yumi/mipela

[Jerry Jacka]

Regarding the issue of inclusive/exclusive in Enga and Ipili, there appears
to be none. Hence my initial confusion when people from a certain lain would
say to me, "Dispela graun bilong yumi." I thought they were being quite
generous by including me as a landowner. Only later did I realize that were
using the "we more than two" form to indicate that the land was collectively
owned. In this area the use of mitupela or mitripela marks someone as a
nambis person.

I spent some time with an Ialibu family who lived in Porgera, they told me
my use of yumi/mipela made it obvious that I learned my Tok Pisin in Enga.
Ipili and Enga who have travelled widely in PNG know that their use of
yumi/mipela is distinctive. Oddly enough, I discussed this phenomenon with
my research assistants, both of whom had lived outside of Enga for some
time. They noted that many people in PNG do use yumi to mark inclusiveness
and mipela to mark exclusiveness, but in Enga it follows vernacular
(dual/trial) usage.

Jerry
----- Original Message -----
From: David Counts <countsd at sprint.ca>
To: Jerry Jacka <jacka at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>; Multiple recipients of list
<MIHALIC at anu.edu.au>
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2000 11:11 AM
Subject: Re: yumi/mipela


> Addendum to my earlier posting about inclusive/exclusive use in WNB:
Jerry
> reminds me that I have to deal with dual/trial forms as well. In WNB
wthere
> are taken care of by _yumi tupela (tripela, etc)_ and mipela tupela,
etc. --
> again paralleling Lusi usage (_teita_ "yumi"; _tarua_ "yumi tupela", etc.
> and for mipela _viai_ "mipela"; _viarua_ "mipela tupela" etc.
>
> Query how does the inclusive/exclusive pattern play out in Enga/Ipili?
> (which I am presuming is NAN)
>
> DC
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry Jacka" <jacka at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <MIHALIC at anu.edu.au>
> Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2000 9:29 AM
> Subject: Re: yumi/mipela
>
>
> > Among Enga and Ipili speakers in Enga Province, they use mipela and yumi
> the
> > same way they use the vernacular forms of 'we two' and 'we more than
two'
> > respectively. When I learned Tok Pisin from the ANU book and tapes, I
> > learned that mipela was exclusive and yumi inclusive. When I tried to
use
> it
> > that way in Enga, people told me that I was using it wrong. They told me
> > that mipela means 'we two' (nalimba in Ipili and Enga), yumi means 'we
> more
> > than two' (nanima in both languages).
> >
> > Jerry Jacka
> >
>