[Ads-l] talk story - 1971

[Geoffrey Steven Nathan]

I guess I'm a little more rusty than I thought I was. The Ken Sakata who coauthored the Pidgin dictionary is not the same person as Kent Sakoda, who was my classmate, and, with Jeff Siegel coauthored a Pidgin grammar, apparently still in print:

http://www.amazon.com/Pidgin-Grammar-Introduction-Creole-Language/dp/1573061697/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453666960&sr=1-1&keywords=9781573061698

Geoffrey S. Nathan
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Geoffrey Steven Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
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Subject: Re: talk story - 1971

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My HCE is a little rusty (I was somewhat fluent in the seventies) but as I =
recall it's a little more than just 'casual conversation'. Something like '=
schmooze', perhaps with the additional connotation of 'trading tall tales'.=
 My only handy reference material is=20

Pidgin to da max' (1981). Douglas Simonson (Peppo), Ken Sakata and Pat Sasa=
ki. The Bess Press. Honolulu, HI.
'Talk, gossip, shoot the breeze. Siddown, relax, talk story wit' me'=20

FWIW, Ken Sakata is a linguist who was a classmate of mine. Not sure where =
he is now.

Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer
Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/
+1 (313) 577-1259

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to=
 anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Benjam=
in Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2016 2:57 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: talk story - 1971

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Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      talk story - 1971
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This is an English idiom commonly used in Hawaii. AFAIK, it means to =3D
have a casual conversation and comes from HCE (Pidgin). It=3DE2=3D80=3D99s =
not =3D
on the Oxford Dictionary site, Wikipedia or Wiktionary.=3D20

Pure speculation, but it seems possible that the HCE idiom comes from =3D
the Japanese katarau (=3DE8=3DAA=3D9E=3DE3=3D82=3D89=3DE3=3D81=3D86).

The earliest hit on the Internet I see in English is 1971.

http://bit.ly/1ZLu6Do
National Geographic, Volume 139

=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D
One day I sat down to "talk story" (chat) with a group of Hana people =3D
[probably people from Hana on Maui] whose memories go back a long way.
=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA=3D

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