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A friend of mine recently handed me a copy of <i>A Pocket
Vocabulary of Malay, Pidgin English and Japanese Phrases for the use of
U.S. Troops in the Southwest Pacific Area</i>, prepared by the Office of
the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, United States Army Services of Supply,
Southwest Pacific Area. Printed by the Office of Chief Engineer, USA,
SOS, SWPA. Date of Publication, October, 1942. It is pocket sized. He
found this copy lying on the ground in a Canberra street.<br><br>
On checking through the pidgin part, a few interesting words
occur.<br><br>
kali fai - to hide or secrete [I can't find anything approximating
this in Mihalic and have never heard it used in PNG].<br><br>
kunda mani - paper money [Mihalic has this listed as "konda".
Not in common use today?]<br><br>
namba - a metal tax receipt worn around the neck on a string [not in
Mihalic].<br><br>
sleeptroo (slip tru) - to sleep [not in Mihalic and I don't remember it -
does it imply that in the 1940s "slip" meant 'recumbent' and
"slip tru" meant to be asleep?]<br><br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Dr Bryant Allen<br>
Senior Fellow<br>
Land Management Group<br>
Department of Human Geography<br>
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies<br>
The Australian National University<br>
ACT 0200 Australia<br><br>
ANU CRICOS Provider Number is 00120C<br><br>
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