seeking source

[A R Woodfield]

> 
> 	In the same newspaper piece Joe Tomei quoted from, 
> or rather in the Guardian Weekly original of 3 Sept. 95, 
> there's a brief account of verbal skills among the Dani 
> of New Guinea, as follows: 
> 	"...In New Guinea, the most linguistically diverse 
> region on Earth, language is not just reflective of culture; 
> it is its major component.  The Dani people, for example, 
> can each speak seven or eight wholly different languages.
> Men with a vocabulary wider than Shakespeare's engage in 
> punning stories whose play upon a single word can last for 
> two hours.  For them, language death -- which the Indonesian 
> government is doing its best to engineer -- means losing 
> their entire cultural history."
> 	Can anyone who subscribes to this list tell me what 
> source George Monbiot of the Guardian might have been drawing 
> on when he gave this account of the Dani people?
> 	Nancy Dorian
> 

Sorry this reply is so belated. I do not know his source, but I do know 
his address and if you would like me to ask him I will. Or if you want to 
contact him yourself:
George Monbiot, 82 Percy St, Oxford OX4 3AD
Tel/fax (01865) 724 360

Yours sincerely,
Andrew Woodfield