Ethnicity and Nationality

[BURTON John]

Thomas  - brief comments on ethnic identifiers.
(Good work.)

Here are some words and phrases for ethnicity (mostly pejorative) and
nationality that I've collected.  Comments?  Additions?

as bilong sospen: a North Solomonese (pejorative) (Griffin 1989: 26)

blak sospan: a North Solomonese (pejorative) (Slone, 1995: 84)
[BURTON John] blak sospen etc - these can be joky terms too. 

blakpela waitman: an African-American (Slone, 1995: 84)
[BURTON John] Most people would first think of a whiteman who lived among
the people and shared their hardships. 'Amerika(n) negro' would come first I
think.

bret skin: a person from Port Moresby; a Papuan (i.e., someone from
ex-British New Guinea) (Slone, 1995: 84)
[BURTON John] or skin bret, of course. 

Buka: 1. a crow   2. a dark-skinned person   3. a North Solomonese
(pejorative if referring to someone from Bougainville) 4. black; very dark
(Mihalic, 1971: 78). Buka was once used by colonialists to refer to anyone
from what is now P.N.G. (Nash and Ogan, 1990: 6). From a North Solomons
language, meaning "what?" or "who?" (Wheeler and Everist, 1988: 301) [Can
anyone veryify this or pinpoint the language?]

Chimbu, Simbu: 1. someone from Simbu Province 2. other Highlanders
(pejorative) [Nash and Ogan, 1990: 6, 11]. Joe Leahy remembered in Connolly
and Anderson (1987: 288), "A lot of mixed races said, 'You shouldn't go
round with the kanakas, stupid! You're not allowed!' They called us
names-bush kanakas, cannibals, Chimbus.'"
[BURTON John] This Chimbu thing was quite prevalent in the 1970s. I'll dig
out a copy of New Guinea which refers to it. Now you don't hear of Chimbus
at all. 

Franis / Ples bilong ol man wiwi: France (Balzer, 1999: 114). Compare to the
English use of "wi-wi" (oui-oui) as pejorative for the French (Hughes, 1991:
129)
[BURTON John] Hmm. Pushing it a bit here.

Holan: 1. Hold on! (Mihalic, 1971: 98) 2. Holland (Balzer et al., 1999: 114)
[BURTON John] I have a tape where a New Guinea commando is involved in a
raid on 'Holan(d)' (I'll have to listen again for the exact rendering),
meaning Hollandia, i.e. Jayapura.

Inglan: England (Balzer et al., 1999: 114)

Jeman / Jerman / Siamani: Germany (Mihalic, 1971: 101; Balzer et al., 1999:
114)

Kanada: Canada (Balzer et al., 1999: 114)

Kongkong: 1. a Chinese; a Malay (both pejorative)   2. adze (slang) 3.
Chinese taro (a.k.a. "taro Kongkong"). Many of the Chinese in P.N.G.
originated from Hong Kong. "Kong" may have been Australian slang for Chinese
(e.g., see Leahy and Crain, 1937: 56).
[BURTON John] I've not heard it for axe - anyone else? 

Niu Silan: New Zealand (Balzer et al., 1999: 114) [better spelled as Nu
Silan]

Nu Kaledonia: New Caledonia (Wantok newspaper)

Osenia, Osenia Rijon: Oceania (Wantok newspaper)

retskin: 1. a Highlander (pejorative). Lit. "red skin," as some Highlanders
have reddish skin (Nash and Ogan, 1990: 9-12) 2. by extension, any
non-Bougainvillean Papua New Guinean (pejorative) (Oliver, 1991: 223)

Siapan: Japan (Balzer et al., 1999: 114)

Solomon Ailan: Solomon Islands (Balzer et al., 1999: 114)

waitskin: 1. a white person   2. a European (Mihalic, 1971: 200)   3. a
Chinese (pejorative) (Strathern, 1975: 288)  4. an albino. Lit. "white skin"

Westen: regional adjective for "Western", e.g., Westen Hailans, Westen Samoa

yeloskin: a person from Milne Bay Province (pejorative) (Slone, 1995: 99)

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References:

Balzer, Trevor; Lee, Ernie; Mülhäusler, Peter; Monaghan, Paul; Angelo,
Denise & Ober, Dana (1999). Pidgin Phrasebook. Hawthorn, Victoria,
Australia: Lonely Planet.

Connolly, Bob and Anderson, Robin (1987). First Contact: New Guinea's
Highlanders Encounter the Outside World. New York: Viking Penguin.

Griffin, James (1989). "Bougainvilleans: A people apart." Islands Business
15(7): 26-28.

Hughes, Geoffrey (1991). Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths
and Profanity in English. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell.

Leahy, Michael J., and Crain, Maurice (1937). The Land That Time Forgot:
Adventures and Discoveries in New Guinea. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

Nash, Jill and Ogan, Eugene (1990). "The red and the black: Bougainvillean
perceptions of other Papua New Guineans." Pacific Studies 13(2): 1-17.

Oliver, Douglas (1991). Black Islanders: A Personal Perspective of
Bougainville 1937-1991. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Slone, Thomas H. (1995). Tok nogut: An introduction to malediciton in Papua
New Guinea. Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression 11:
75-104.

Strathern, Marilyn (1975). No Money on Our Skins: Hagen Migrants in Port
Moresby. New Guinea Research Bulletin, No. 61. Canberra: New Guinea Research
Unit, The Australian National University.

Wheeler, Tony, and Everist, Richard (1988). Papua New Guinea: A Travel
Survival Kit. Fourth Edition. Berkeley, California: Lonely Planet.


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