[An-lang] Mota etymology

[John Lynch]

Joshua

The Mota dictionary (Codrington & Palmer 1896) gives *alalane *'under',
with italic *n *representing the velar nasal. So that part looks OK. Both
*ae* and *ai* occur, and I can't comment on them in any detail; but it
would seem to me that *ai* rather than *ae* would be closer to the
diphthong in English *pine*, and, as you say, the convention of using *ae* for
this diphthong in Bislama came much later. A Banks specialist -- Alex
Francois? -- may be able to help you more ...

John



On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 8:47 AM, Joshua Nash <joshua.nash at adelaide.edu.au>
wrote:

>  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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>


-- 
John Lynch, FAHA
Emeritus Professor of Pacific Languages, and Editor "Oceanic Linguistics"
University of the South Pacific
PMB 9072
Port Vila.  VANUATU
Phone: (+678) 25036    Mobile: (+678) 5920220    Fax: (+678) 22633
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