Ethnicity and Nationality

[Mesulam Aisoli]

To describe a member of a particular ethnic group or of a nationality is a
common thing in small islands languages. Many are also inbuilt in their own
languages too. It is a form of communication or of telling someone about
who/what and from where? As for the Solomons or Bougainvillians "sospan" or
"sospen", in my village language, to avoid sospan, because it is known, they
may say "kisong", which means "charcoal". The Tolai, we call them "pakana
ur", or "lip banana". All Highlanders of PNG, we called them "Simbu". Papuan
girls, we call them "ukui wuka", or "longpela gras". All European ethnic
groups "masta", For anyone (local) who acts like "masta", we call him/her
"skin masta",  Japanese "Siapan", Germans "Siaman", "Kongkong" for
"Hongkong", China "Saina", even there are types banana and taro originated
from China and Java called, "Saina and Iava" (for Java), and "Taro Konkong".
etc, Someone from Manus Island we call him/her, "kasui" means "salt" . We
have Sweet Potato of all sorts of name too, "wanmun", for one month,
"kanabu", for Kanabu village in central New Ireland where the plant was
first collected from etc.

mesu.

> ----------
> From: 	BURTON John[SMTP:john.burton at tsra.gov.au]
> Sent: 	Tuesday, 14 May 2002 5:22pm
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	RE: Ethnicity and Nationality
> 
> 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)
> 
> 	---
> 	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.
> 
> 
> 	-- 
> 
>