[Mihalic] Piccaninny dawn

[Stuart Robinson]

In Bougainville, I have heard the opposite size descriptor, 'bik', to
describe what I believe is the same time of day---namely, early in the
morning. For example,

Bai yu kam long bik moning tru.
Come in the early morning.

Is this a common expression?

-Stuart

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 r.clark at auckland.ac.nz wrote:

> "Piccaninny daylight", also "piccaninny dawn, piccaninny sun" as
> expressions for the earliest morning, are well attested in Australian
> English, going back to the 1840s at least. I assume this is from the
> earlier sense of "piccaninny" = "small", and originated in some pidgin
> context. However, the only place I can find it in use today is in Torres
> Straits Creole, in the relexified form "smol delait" = "dawn, early
> morning".
>
> Ross Clark
>
> 	-----Original Message-----
> 	From: mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au
> [mailto:mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Institute of Papua New
> Guinea Studies
> 	Sent: Thursday, 16 November 2006 5:25 p.m.
> 	To: Tok Pisin list
> 	Subject: [Mihalic] Piccaninny dawn
>
>
> 	In The Sky People (1984) by John Emery, there are numerous
> references to "piccaninny dawn" which I assume means something like the
> first light of dawn, before the sun actually appears.
>
> 	Is this a version of a normal TP expression? Has anyone heard
> "pikinini tulait" or something like that? Or might it be some sort of
> Tok Masta?
>
>
> 	Don Niles
> 	Acting Director & Senior Ethnomusicologist
> 	Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies
> 	Box 1432
> 	Boroko 111
> 	PAPUA NEW GUINEA
>
> 	tel.: +675 325-4644
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> 	email: ipngs at global.net.pg
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