[An-lang] FW: FW: Song in Halia

[Brenda Boerger]

Friends,

I forwarded this to my colleague who worked on the Halia New Testament. His
reply is below:



*From:* allen, jerry [mailto:jerry_allen at wycliffe.org]
*Sent:* Friday, October 1, 2021 11:03 AM
*To:* Brenda Boerger <brenda_boerger at sil.org>
*Cc:* Kim-Steve Blewett <kim_blewett at sil.org>
*Subject:* Re: FW: [An-lang] Song in Halia



Hi Brenda,

I checked with Ruth Tohaka who is translating the NT into Tuloun, the
language of the Cartarets Atoll, about 60 miles East of Buka. It is closely
related to Halia. She is a native speaker of Tuloun.



She identified the spelling of the song as the original Tuloun, but it is
quite different from the contemporary spelling. She herself is not sure of
the meaning of the 3rd and 4th lines.



The earlier orthography was from a translation by Fr Muller, in his
catechism for Cartarets. Ruth said her great grandfather married a woman
from Kavieng, New Ireland. Both Tuloun and the Kavieng language are
Austronesian languages.



I recognize "tsina" as mother and "tama" as father. "tu i" (or "twi") might
be heart. The other words I don't recognize. This may relate to the sinking
of the coastal boat Polurian, which sank west of Buka in 1963 and many
Cartarets people on board died. I was in Bougainville at the time.



Hope this helps.



Jerry



*From:* An-lang [mailto:an-lang-bounces at anu.edu.au] *On Behalf Of *Christoph
Holz
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 28, 2021 11:24 PM
*To:* an-lang at anu.edu.au
*Subject:* [An-lang] Song in Halia



Dear all,



Do you know anyone who is familiar with Halia or related languages of
northern Bougainville? While doing fieldwork on Tiang in New Ireland, I
recorded a song that might be in Halia. The consultant did not speak Halia
himself and does not remember the meaning of the song (so his version might
be a little off from the actual language), but his parents were from the
Carteret Islands in Bougainville. This is a transcription of the song in
IPA:



a ja (ɾ)u ʨi na

a ja (ɾ)u ta ma

se ja tu i a ləw ma

se to ɾɛ mə ɣə tu a twɨ



The first two lines probably mean ‘ouch, (our?) mother’ and ‘ouch, (our?)
father’. The song is part of a story about a woman made of paint, who dies
during a boat trip because she touches the sea and loses her colour (this
is how the sea became blue). I would be happy for any ideas about what the
third and fourth line could mean.



Best wishes,

Chris


-- 

*Christoph Holz* | PhD Candidate
School of Education and the Arts
CQUniversity Australia | Cairns, QLD 4870
https://www.cqu.edu.au/research/current-research/profiles/profiles/sea/christoph-holz
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