Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

>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.
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