[An-lang] Mota etymology

[Alex Francois]

hi Josh

>From my knowledge of Mota, and of the surrounding languages, I can confirm
that:

   - /paen/ is a loan from English ---- via Pidgin if you want, but you
   don't even need to posit Pidgin here, as a word like *pine* would be
   nativised to /paen/ anyway
   - /alalang/ is not a loan from English or Pidgin:  it is a native
   preposition meaning 'under'  (Mwotlap *lalŋɛ*), which is indeed often
   used with tree names in toponymy.  (under the Casuarina, etc.)

I don't have Codrington's Mota handy, but you should find the word under
"lala*n*" (with italicised 'n', orthographic for the velar)
best,
Alex

_________
Alex François
LACITO-CNRS <http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/membres/francois.htm>, France
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>, Canberra
Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.free.fr>
__________________

2015-02-25 11:47 GMT-10:00 Joshua Nash <joshua.nash at adelaide.edu.au>:

>  Dear An-lang list,
>
> I am working on a list of Mota placenames on Norfolk Island
> connected/located on the Melanesian Mission grounds (Mota was the lingua
> franca used by the Mission during its time on Norfolk 1867-1920).
>
> There is one placename - *Alalang Paen* - documented by South Australian
> missionary Julia Farr in 1898. She defined it as: ‘under the pines’ in Mota
> with the name derived from the fact that "a clump of Norfolk Island pines
> overshadowed the mission quarters where the married couples lived" (Farr's
> diary, 1894, p. 87).
>
> A colleague has queried whether the name may be Pidgin English derived (an
> unwanted language which came to be spoken on the Mission), possibly meaning
> 'all along the pines' or 'along the pines'. Another colleague has suggested
> while 'paen' is an acceptable representation of ‘pine’ in the current
> orthography of both Solomons Pijin and Vanuatu Bislama, this orthography
> would not have been used for Melanesian Pidgin during Julia Farr’s time. It
> also appears unlikely 'alalang' in Pidgin would be used to represent 'all
> along' or 'along'. We thus agree it is unlikely this placename is
> pidgin-derived.
>
> Unfortunately I don't have access to a Mota dictionary so I can't confirm
> the meaning of 'alalang' in Mota. Is 'paen' an acceptable representation of
> the diphthong 'ai' in Mota (if it were used for Mota, then it would seem
> likely Julia Farr thought the name was Mota derived).
>
> Any suggestions or comments off-list are most welcome.
>
> Regards,
>
> Joshua Nash
>
> _______________________________________________
> An-lang mailing list
> An-lang at anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/an-lang/attachments/20150225/5b6ad03a/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
An-lang mailing list
An-lang at anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang