *sapos (Churchill, 1911: 50)
TP: singsing
SIP: singsing (specifically, "a song") (p. 103)
VB: singsing (specifically, "to sing") (p. 216)
TSC: no equivalent?
PPE: *singsing ("a song" or "a dance" [Churchill, 1911: 49])
TP: -pela
SIP: -fala (p. 43)
VB: -fala
TSC: no equivalent?
PPE: *fela (Churchill, 1911: 40)
TP: wanem
SIP: wanem (p. 116)
VB: wanem (p. 258)
TSC: wanem (pp. 221-222)
PPE: *wanem (what + name) (Churchill, 1911: 53)
TP: kilim
SIP: kil, kilim (p. 65)
VB: kil, kilim (p. 118)
TSC: kile (means "to kill" only, not "to hit") (p. 146)
PPE: *kil (Churchill, 1911: 44)
TP: bai, bambai, baimbai
SIP: bae, baebae, baembae (p. 28)
VB: bae, bambae (p. 38)
TSC: bambai (p. 113)
PPE: *baimbai (Churchill, 1911: 37)
TP: bin
SIP: bin (p. 165)
VB: bin (p. 47)
TSC: bi, bin (p. 116)
PPE: *bin (Churchill, 1911: 35)
>[In a previous posting, I wrote:]
>Franis / Ples bilong ol man wiwi: France (Balzer, 1999: 114).
>Compare to the English use of "wi-wi" (oui-oui) as pejorative for
>the French (Hughes, 1991: 129)
>[BURTON John] Hmm. Pushing it a bit here.
Regarding plausibility of "wiwi " in TP: Churchill (1911: 53) reports
"man-o-weewee" from Wawn (1893: 143) as being the term for Frenchman.
Crowley (1995: 263) also reports "wiwi" as obsolete for French.
Part III: Pronouns
single dual plural
1st excl.
TP: mi mitupala mipela
VB/SIP: mi mitufala mifala
TSC: mi mitu, wi mipla, wi
Churchill: me me two fellow me fellow
1st. incl.
TP: - yumitupela yumi
VB/SIP: - yumitufala yumi
TSC: - yumi, wi yumpla, wi
2nd
TP: yu yutupela yupela
VB/SIP: yu yutufala yufala
TSC: yu yutu yupla
Churchill: you you fellow
3rd
TP: em tupela ol
VB: hem tufala ol
SIP: hem tufala olketa
TSC: em demtu** dempla, ol
Churchill: him all
PPE:
single dual plural
1st *mi *mitufela *mifela
2nd *yu *yufela
3rd *hem *ol
(or *him)
References
Churchill, William (1911). Beach-la-mar: The Jargon or Trade Speech of the
Western Pacific. Pub. No. 154. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution, 54 pp.
Reprinted in 1979 by AMS Press, New York.
Crowley, Terry (1995). A New Bislama Dictionary. Suva, Fiji: Institute of
Pacific Studies.
Shnukal, Anna (1988). Broken: An Introduction to the Creole Language of
Torres Strait. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics
C-107.
Simons, Linda & Young, Hugh (1978). Pijin Blong Yumi: A Guide to Solomon
Islands Pijin. Honiara: Solomon Islands Christian Association.
Wawn, William T. (1893). The South Sea Islanders and the Queensland Labour
Trade: A Record of Voyages and Experiences in the Western Pacific, from 1875
to 1891. London: Swan Sonnenschen & Co. [cited in Churchill (1911)]
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