[PapuanLanguages] Languages named "No"

Sat Feb 27 12:06:55 AEDT 2016

The notion of "naming" a language, period, may be a new concept in some parts. I'd like to hear from anyone who's actually asked whether languages can have 'names' just as people and places can.

In the Uruwa area (Saruwaged Mountains, Morobe Province), most villages historically had their own dialects. People thus referred to language varieties using village names. Language surveys done into the early 1980s show this: surveyors (McElhanon, then an SIL survey team) recorded village names as language names.

People in the Uruwa area still use village names to refer to languages--'I speak Village X's language.' But, especially for outsiders, they may also illustrate the differences among dialects using an exemplar word or two (here, 'what' and 'where') known to differ across dialects. (They seem to prefer these to more global phonological phemonena, like 'those people use a glottal stop.')

Since English 'speak' and 'say' are translatable by the same verb, what we may translate as 'I speak What' (or elsewhere, 'I speak No') is perhaps better translated as 'I say [wʌt] (as opposed to those people, who "say [hwʌt]").'

My sense is that village names and question-word exemplars are equally acceptable nowadays to refer to Uruwa languages because local people do not talk about languages as having 'names.' 

The Nungon word we'd translate as 'name' is of course the same word we'd translate as 'language.' I never heard anyone explicitly state that 'the name of this language is...' and I suspect that speakers might balk at such wording.

In sum, 'I speak the [wʌt]-language' is still different from 'my language is called What.' Are people in these other areas actually giving languages names in the same way as they name people or places?

Best,
Hannah Sarvasy

________________________________________
From: PapuanLanguages <papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au> on behalf of Lise Dobrin <lise.dobrin at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 5:47 PM
To: Papuan languages discussion list
Subject: Re: [PapuanLanguages] Languages named "No"

The southwestern-most Arapesh language, Wəri (which is called that by its speakers), is the local word for 'no'. But no other Arapesh language follows that convention; instead, the language names are usually some variant of the form /buk/ or /bu'/. Still, people mostly refer to their own language as 'our talk'. This seems to fit with the common discursive pattern of 'be less specific when less specific will do'.

Lise

On Feb 25, 2016, at 11:16 AM, Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu> wrote:

The custom of using the word for ‘no’ as the name of the language is without exception in the region I work in northern PNG, in the vicinity of Aitape and inland from there.Most of the languages that follow this convention that I am aware of are Torricelli languages, but it includes Mehek, a Sepik language, and appears to include at least some of the Austronesian languages on the coast in this area.

But I think it is also necessary to distinguish the names used by speakers for their own language and the names used by speakers of other languages.Namely, while the use of the word for ‘no’ is pervasive as the name used by speakers of other languages, speakers frequently have a different name for their own language, though they may use that name interchangeably with their word for ‘no’.

Because words for ‘no’ are often cognate among related languages, it is often the case that there are similarities in the names among related languages and this can be a source of confusion for linguists. The following are all names for Torricelli languages based on their word for ‘no’ that appear to be cognate:

Alu, Galu, Olo, Aro, Aruop, Oru

I’m curious what the geographical expanse of this in PNG is. Bill Foley’s email implies that it extends well to the east of where I work, while Sasha Aikhenvald’s email implies that it doesn’t extend too far inland (though the Ndu languages do extend to the coast). It isn’t clear how far west it extends. It apparently does include the Skou language Barupu (Corris 2005) but it does not include Poko-Rawo, a Skou language spoken near Leitre between Vanimo and Aitape (at least as a name they use for their own language).

Matthew Dryer

On 2/24/16 11:31 PM, Aikhenvald, Alexandra wrote:
> This is not at all the case for any of  the Ndu languages in the East Sepik (nor for many of their neighbours).
>
> A few Huon-Finisterre languages base their name on the word for what: Hannah Sarvasy (Hannah.Sarvasy at anu.edu.au) will be able to provide all the details.
>
> As a matter of comparison - I am aware of at least one set of languages in Amazonia, named after the form for 'no': Kurripako, Karutana, Karo - all dialects of the Baniwa of Içana/Kurripako continuum (North Arawak). Speakers are aware of this, and comment on this.
>
> Sacha
>
> Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, PhD, DLitt, FQAAS, FAHA
> Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow
> Director of the Language and Culture Research Centre
> James Cook University
> PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
> http://www.jcu.edu.au/faess/JCUPRD_043649.html
> mobile 0400 305315, office 61-7-42321117
> fax 61-7-4232 1880  http://www.aikhenvaldlinguistics.com/
> http://research.jcu.edu.au/lcrc
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PapuanLanguages [mailto:papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Joyce Wood
> Sent: Thursday, 25 February 2016 2:29 PM
> To: papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [PapuanLanguages] Languages named "No"
>
> 'no' (English) / 'nogat' (Tok Pisin)
> is the naming convention for languages in the Sepik region of PNG. See Laycock 1975 in Pacific Linguistics. Sorry this is not a full citation.
>
> I've always wondered which came first: Laycock's written records, or the language names? I used to think Laycock started it, but now I'm thinking that the convention was established among the language speakers themselves, long before Laycock visited there. Info anyone?
> - Joyce Wood
>
> On 2/25/2016 1:24 PM, Tom Honeyman wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I have often heard anecdotal evidence of a naming pattern, supposedly widespread, in various parts of both PNG and Australia of languages "named" for the word meaning “no” (or “no-having”, or the negator) in that language.
>>
>> I'm sure I have a memory of someone either publishing or at least blogging about this in the last 10 years or so, but I can't for the life of me find the source. “No” is of course not the only convention either.
>>
>> Can anyone please point me in the right direction?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Tom Honeyman
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