[Mihalic] FW: Revision Mihalic Dictionary of Mel. Pidgin

[John Burton]

FWD to list
John Burton

-----Original Message-----
From: MJaeschke25 at aol.com [mailto:MJaeschke25 at aol.com] 
Sent: Friday, 5 August 2005 9:03 PM
To: john.burton at anu.edu.au
Subject: Revision Mihalic Dictionary of Mel. Pidgin



This is to let you know that I am keenly interested in the work of revision
on the Mihalic Dictionary of Melanesian Pidgin. I myself grew up in Papua
New Guinea as a missionary kid from the age of 8 through 17 (1955-1962).
During this time I have learned the language and was exposed to the various
dialects and vernaculars. My main residence was in the Western Highlands
District (Ogelbeng and Kotna). At age 11 I was enroled into the missionary
boarding school, Katherine Lehman School at Wau, and later into St. Peters
Lutheran College in Brisbane. The school breaks (two per annum) I spent with
my parents who were working at Kotna and we attended worship services in
Pidgin and Melpa. At that time we only had the Liklik Lotu Buk, compiled and
edited by Rev. John Sievert in 1959, the first edition. It was a first
attempt to put the language on an official platform because at that time the
language, being in its embryonal state, was due to replace, at least in
theory, some of the church languages and the corresponding dialects. It made
communications from one tribe to another very much easier than the local
languages. As I grew into that language I noticed the similarity and heavy
assimilation of English vocabulary et.al. Missionaries were often at odds
with this language especially when preparing a sermon. Some concepts you
could not express in Pidgin as you can in English.  
 
In the last 20 or so years my interest in the Melanesian Pidgin has been
revitalized. This was due to the fact that I was an applicant for a position
in the ELCPNG in 1984/1985. I had hoped to be able to come back and join the
mission staff. Early 1985 I attended a refresher course in preparation for
this but to no avail. It was during this time that my father, a retired
missionary, had been advocating the necessity to create theological
literature in the vernaculars and that the time for missionaries is fast
coming to a close. I took up that challenge and started to work on a Bible
dictionary in Pidgin. In the following years I contacted missionaries who
just returned from PNG and asked them about the future of such a project.
Their reply was rather discouraging and so I dropped the whole project,
though still interested to pursue such a project. Then I started to
translate some of the  stories of the first missionaries e.g. Christian
Keysser because I sensed that there is a need for the New Guineans to have
access to the historical and missiological sources which are at the moment
still only to be found in mission archives in German but have not yet been
translated into English or Pidgin. I also was negotiating with the mission
departments here in Germany whether I could be empowered and officially
accredited to venture into this - what I consider as crucial - project. The
response was ignorance and little interest. So I continued on my own and
translated two booklets written by Keysser on how the Gospel entered the
hinterland from Sattelberg in the Finschhafen area. After completion I was
given the book "In His Service" by Esther Doktor Wegenast and began to
translate this into Pidgin. The book deals with the reconstruction of PNG
after World War II. Having nowhere to turn to have it published I made some
attempt and contacted the German Society of Missiology. There my request for
further consideration still has not been given attention to. In the meantime
I informed the husband of Esther,  who passed away some years ago, of my
intention and he sent me the other book Esther wrote entitled "Go Softly The
Darkness" which I read with great interest and which I started translating
into Pidgin. This book tells the story of the Japanese invasion of mainland
PNG and the missionary prisoners of war. It is my intention to put these two
books together and present them to the Church in PNG. My question: Is there
any publisher that would be interested to see these books funded and
published? I would like to have contact to the group which is working on the
Pidgin language revising the Mihalic Dictionary and also would like to
become a part of the revision team. I do think this language is going to
have a future if it can avoid the pitfall of becoming a corrupted English as
I have seen it in the "Wantok" newspaper. I also would like to continue
translating works into Pidgin wherever there is interest. 
 
1999 I revisited PNG and talked with people in the Church office of the
ELCPNG about this my concern. I realized that the New Guineans will have no
resources to monitor the language and thus just let it take its course. So I
do welcome anyone and wish to coordinate and cooperate in the endeavor to
give the language a more acceptable face as it now seems to have. 
 
This is my contribution to the discussion pertaining to the revision of the
Dictionary of Melanesian Pidgin and I hope it may not only be the vocabulary
that gets attention but also its future usage. I hope to hear from some of
you who are working on this so important project. Thank you.
 
In Him
Martin Jaeschke
Hindenburg St. 26
91054 Erlangen
Germany
e-mail: MJaeschke25 at aol.com
 
 

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