Melanenglish?

[Joel S. Berson]

Wikipedika [article "Tanna (island)")] is supportive.  An island of
Vanuatu, populated almost entirely by Melanesians; in some villages
modern inventions are restricted and "the inhabitants wear penis
sheaths" [the women too?!]; and it is "the centre of the Jon Frum
cargo cult, which worships an American World War II soldier as their
god."  [I looked up Tanna because I wondered whether it was part of
New Guinea.]

But why did things like "two hundred" and "last night" get adopted
from English?  Hardly American military slang, and concepts that
"traditionals" (Wikipedia's term) would seem to need as much as Westerners.

Joel

At 12/30/2007 11:48 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>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:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Melanenglish?
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>---------
>>
>>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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