Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

In a message dated 2000/06/13 09:57:57 PM, DaW wrote:

>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?
>
    Existentiality and possession not as much as relation IIRC/IMHO. _bilong_
is a very powerful, polysemic word in Tok Pisin.

>stringben - Eng "string" + -ben = musician?
>
    _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.

>(I can tell the words "ples, yu, mi, we, kain, wok, nating, Kristen, kago,
>muvmen" are obvious English borrowings -- and of course "tok"...)
>
    Yep.

>>*   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...
    yep
>
>>     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?
>
    Nope. There is two "systems": _pelog_ & _slendro_. Slendro scales tend to
be "almost 5-tone Equal" while Pelog scales are very unequal 7-tone sets in
which _patet_ of 5-tones are played. (Unequal scales create a certain sonic
spice-y-ness, which I like a lot)
    The uniqueness of each _gamelan_ is due to the fact that each gamelan is
created & tuned individually - thus subtle-but-discernable differences
between gamelan ensembles create different tunings of either Slendro or Pelog
as well as different timbral colourations.
    A lot of musics in the world do not conform to Western (Eurocentric)
concepts of musical terminology & analysis: so terms such as "equal
tempered", "Just Intonation", "octave", etc. are badly placed labels/handles
on which some still insist on using to describe "other musics".

>And Thailand has a seven-tone scale along those lines if I remember
>correctly...
    No, not exactly. The Thai 7-tone scale is loosely based on a complex mix
of harmonics, overtones & ratios of 7. And actually there are several scale
systems in Thai musics.

    =)
    zHANg, lingual AND musical mad scientist