[Mihalic] Hunting the snark

[John Burton]

Fair enough. Perhaps I have fitted 'obsolescent' (='growing old') into one
category with 'obsolete' (='worn out, discarded'). I look at changing this.

In 1980 I used 'wilwil' (having just studied Mihalic) when sitting in my
bush house in South Wahgi with 2 or 3 highlands youths and explaining that
as I didn't have a car in Canberra I got around by bicycle. They said
'wilwil mipela i no klia tumas, yu min yu raun long baisikel?'. 

I have not heard 'wilwil'=bicycle uttered in a sentence, i.e. caught one in
the wild, in NIP, WNB, Madang, Wau, Finsch, POM, Lae or anywhere else I may
have been since 1980. I have heard the other meanings, wilwilim etc, plenty
of times. 

I stick by 'obsolescent' - 'wilwil I laik lapun nau'. Even if obsolescent, I
have never said it was not a perfectly good word for bicycle and I am
delighted to know that there are plenty of wilwil strongholds. 

John Burton

> I put this to my PNG office staff and not one person agreed 
> with the allegedly obsolescent status of "wilwil". In fact 
> all of them were most puzzled as to why anyone would think this.
> 
> Peter Cotterell
> Lae - Papua New Guinea