[An-lang] Mota etymology

[Joshua Nash]

Dear An-lang list,

I am working on a list of Mota placenames on Norfolk Island connected/located on the Melanesian Mission grounds (Mota was the lingua franca used by the Mission during its time on Norfolk 1867-1920).

There is one placename - Alalang Paen - documented by South Australian missionary Julia Farr in 1898. She defined it as: ‘under the pines’ in Mota with the name derived from the fact that "a clump of Norfolk Island pines overshadowed the mission quarters where the married couples lived" (Farr's diary, 1894, p. 87).

A colleague has queried whether the name may be Pidgin English derived (an unwanted language which came to be spoken on the Mission), possibly meaning 'all along the pines' or 'along the pines'. Another colleague has suggested while 'paen' is an acceptable representation of ‘pine’ in the current orthography of both Solomons Pijin and Vanuatu Bislama, this orthography would not have been used for Melanesian Pidgin during Julia Farr’s time. It also appears unlikely 'alalang' in Pidgin would be used to represent 'all along' or 'along'. We thus agree it is unlikely this placename is pidgin-derived.

Unfortunately I don't have access to a Mota dictionary so I can't confirm the meaning of 'alalang' in Mota. Is 'paen' an acceptable representation of the diphthong 'ai' in Mota (if it were used for Mota, then it would seem likely Julia Farr thought the name was Mota derived).

Any suggestions or comments off-list are most welcome.

Regards,

Joshua Nash
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