Trivia

[Malcolm Ross]

John Burton wrote:

>
>I sent a quick 'Hands off pikinini!' note (he said don't worry, 'pikinini'
>is safe). But where does it comes from? In the monumental Wurm & Muhlhausler
>eds. 'Handbook of Tok Pisin', it isn't at all clear that the supposed
>Portuguese origin has any basis. Tru, o gatno? (Sorry, backwards pidgin
>there).


The question raise on p 210 of 'Handbook of Tok Pisin' is how the 
word pikinini arrived in Tok Pisin. Muhlhausler suggests it came from 
a variety of English. He doesn't discuss its origin further back. The 
most probable etymology still seems to be Portuguese pequeninho 
(diminuitive of pequenho 'small' -- my Portuguese spellings may be 
wrong). From there, like save 'know', it sems to have entered the 
lexicon of shipboard jargon(s) and eventually Tok Pisin, perhaps via 
some kind of English.

Malcolm Ross