[Mihalic] Pikinini etymology

[Ross Clark (ARTS DALSL)]

For the reasons stated by Allison Jablonko, I don't think the Italian
name is a likely source. 
Let's see if I can make the Portuguese story less inadequate. 
My Portuguese-English dictionary has pequenino/pequenina "(adj.) tiny,
wee (n.) a little one (child)".
The word is recorded in English from the mid-17th century, localized to
the West Indies, to refer to non-white babies or children. 
There is some room for uncertainty as to whether the Portuguese or a
cognate Spanish form is the source (or both). 
>From the early 19th century we find it used in Africa, Australia and the
Pacific. It is the basic word for "child" in all varieties of Melanesian
Pidgin today. 
At one time I thought there was a question as to whether the word had
reached the Pacific via some kind of nautical pidgin/jargon or via
English. But this now seems like an unnecessary distinction. It was a
word widely known to English speakers, suitable for use in standard
English when describing exotic peoples and places, or for use in
broken/jargon/pidgin English when speaking to the natives themselves.
Are there other problems that I'm missing?
 
Ross Clark

	-----Original Message-----
	From: mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au
[mailto:mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Allison Jablonko
	Sent: Sunday, 29 May 2005 6:29 p.m.
	To: Thomas H. Slone; Mihalic
	Subject: Re: [Mihalic] Pikinini etymology
	
	
	Just don't forget that the pronunciation of Piccinini is with a
soft "c", i.e. in English we might spell it Peachynini. Italian spelling
differentiates between hard and soft "c" on the basis of the following
vowel. 
	"C" followed by "a", "o", and "u" is hard (k). 
	"C" followed by ""i" or "e" is soft (ch). 
	To harden a "c" which is followed by an "i" or an "e" one must
insert an "h". For example in the plural of Peach: peach -> peaches =
pesca -> peschi. If you don't add that "h" you end up with pesci, which
is fishes not peaches! 

	Allison Jablonko 


	On Saturday, May 28, 2005, at 08:55 Europe/Rome, Thomas H. Slone
wrote: 


		Currently, we have pikinini as originating from
Portuguese (pequeninho).  Does anyone else find this inadequate?  I
noticed recently that there's an Italian surname, Piccinini, which
sounds a lot like pikinini, and also means "little".  See:
http://www.italyworldclub.com/genealogy/surnames/p.htm 

		Is pikinini ultimately from Lingua Franca?  It doesn't
appear in the on-line Lingua Franca dictionary
(http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/franca/edition3/PP.html). 
		--Tom Slone 
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