[Mihalic] kapkap

[C A Volker]

I am just going through postings from a while back and came across this
posting. An article of interest might be Graeme Were's "Objects of Learning:
An Anthropological Approach to Mathematics Education" Journal of Material
Culture.2003; 8: 25-44. 

 

I haven't actually read it, but I have read his PhD dissertation (University
College London) on kapkap. Although he doesn't go into the etymology of the
word, he does show how widespread they are in the SW Pacific. 

 

Kapkap is used in Tok Pisin in New Ireland, but it is also a tok ples word
in at least some languages.

 

Craig Alan Volker 

 

  _____  

From: mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au [mailto:mihalic-bounces at anu.edu.au] On
Behalf Of Ross Clark (ARTS DALSL)
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 2:29 PM
To: Mihalic at anu.edu.au
Subject: [Mihalic] kapkap

 

This word for a particular type of shell-backed tortoise-shell ornament
seems to be widely used in the Pacific art world. I came across it in a 1964
paper by H.D.Skinner, who apparently considered it an established
trans-national term. I don't find it in Mihalic or on the revision web site,
or in any other Melanesian Pidgin source I've looked at. It's not in OED,
though it ought to be if it is as widely used as it appears to be. 

Is this a Tok Pisin word?

Can anyone pinpoint its origin? (Shameful confession: I can't find my copy
of Malcolm Ross's paper on AN words in TP)

Has anyone seen a documented use earlier than 1964?

 

Ross Clark

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