Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

In a message dated 2000/06/14 10:23:41 AM, Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS
Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked) wrote:

>>     _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).
>
    Prob'ly cuz _stringben_ is an urban Tok Pisin word. I have not found the
older or rural Tok Pisin for this.
    Also I think I have seen more recent usage of _musik-man_ ... so urban
Tok Pisin continues to grow in closer "proximity" to its lexifier language
English due to both outside influences as well as native self-education (I
heard that there is even some computer hackers in Port Moresby... prob'ly
friends of the hackers in Jakarta, Indonesia  ; }  ).

    zHANg