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<DIV align=left class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Robin Hide
[mailto:rhide@coombs.anu.edu.au]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, 2 August 2003 9:47
a.m.<BR><B>To:</B> mihalic@anu.edu.au<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Mihalic] More
etymology<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT face=Arial>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! <BR>In short, when citing the older sources, their
scientific nomenclature needs to be checked if chains of discarded names are
not to be reproduced...-..<BR><SPAN
class=313061922-01082003> </SPAN><BR><BR>Robin<BR><BR>Below some
queries/alterations for some of Tom's entries indicated by **.
(Incidentally, one wonders what were Lanyon-Orgil's botanical
sources?)<BR><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=313061922-01082003> </SPAN><BR><SPAN class=313061922-01082003>[Ross
Clark (FOA LING)] </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=313061922-01082003><FONT color=#0000ff
size=2>While we're on the subject of caution and of Lanyon-Orgill, I would
like to suggest that a certain degree of caution should be exercised in
connection with all the works of this author. For a documented case of
out-and-out falsification in one of his later books, see the review by Paul
Geraghty in the Journal of the Polynesian Society 92:554-9 (1983). In some
cases all he has done is published manuscripts compiled by others with his own
name on the title page. I don't have the Raluana dictionary here, so can't
check the preface etc., but it may be of this kind. He refers here and there
to having done field work in Melanesia, but I have never heard any independent
confirmation of this. I would be interested to know if any of the participants
on this list have any knowledge of his activities *apart* from statements in
his own publications. As far as the Raluana (Kuanua, Tolai) dictionary goes --
since this language is particularly relevant to the Mihalic project -- I
haven't heard any suggestions that it is wildly inaccurate, but would be
interested in the experience of people who know the
language.</FONT></SPAN><BR><I></FONT><BR></I><FONT face=Arial><B>Taun (2)</B>:
Mühlhäusler (unpublished) says this is from the Mioko and Malot languages
for<I> Pometia pinnata</I>.<BR>** cf. Bryant Allen's comment: <BR>Peekel
(1984: 335) glosses <I>Pometia pinnata</I> as <I>ton</I> in Kuanua, but
<I>tauan</I> in Patpatar and East Kara. NOTE that <I>taun </I>is used as the
common commercial name in English for the timber of this tree: see: Eddowes,
P. J. (1977). <U>Commercial timbers of Papua New Guinea: their properties and
uses</U>. Port Moresby, DPI., or French, B. R. (1986). <U>Food Plants of Papua
New Guinea: A Compendium</U>, Privately printed.<BR><BR><FONT size=2><FONT
color=#0000ff><SPAN class=313061922-01082003>[Ross Clark (FOA
LING)] </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=313061922-01082003>Thanks, Robin! I *knew* I had heard this word used in
English, but was unable to find it in OED, Macquarie, the Aus National
Dictionary (abridged ed) or a couple of tree books I looked in. I think I will
have to do another little submission like I did for "kwila" a while ago.
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=313061922-01082003></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=313061922-01082003></SPAN><FONT size=2><FONT
color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=313061922-01082003>By the way, this
tree is reconstructed as Proto-Oceanic *tawan, and the Mota language of
Vanuatu actually calls it "tawan". But Bislama uses a different form from the
same root (nandau), so I think it is not necessary to look that far afield for
the source of the TP word. </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
class=313061922-01082003></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=313061922-01082003></SPAN><FONT size=2><FONT
color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=313061922-01082003>Ross
Clark</SPAN><BR></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>