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Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

From:Danny Wier <dawier@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 13, 2000, 21:56
>From: Jonathan Chang <Zhang2323@...>
>* Tok Pisin - Papua NiuGini wantok (Neo-Melanesian English, Papua New >Guinea Pidgin English, English-lexifier pidgin [or - as I like to think of >it >- one of the most interesting "mutant Englishes around"]): > > Ples bilong yu we? <Where are you from?> > Ples bilong mi Amerika <I am from America> > Wanim kain wok bilong yu? <What's your job?> > Mi man bilong pilai long stringben <I am a musician> > Mi man i painimaut ol kainkain save <I am a researcher> > [OR] Mi no gat wok <I am unemployed> > Yu bilong wanem lotu? <What's your religion?> > Mi no gat lotu; Mi lotu nating <I am not religious> > Mi Dao-pela. <I am Taoist> > Mi no Kristen <I am not Christian> > Mi no Kago muvmen-pela. <I am not a Cargo Cult fellow>
I've seen that a lot, and it's a real good model for an IAL. In fact, the language is an IAL of sorts! The verb _bilong_ I assume is from English "belong", so does that indicate existentiality or possession? Or is it "be" plus a non-English ending _-long_ carrying some form of verbal meaning? stringben - Eng "string" + -ben = musician? (I can tell the words "ples, yu, mi, we, kain, wok, nating, Kristen, kago, muvmen" are obvious English borrowings -- and of course "tok"...)
>* excerpt from _Khotbah_ <Sermon> a poem by Indonesian poet W.S. Rendra: > > ... Darah itu bong-bong-bong > Darah hidup bang-bing-bong. > Darah hidup bersama bang-bing-bong-bong. > Hidup harus beramai-ramai. > Darah bergaul dengan darah. > Bong-bong-bong. Bang-bing-bong. ...
_dama_ is Arabic for "blood" but it's not quite _darah_... looks like Bahasa Indonesia...
> NOTE: in the above poem - in the national language of Indonesia, >Bahasa >Indonesia - the "Bong-bong-bong. Bang-bing-bong" etc. are onomatpoetic >imitations of LOUD _gamelan_ music.
Musical question anybody? Gamelan music is tuned to a pentatonic scale, but not the type of Western C-D-E-G-A; it's supposed to be close to a five-tone equal temperament scale, right? And Thailand has a seven-tone scale along those lines if I remember correctly...
> "Life must be lived in a noisy group./Blood must mix with blood." is >alluding to the fact that there are many ethnic groups in Indonesia and >that >they need to mix (this poem is nationalistic).
E pluribus unum. We Americans believe in diversity, as long as everybody speaks English. DaW. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com