[Mihalic] wantok

[r.clark at auckland.ac.nz]

I was waiting for someone better informed to reply to this, but apparently not. 
So here are my findings from a quick look:

Mühlhäusler (1979:277) says that the word-formation pattern that "wantok" is based on first appears in the mid-20s/early 30s. However, "wantok" itself is not one of the examples he cites. He may mention the word somewhere else in the book, but it is a 400-page book without an index (!!!), and I have not got time to look at every page.

Murphy's "Book of Pidgin English" (first published 1943) does not seem to have it.

However, it is mentioned in the Appendix on pidgin in Stephen Winsor Reed, The Making of Modern New Guinea (Philadelphia, 1943). 
P.287: "...boys from peripheral villages have generally found wantok or interpreters already at work in labor lines when they arrived."
A footnote explains wantok as "Mambers of the same linguistic and cultural community."

Ross Clark



> -----Original Message-----
> From: mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of John Burton
> Sent: Sunday, 13 August 2006 10:37 p.m.
> To: mihalic at anu.edu.au
> Subject: [Mihalic] wantok
> 
> 
> Did anyone answer this question? Any refs for her?
> John Burton
> 
> > Sent: Sunday, 30 July 2006 4:16 AM
> > To: mihalic at anu.edu.au
> > Subject: [Mihalic] wantok
> >
> > Does anyone know when the term wantok came into usage and anything 
> > about its social history?
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Bambi B. Schieffelin
> > Anthropology, NYU
> 
> 
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