[Mihalic] retskin

[EvaLindström]

In westcoast New Ireland I've heard redskin of white people,
as well as of Sepiks and various locals who have a redder
skintone than the average in the region.

An example of the use of retskin for whities: A boy of 7 or
8 years saw pictures of my Swedish family for the first time
after I had been there for several months. He said: "A! Na ol
i retskin olgeta!?", not having reflected that white people
tend to have white parents and siblings. The local language,
Kuot, also uses a phrase meaning '[those] who have red skin'
or 'red ones' as code for white people, so it wouldn't have
been _just_ a general expression for light-skinned people
recruited to mean white people at the spur of the moment.

The boys mother said "na wanem!" which is an expression I am
a little curious about. It's quite common in that area and
translates something like "of course they are" or sometimes
"are you stupid or what" -- not to be used in polite circum-
stances but not definitely rude. Is this known from elsewhere?

Eva

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Eva Lindström
Linguistics
Stockholm University