[Mihalic] New book: Tok Pisin Texts - aniani
Allison Jablonko
jablonko at tin.it
Sat Apr 3 11:17:08 EST 2004
About "aniani": In 1963-1964 this was definitely the word used by
Pisin speakers among the Maring in the Simbai Valley. Whether it had
been brought in by the Anglican evangelists (one of whom was from
Popondetta) who taught school at Gai, or whether by patrols from
Simbai, or whether by the anthropologists (Columbia University
expedition) and their assistants (Kavali) or whether the term came
along together with the onions, I have no idea. I also don't know
when the onions themselves were introduced, but it must have been
recently, for they were, if I remember correctly, not a part of Maring
diet at the time.
Allison Jablonko
On Saturday, Apr 3, 2004, at 08:15 Europe/Rome, Thomas H. Slone wrote:
> I just finished looking through a new book Peter Mühlhäusler, Thomas
> E. Dutton & Suzanne Romaine, Tok Pisin Texts: From the Beginning to
> the Present, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2003.
>
> It's quite interesting to see the evolution of Tok Pisin laid out all
> in one place using mostly previously unpublished texts. Pages 1-34
> discuss history and grammar and pages 35-280 present a range of text
> examples with literal word-by-word glosses and translations.
> Particularly interesting are some of the earliest texts, including one
> from 1844.
>
> Here my notes for the dictionary
>
> i: pp. 37-38, a text from the 1880s shows the use of "he" as a third
> person pronoun. The authors state this as evidence that "he" is the
> origin of the predicate marker "i" in modern Tok Pisin.
>
> boi: p. 2, the authors claim that the Tok Pisin "boi" combines the
> Hindustani "bhoi" (carrier or bearer) with the English "boy"
>
> aniani: p. 13, the authors claim this is the Tok Pisin word for
> onion. I only previously seen this in print except in the the title
> of the book Kaikai Aniani. Is this word really used (as opposed to
> "anian")?
>
> meri: p. 45, in addition to the English origin ("Mary" + "marry"),
> they say that it was reinforced by the Tolai "mare" (beautiful)
>
> maski: p. 45, widespread in pidgins & creoles (but reinforced by
> German "macht nichts"); see the Linguist List for a discussion of
> this: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/7/7-861.html#5
>
> tete: p. 61, "tete" was used in a 1939 letter meaning "today". In
> modern Tok Pisin, I have seen "tete" in Stori Tumbuna. I asked a
> fluent Tok Pisin speaker (East Sepik Province) what "tete" meant. He
> translated it as implying immediacy and not meaning "today" per se.
> His example was "Tete mi paitim yu!" meaning "I'm going to beat you up
> right now!" Is there confirmation on the this meaning? Do "tete" and
> "tude" both come from the English "today"?
>
> On p. 59, Mühlhäusler reports that he recorded an elderly Tok Pisin
> speaker using the following German-origin words: snaidejunge
> (apprentice tailor), snaider (tailor), schule ([to go to] school), and
> yar (year).
>
> monki: p. 71, monkey (is this used?)
>
> marimari: from the Molot language of New Ireland , "to love" or "to
> have pity" (Mihalic says it's from the Gazelle Peninsula)
>
> kandere: pp. 94-95, alternate meaning "penis" (Tok Bokis); Mühlhäusler
> confirmed the sexual allusion because the word starts with "kan"
>
> stesin: p. 143, the authors say this word is from both the English
> "plantation"
> and "station"
>
> stik: p. 155, "twist tobacco" (Mihalic reports "stik tabak" and "tabak
> stik")
> stinge, p. 155, "twist tobacco"
>
> meme: p. 212, the authors say this is onomatopoeic or from the Tolai
> "me" (also onomatopoiac (Mihalic just says that it's from the Gazelle
> Peninsula)
>
> pulim tang: pp. 217-218 (synonym of givim tang which is in the
> revision)
>
> bubu: p. 270, also occurs in Bislama, "Crowley (1990) believes that
> both Malo and Rzga [languages] bumbu and Mota [language] pupua are
> possible sources, as is Fijian bubu." (Crowley, Terry [1990].
> Beach-la-Mar to Bislama. The Emergence of a National Language in
> Vanuatu. Clarendon Press: Oxford.) This word does not occur in
> Solomon Islands Pijin (Jourdan 2002) or Torres Strait Broken (Shnukal,
> 1988). Is is from Pacific Pidgin English?
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