[Mihalic] RE: re bonon

[BURTON John]

Piet, Ross - thanks for the clarifications. Maybe it's 'bonono' that's TP, not 'bonon'. I shall have to quiz my Tinputz informant again for their 'real' word for dugong. As I said, no cigar just yet.

John Burton

-----Original Message-----
From: Piet Lincoln [mailto:linc at hawaii.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 July 2003 8:27 PM
To: BURTON John; M2 (E-mail)
Subject: re bonon


BONONO shows up in Bannoni ( on opposite corner of island from Tinputz)
meaning apparently a big distruburnce in the sea:  tidal wave, whirlpool...
I also had it glossed  as 'dugong'  but decided that was from Tok Pisin,
partly because they also have TOOU for 'dugong'

(The english approximates Dempwolff's PAN reconstruction *Duyung.
Could the Linnean 'dugong dugon'  include a spelling or transcription error
y -> g ?)

Phonologically similar  BUBU  or  VUVU meaning grandparent seems to have
arrived in the Tok Pisin there fairly recently.  Any help there?

cheers,

piet