Wokpain

[Thomas H. Slone]

This is the only example that I have of wok pain from Wantok's Stori Tumbuna:

"Olsem na taim em i wok painim we i stap em i subim han long het 
bilong em na kisim dispela bun bilong blakbokis."
The author is from the Olo People, West Sepik Province.

--Tom Slone

>Perhaps this is the beauty of Tok Pisin, namely that none of the variations
>is intrinsically right but that talking public swills these things around in
>their mouths and either stabilises a main variant or let's things go on as
>they are with less used terminology.
>
>I think "wokpain" would win a wordsmith's elegance and simplicity award (and
>there was a fashion for this in the 1970s) but I haven't myself heard it in
>the wild. (I'd love to!)
>
>John Burton
>
>N.B. our IT trainee spent 2 hours on Friday trying to get me through our
>firewall - things are not quite right yet, but as soon as they are I will
>upgrade the web pages.
>
>>  In Lababia (Huon Gulf area) my research was routinely
>>  referred to by villagers as "wok painimaut". I never
>>  heard "wok pain" or wok painim" being used however.
>>  I'm not sure if "wok painimaut" is common in rural
>>  areas of the Huon Gulf or Morobe Province generally or
>>  whether its use came to Lababia by way of the
>>  Lae-based NGO that is facilitating the ICAD project in
>>  the village. They had commissioned a number of
>>  biodiversity studies before I arrived - those studies
>  > also being referred to  either as "wok painimaut" or
>  > "rises".
>


--