[Mihalic] retskin

[Terry Gilsenan]

Na!?

yu ting wanem?

T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies" <ipngs at global.net.pg>
To: <Mihalic at anu.edu.au>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Mihalic] retskin


> Re: "na wanem!". I think this is very widespread, often even shortened to
> "na!?"
>
> Don
>
> At 18:25 +0200 25/4/04, Eva Lindström wrote:
> >Content-Type: text/plain; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-6EAB3E97;
> > format=flowed
> >
> >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
> >
> >====================
> >Eva Lindström
> >Linguistics
> >Stockholm University
> >
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>
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