puripuri

[John Burton]

I guess this alll things are possible. I certainly
think the lexicon of Pacific Pidgin English was a
great deal larger than some have previously surmised.
The absence of puripuri from the Motu dictionary may
be significant after all ('vada' is I understand the
primary word). I will pursue Motuan authorities on
this.

On the subject of usage elsewhere, it is clear that in
New Ireland, where I am this week, 'posin' is the
better understood term (+ 'posinman') and 'puripuri'
is associated with activities originating in other
parts of PNG, perhaps the Sepik (the activities, not
the word).

'Poisin' remains the version for the Highlands, and I
suggest it is conceived of as a physical agent, even
if actual samples believed to be efficacious are not
real poisons. For example, deaths in Western Highlands
are not infrequently attributed to the inadvertent
ingestion of battery acid, but when I quizzed a doctor
at the Mt Hagen hospital some years ago, he had never
encountered a case nor symptoms consistent with
drinking acid (immediate not slow-acting effects,
bright red blood frothing at the mouth etc).

John Burton

--- "Ross Clark (FOA LING)" <r.clark at auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:
>  Since a fully supported local etymology for this
> word has not yet emerged,
> I can no longer refrain from mentioning Maori
> /putiputi/ "flower". This word
> has no Polynesian source; Williams' dictionary
> explains it as being from
> English "pretty-pretty". (It's probably best known
> from a popular song "He
> putiputi pai koe".) I note that Mihalic gives
> flowers as decoration as one
> of the senses of this word. Any chance of a
> widespread but little-noticed
> Pacific pidginism? (I must admit I can't recall
> coming across any early
> attestations of such a word.)
> 
> Ross Clark
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Burton
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Sent: 10/12/2001 8:57 p.m.
> Subject: Re: puripuri
> 
> I wrote a medium lengthy reply the day before
> yesterday to show why a Motuan origin is preferred,
> but this disappeared into thin air when I pressed
> 'send'. Anyway, informants I have asked recently -
> Motu, Koiari, Moveave - agree on this. Strangely,
> though, it is not the ?Lister-Turner (Chatterton 2nd
> ed) dictionary of Motu.
> 
> Assuming a Motu origin is correct despite this, some
> or all of Chalmers, Lawes and MacFarlane, together
> with their Pacific Islander teachers and crewmen,
> would have been commuting between Elevala, Daru and
> Thursday Island during the 1870s and this would
> easily
> account for an introduction to the Torres Strait,
> thence to Cape York, where it is also use, thence to
> Katherine.
> 
> Any further clues?
> John Burton
> 
> 
> > Where does "puripuri" originate? In the Torres
> > Strait they swear it's from
> > their western language Kala Lagaw Ya. Mihalic
> > doesn't list it and I can't
> > find it in Muhlhausler's work.
> > 
> > [My response is:]
> > Don't know about the origin, but I know it's used
> as
> > far as Katherine in the
> > Northern Territory, as well as PNG.
> > Craig Volker
> 
> 
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