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Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 14, 2000, 13:45
Kristian Jensen wrote:

> Actually, the terms I posted are the older Tok Pisin forms used during > the days of the Cargo Cults.
When I was a child my father used to amuse me no end with an alleged pidgin word for "piano": "big-fella-box-you-hit-him-teeth-he-cry". Looking at this, there is some internal evidence that it is genuine: the use of "fella" as the generic noun classifier and of "him" as a transitive marker agree with what I have read. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)