bananas (Mark Donohue)

[Richard Parker]

Hi Mark
   
  THE real expert on banana history that you might like to contact is:
Edmond de Langhe, Director of INIBAP - International Network for the Improvement of 
  Banana and Plantain   
http://www.inibap.org/index.php?page=home-%3Enews
  Personal: <edmond.delanghe at chello.be>
   
  These may also help:
   
  About 70 banana words recently collected by me from various 
  wordlists, etc (mostly from New Guinea area, but also Taiwan) 
http://coconutstudio.com/bananas.xls
(sorry about duplicates - extract from larger worksheet - you should 
  find source references as notes in the first cell of each row)
   
  Map of WMP/CMP areas with banana names
http://coconutstudio.com/Edmond%20banana%20map.jpg
(But each language only identified by number, not name)
   
  Same for Oceania:
http://coconutstudio.com/bananas%20edmond%20map%20Pacific.jpg
   
  Paper by Edmond de Langhe on banana distribution at:
http://coconutstudio.com/bananas%20edmund%20Hather4.doc
   
  Warning - Plant names, especially domesticated ones with multiple 
  uses, can often have multiple names for varieties, different 
  development stages, different parts, etc. 
   
  - Nehan/Nissan, an island just off the N Solomons, has 56 named varieties 
  of banana
  - The Buang Mapos of Morobe Province, New Guinea, have names for 23 
  different varieties. 
  Even in Siargao, we have names for 13. Compared with the developed 
  West, where we usually only have just one variety (Cavendish) of 
  banana, this could lead to some confusion.
   
  Any linguist eliciting words could quite easily point to a banana, 
  thinking he was asking for a generic name, and get a specific one. 
   
  So, of course, could a visiting Austronesian, intent on taking one 
  away from a New Guinea native to grow for himself.
   
  As for derivatives, we have here in Siargao a mangrove tree called saging-saging, because its flowers are shaped like a bunch of little yellow bananas.
   
   
   
  best regards
  
Richard Parker
Siargao Island, The Philippines. 
  
I have started a weblog - Notes From a Small Island, at 
  http://smallislandnotes.blogspot.com/ about the island, Austronesian 
  languages and customs, etc. (with a side weblog 
  http://smallislandnotesan.blogspot.com/ on Austronesian numbers).
  
My website at www.coconutstudio.com is about the island and its 
  people,  coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and 
  whatever took my fancy at the time. 
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