[Mihalic] New book: Tok Pisin Texts

[John Burton]

V interesting.

>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.


>aniani: p. 13, the authors claim this is the Tok Pisin word for onion.

>I only previously seen this in print except in the :
>title of the book Kaikai Aniani.  
>Is this word really used (as opposed to "anian")?

If so, it was an unstable usage that has gone away. (In 'Kaikai Aniani'
it's the Motu for 'food')
Re A Jablonko's memory, I've met Thomas Kavali and I don't remember him
saying it (but then again ...). 
BTW He's the guy in the middle in the entry for 'namba'.

Anian = onion.

>On p. 59, Mühlhäusler reports that he recorded an 
>elderly Tok Pisin speaker using the following German-origin words: ...
yar (year).

Yar (from Jahr) is current usage on the Rai Coast at the very least.

>monki: p. 71, monkey (is this used?)

Yes: 'monki' = monkey

John Burton