More comments on existing entries and a note on Smith's new book

Thomas H. Slone THSlone at yahoo.com
Sun May 19 19:16:37 EST 2002


ai gris: This is a broader meaning than just "to flirt with".  It can 
mean "to desire" or "to lust" (synonym of mangal).  Example: "Baundo 
wantaim pikinini i go sindaun arere long haus bilong Loime na aigris 
long kaikai i stap." (Wantok, Stori Tumbuna, #512, 1984)

ami: This is a blank provisional entry now.  Two definitions are:
1) army (Smith, 2002: 104)
2) soldier (Smith, 2002: 104)

ausait: This is often spelled autsait in Wantok.

baga: This is used in two ways, pejoratively and neutrally:
1) good-for-nothing (synonym: lesbaga) "Na long taim bilong singsing, 
man mi tokim yu-pela, baga ya i save tanim olsem Angelo Lusifa 
stret." (Wantok, Stori Tumbuna, #561). This definition is what was 
reported in Mihalic (1971).
2) guy, fellow. Example:"Ol manmeri bilong ples i save laikim tru 
dispela man.  Bi-kos baga ya i wanpela man bilong wok tru." (Wantok, 
Stori Tumbuna, #602). This definition is equivalent to the Bislama 
usage (Crowley, 1995: 39).

boy: Differentiating "boy" from "boi" based on whether the meaning 
indicates subservience seems artificial.  E.g., boyfriend is spelled 
"boipren" or "boi pren" in Wantok, not "boy pren" as you have it.

bruk, brukim
brukim kiau: The current definition is "to hatch out", but I think it 
must also mean "to break an egg".  Here's a sports usage from Wantok 
newspaper that I don't understand,  maybe someone else  understands 
it: "Na dispela i givim sans long East long kam na kamapim 2 poins 
long brukim kiau na go pas."

eksperiens: an example of usage was requested: "Kain taim olsem 
Krismas i save bungim ol famili, pren na hauslain long kam wantaim 
long serim ol ekspiriens, ol nupela samting we i kamap long laip 
bilong yumi, ol salens na tu wanem samting yumi no bin inap long 
mekim." (Wantok, p. 9, #1069, 1994)

ekstra taim: an example of usage was requested: "Extra taim helpim PX 
long win." (Wantok, p. 4 of Ragbi Lig Nius section, #1000, 1992)

fit: an additional meaning is "feet (measurement)"(Steinbauer, 1969: 48)

gel: Smith (2002: 73) reports "gels" as occurring frequently in the 
spoken lexicon for the plural of "gel" (41 occurrences).

mangi: You state that younger people tend to use this spelling rather 
than "manki".  The first occurrence of this spelling in my Wantok 
Stori Tumbuna corpus is 1978.  The corpus starts in 1972.

wel: additional modifier compound form:
wel bal: crude ball [literally, "wild ball"] Example: "Orait ol 
12-pela pikinini i go waswas na singsing na lap na pilai long wel bal 
na mekim planti nais." (Wantok, Stori Tumbuna, #443)
wel dok: You might want to link to this Web site on New Guinea 
singing dogs: http://www.canineworld.com/ngsdcs/

wok: additional modifier  forms
wokman: worker (Dutton and Thomas, 1985: 380)
meanings that are specific to the Paliau Movement:
wok bilong bipo: the old culture (Schwartz, 1962: 413)
wok bilong Johnston Ailan: The Second Cult (Schwartz, 1962: 413)
wok bilong Tomas: The Second Cult (Schwartz, 1962: 413)

Finally, a note on Smith's new book:
Smith (2002) has done a remarkable job analyzing a large corpus of 
Tok Pisin that he has collected from young speakers across PNG. 
Besides presenting many new words and phrases, he raises several 
important issues for the dictionary:
1) former homophones (p. 52): he gives 13 examples (e.g., "we" meant 
"where" or "way", but now the pronunciation is closer to "we" for 
"where" and "wei" for "way")
2) emerging homophones (p. 53): he gives several examples of these 
(e.g., "mas" for "must/should" and for "church mass")
3) phonological reduction (pp. 54-56): he gives 14 examples of these 
(e.g., "long" becoming "lo" or even just "l'")
4) the large number of new words in spoken Tok Pisin and its 
implication for deciding between nonce words and genuine new words(p. 
94).


===
References

Crowley, Terry (1995). A New Bislama Dictionary. Suva, Fiji: 
Institute of Pacific Studies.

Dutton, Tom & Thomas, Dicks (1985). A New Course in Tok Pisin (New 
Guinea Pidgin). Series D, No. 67. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics,  The 
Australian National University.

Schwartz, Theodore (1962). "The Paliau Movement in the Admiralty 
Islands, 1946-1954." Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of 
Natural History 49(2): 211-421.  Schwartz uses Anglicized spellings 
for Tok Pisin, which I have translated to a more standard spelling.

Smith, Geoff P. (2002). Growing Up With Tok Pisin: Contact, 
Creolization, and Change in Papua New Guinea's National Language. 
London: Battlebridge Publications.
Available from the publisher http://www.battlebridge.com
and from Amazon.co.uk: 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903292069/abiblofmelapidge

Steinbauer, Friedrich (1969). Concise Dictionary of New Guinea Pidgin 
(Neo-Melanesian). Madang, Papua New Guinea: Kristen Pres.

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