[Mihalic] singsing kaur

Thomas H. Slone THSlone at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 31 14:43:29 EST 2006


Mihalic lists both kaur ("bamboo rafters", p. 108) and taur (shell 
trumpet, p. 193) as coming from the Gazelle Peninsula area.  I wonder 
if, even though they're completely different materials, whether there 
is TP conflation of meaning or a shared Austronesian root word.  Both 
panpipes and shell trumpets are fairly universal in PNG (McLean 1994).

>  > Both terms should get there eventually, I hope. "Singsing kaur" is not in
>>  Mihalic's dictionary and actually that is the only context in which I've
>>  ever heard "kaur" used. As for a definition of "singsing kaur", I'd suggest
>>  something like:
>
>So maybe "kaur" doesn't exist independently. Does anyone have any idea
>where it comes from? Incidentally, I've heard two variants of the term
>there: "singsing kaur" and "singsing kaul".
>
>>  music/dance from North Solomons Province consisting of singing accompanied
>  > by an ensemble of double-row bamboo panpipes, end-blown bamboo 
>trumpets tied
>>  together in raft form, and end-blown wooden trumpets--all instruments
>>  restricted to North Solomons. Wooden trumpet players dance in a circle
>>  moving clockwise, while singers and other instrumentalists dance around them
>>  in the opposite direction.
>
>That's a fair characterization of what I understand by the term. But is it
>really that specific?
>
>>  Has anyone heard this term used to refer to any music/dance from outside of
>>  North Solomons?
>
>My experience with the term is limited to Bougainville.
>
>-Stuart
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