Pikinini

[John Burton]

Thanks George. This I understand to be the standard etymology (or from
pequeninho, the dimin. of pequeno, says Malcolm Ross). We will have to
capture some early examples from somewhere, but it looks as if the word,
however it got from pequeno to pikinini, had made the change long before it
arrived on these shores.

Meanwhile ...

Any interesting pikinini derivatives? Try these:
'pikinini gol', a person who grew up in a family where the income was from
goldmining

'em pikinini bilong em' (lit: 'he is his child'), could be said (nicely) of
someone and their mentor, or (sneeringly) of a junior politician and his
political master, etc.

A newborn is usually a 'bebi' nowadays. A old person can address a young
person they don't know as 'pikinini', as in 'child, do this ...'.

John Burton