Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

> Date:         Tue, 13 Jun 2000 21:17:04 EDT
> From: Jonathan Chang <Zhang2323@...>
>     _Mi man bilong pilai long stringben_
> I think literally translates to: me man {who} plays {music instrument}
> & thus becomes <I am a musician> in Standard English.
Or "Me man [who] plays in a string band," perhaps?

I missed pilai = play before, but since it's the only example of an
epenthetic vowel in the sample, I'll take that as an excuse.

And if stringben = string band, how did the str- cluster survive when
pl- doesn't? Perhaps it's an etymological spelling? (Or perhaps later
loans have fewer phonetic constraints).

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)