[Mihalic] piano definition

[Thomas H. Slone]

I was puzzled by these definitions for a long 
time. They are often quoted, but they're so 
absurd that no one has ever used them in actual 
speech.  I've even seen them quoted in Newsweek 
(US) not too many years ago!  Recently, I was 
looking through a copy of Oh, What a Blow that 
Phantom Gave Me! by Edmund Carpenter.  Carpenter 
seems to ascribe these absurdisms to English, 
Pidgin and French Dictionary of Sports and Phrase 
Book by Andréas Bálint, a book that I have not 
seen but that was roundly criticized by 
Mühlhäusler.

--Tom Slone

Vince Ohlinger <vinosvd at yahoo.com> wrote:

>I take the "definition" of piano as an insult to 
>the intelligence of the people that use Tok 
>Pisin on a regular basis. No Papua New Guinean 
>would ever have come up with such an expression. 
>I heard this "definition" a long time ago and 
>immediately realized that it was not something 
>that I should repeat.
>
>Insulted,
>
>Vince
>
>
>
>On Dec 2, 2004, at 8:38 PM, <Lawrence.Sorbo at lihir.com.pg> wrote:
>
>>This definition is written in riddle form, but 
>>I think it is just that musical insturment.
>>
>>Cheers!
>>Lawrence
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Andy Newlin - Caliber Creations
>>[mailto:anewlin at calibercreations.com]
>>Sent: Friday, 3 December 2004 11:53 AM
>>To: Mihalic List
>>Subject: [Mihalic] piano definition
>>
>>
>>I just received a great definition of "piano" through my tok pisin
>>translation site.  Here it is:
>>
>>"Big pela blak pela bokis, i gat wait pela na blak pela tis, ol taim yu
>>paitim em, em i crai aut!"
>>
>>Wow!   Has anyone heard this before?  I'm curious because my sister
>>taught piano for a music class in ENB and never heard this definition.
>>
>>Andy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/mihalic/attachments/20041202/0d11f9fa/attachment.html