[Mihalic] "Vaialens"

[Andrew Bennett]

I would have passed "vaialens" without notice, except that I would  
have spelled it "vaiolens".  It seems to me to be in common use.  I  
don't know, but I'd be skeptical that the NGO that produced the poster  
in question created this particular neologism.  I'd even be surprised  
if it were an expat at all.  And how better to convey the concept in  
"pure" TP, without an unwieldy circumlocution?  Pait pasin?  Seems  
unclear to me.

I agree that it's not the expat's place to "help" the language  
evolve.  I'm just not sure that this is a case of that.

Andy



On Dec 16, 2009, at 8:24 AM, David Week (personal) wrote:

> Hi Martha
>
>> I am baffled by the hostility to the incorporation of new words  
>> into Tok
>> Pisin. This is the main way that all languages change.
>
> Not hostile at all. Rather, it's the method at work here which gets  
> my goat. This is not adoption: this is injection.
>
> (a)	My friend's complaint is primarily against expatriate managers  
> who can't speak Tok Pisin properly, but think that they can get away  
> with putting up notices in what is basically broken English.  
> Similar, is the short-term expat workers who think that the words  
> "Em i" followed by broken English constitute Tok Pisin.
>
> (b)	Here's what I find objectionable about this poster:
>
> 1	Created by an international NGO, who, it seems to me, would rather  
> transliterate international jargon that actually find out how to say  
> it in the local language. No way of saying "violence" in Tok Pisin?  
> You must be joking.
>
> 2	The international NGO is supposed to be communicating an important  
> public service message to the broad mass of Papua New Guineans. This  
> is not the place for inventing new words. In this context, an  
> international NGO seeking to communicate in Tok Pisin should seek to  
> use Tok Pisin as she is spoke.
>
> 3	I question the legitimacy of foreign agencies making up new Tok  
> Pisin words at all. I apply the "shoe is on the other foot" test:  
> how would I feel if an American ad agency, say, communicated to me  
> (in Melbourne) with some "Australianism" they had dreamed up, on the  
> basis of they think we Australians speak. It's insulting, and in the  
> same basket as the expats with their broken English.
>
> I would be interested in knowing if there are recent cases in which  
> English has been expanded by non-English speakers attempting to  
> communicate by Anglicizing their own words (rather than by English  
> speakers adopting foreign words.)
>
> (c)	Another public service posted (funded by AusAID), had this  
> slogan: "Nogat condom? Maski long wip." I had to ask what "wip"  
> meant, and my friend made a suggestive, whip-like movement with his  
> body. That explained both the meaning and the etymology of the word  
> perfectly.
>
> "Wip",  and "loanoda", seems to me to be examples of the organic  
> growth of Tok Pisin: language evolved by the language users.  
> "Vaialens" seems to me to be a case of a foreign agency making up  
> new words, and in so doing rendering insult to Tok Pisin community:  
> because in no other language would one dream of doing so. It only  
> happens with Tok Pisin because many foreigners conceptualise it as  
> broken English.
>
> David
>
> On 16/12/2009, at 8:11 AM, Martha Macintyre wrote:
>
>> I am baffled by the hostility to the incorporation of new words  
>> into Tok
>> Pisin. This is the main way that all languages change. And as for
>> alternative spelling - most of Tok Pisin's lexicon is comprised of
>> alternative spellings of English words - it's just that some have  
>> been
>> around longer than others. Besides, if they have been incorporated  
>> it makes
>> sense to keep TP spelling system (such as it is)for new words.
>> Martha
>>
>>
>> On 16/12/09 7:46 AM, "David Week (personal)" <davidweek at cal.berkeley.edu 
>> >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Encountered on a recent trip to PNG, on an NGO-produced poster  
>>> about family
>>> violence: "vaialens".
>>>
>>> This reminds me of a friend's constant complaint:
>>>
>>> Tok Pisin: it's a language, not an alternative spelling system.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mihalic mailing list
>>> Mihalic at anu.edu.au
>>> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/mihalic
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Mihalic mailing list
> Mihalic at anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/mihalic