[Mihalic] diwai pati

[rhide at coombs.anu.edu.au]

>I wonder whether anyone has set out to provide
> an inventory of the flora and/or fauna of PNG and their associated Tok
> Pisin terms. And would such a thing be worth trying to incorporate into
Mihalic?
> Maybe that's too grandiose an ambition, but since the thought occurred to
> me, I thought I'd voice it...
> -Stuart



Stuart,
If you havent seen them, Christin Kocher Schmid assembled a very useful
set of basic lists (plants, animals) a few years back:
Kocher Schmidt, C. Methods work sheet 3: Terms in neo-melanesian pidgin
for plants and animals a compilation from various sources, The Future of
Rainforest Peoples- Papua New Guinea Working Group (FRP—PNG).

online at:
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Rainforest/frp-website/Publications/worksheets/SHEET3/biopidg_1.html#plants
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Rainforest/frp-website/Publications/worksheets/SHEET3/biopidg_5.html

But these are by no means "inventories" of flora or fauna-
 flora would run to >15,000 species! and presumably tok pisin runs to
about ?c. 200 plant names?

But I agree - an updated list (or illustrated handbook as argued by Ian
Scales for some time) of say the most common 2-400 plants and their tok
pisin/(some vernacular?) names, and similar for fauna, would be
invaluable.

see for instance this invaluable book on Vanuatu--:

Wheatley, J.I. 1991. A Guide to the Common Trees of Vanuatu with Lists of
their Traditional Uses and ni-Vanuatu Names. Port Vila, Department of
Forestry, vii, 308 p.

Similarly- and for the Pacific more widely, the book and online material
by Elevitch and colleagues (also on trees only) is great:

"Traditional trees of Pacific Islands : their culture, environment, and
use" edited by Craig R. Elevitch ; forewords by Isabella Aiona Abbott and
Roger R. B. Leakey. Hiualoa, Hawaii :, Permanent Agriculture Resources,,
xvi, 800 p.

and online:
The Traditional Tree Initiative—Species Profiles for Pacific Island
Agroforestry.
Thirty-nine species profiles covering 69 species in 35 genera (697 pages)
are now available for free download from the project web site at
http://www.traditionaltree.org/.


For PNG crops of course there is the invaluable  (tho now 20 yrs old),

French, B.R. 1986. Food Plants of Papua New Guinea: A Compendium. 
Sheffield, Tasmania, Privately printed.
Now online at:
http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/french/index.html

which includes many tok pisin names.  A thorough updated revision (plus
modern illustrations, etc)of that work would be fantastic.

cheers,

Robin


Robin Hide
visiting fellow
RMAP, RSPAS,
ANU, Canberra