[Mihalic] More etymology

[Robin Hide]

Re: Tom Slone’s posting. Just a warning that there are real risks in using 
uncritically 40-50 year old sources which give botanical (or other 
biological) names - taxonomy continues apace and names can change quite 
rapidly. I learnt this the hard way recently when revising the Majnep and 
Bulmer manuscript on Kalam animals that had been written in the 1970s - of 
the 49 mammals currently recorded in the Kaironk region that were also 
present in the early 1970s,  43% of the zoological names had changed since 
1973!
In short, when citing the older sources, their scientific nomenclature 
needs to be checked if chains of discarded names are not to be reproduced...-..

Robin

Below some queries/alterations for some of Tom’s entries  indicated by **. 
(Incidentally, one wonders what were Lanyon-Orgil’s botanical sources?)


Aila: "Ela" is the Tahitian chestnut, Inocarpus fagiferus, in the Kuanua 
Language (Lanyon-Orgill, 1960: 143).

** now Inocarpus fagifer


Bukbuk: "Bukubuk" is a hardwood tree with edible fruit in the Kuanua 
Language according to Lanyon-Orgill (1960: 129). Bukubuk is a large nut 
tree in the Kuanua Language according to Mennis (1975: 118).

** Peekel (1984: 431) gives bukapuk (Kuanua) for Burckella obovata. and 
bukbuk for the Pala (Patpatar) language.

Galip: "Qalip" is the tree and nut of Terminalia sp. (Lanyon-Orgill, 1960: 
338).

** I suspect incorrect. ?? in Peekel 1984: 403 ff Terminalia spp. are talia 
in Kuanua. galip in Peekel 1984: 282, are Canarium moluccanum (or pb sp.)


Kapiak: "Kapiaka" is the "breadfruit tree, Artocarpus incisa, also other 
sp." (Lanyon-Orgill, 1960: 182).

**Artocarpus is ok, sp. names have been revised/under revision


Kaukau: Lanyon-Orgill (1960: 187) says this is the "sweet potato, Dioscorea 
sativa". However, Dioscorea is the yam genus, not the sweet potato genus, 
which is Ipomoea.

** !!! enough said.

Mami: This is a Mbula (Umboi Island, Morobe Province) word for yam (Tryon, 
1995, part 3, p. 255). This is the yam species Dioscorea rubicosa in the 
Kuanua Language (Lanyon-Orgill: 1960: 253).

** Very odd- I think forget rubicosa-: Note that in Peekel (1984: 95) he 
gives mamia as the gloss for Dioscorea esculenta, the yam species that is 
commonly (but not invariably) called mami in tok pisin.  Most confusing for 
local usage of tok pisin, this is the yam, as he shows, called kaukau by 
Pala (Patapatar) speakers!

Pitpit: Mühlhäusler (unpublished) says this is from the Kuanua "pit" ("wild 
sugar cane"). Lanyon-Orgill (1960: 323) confirms that "pit" is wild sugar 
cane (Saccharum floridulum and Miscanthus japonicus).

**“wild sugar cane” is a misnomer for Saccharum spontaneum . Peekel (1984: 
46) gives two forms one of which is pb S. robustum, he gives one as pit in 
Kuanua the other pitpit.  He doesnt give a Kuanua name for Miscanthus 
floridulus


Taun (2): Mühlhäusler (unpublished) says this is from the Mioko and Malot 
languages for Pometia pinnata.
** cf. Bryant Allen’s comment:
Peekel (1984: 335) glosses Pometia pinnata as ton in Kuanua, but tauan in 
Patpatar and East Kara. NOTE that taun is used as the common commercial 
name in English for the timber of this tree: see: Eddowes, P. J. (1977). 
Commercial timbers of Papua New Guinea: their properties and uses. Port 
Moresby, DPI., or French, B. R. (1986). Food Plants of Papua New Guinea: A 
Compendium, Privately printed.


Lanyon-Orgill, Peter A. (1960). A Dictionary of the Raluana Language (New 
Britain, S. W. Pacific). Victoria, British Columbia: Lanyon-Orgill 
(self-published). [Raluana is the same as Kuanua.]

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