Melanenglish?

[Benjamin Barrett]

I think I saw it. It's on an island that has a cargo cult. It seems
they have a lot of words from English, which probably arrived with
their religion in WWII.

I recall from Turnbull's _The Forest People_ that being tall can be a
great disadvantage if you have to walk through the jungle. I think
the Mbuti pygmies laughed at him for being so tall.

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

On Dec 30, 2007, at 8:40 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Melanenglish?
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>
> I'm watching the Travel Channel, which is featuring the life of
> Melanesian-looking people - the guys are wearing only penile sheaths -
> on an island named "Tanna." As they speak the usual random babble of
> phones, pitches, and tones that you hear when you have no training in
> linguistic fieldwork, I suddenly hear what appear to be English
> strings like "two hundred" and "last night." And sho nuff, the
> subtitles read, "two hundred [pigs]" and "[had a good time] last
> night."
>
> The program features both traditional and modern (called
> "clothes-wearers" by the traditionals) tribes. It's startling to see
> that the moderns generally stand head-and-shoulders taller than the
> traditionals.
>

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