Details

Latitude

-5.901365

Longitude

148.103

Start Date

1965-01-28

End Date

1965-01-28

Some New Guinea Languages. -- Side 1: -- Roro (Koro?) - Austronesian language along coast east/west of mouth of Angabunga River, Central Province, PNG. -- Motu - Austronesian language, Port Moresby district and several other coastal settlements, Central Province, PNG. -- Bola - Austronesian language, Willaumez Peninsula, West New Britain Province, PNG. (Bola begins at 21 min 44 sec) -- Sinaoro = Sinagoro. Austronesian language (many dialects) in the Kemp Walsh and Ormond-Waipara Rivers region, Central Province, PNG. (Sinagoro begins at 33 min 55 sec and contains the first 100 words of the Swadesh word list) -- Koitabu - Papuan language north and west of Port Moresby. -- Notsi - Austronesian language, North New Ireland, New Ireland Province, PNG. PNG language speakers and informants of Roro (Koro?), Motu, Bola, Sinaugoro, Koitabu and Notsi were recorded in two parts - First 100 words of Swadesh word list and secondly a narrated story of "The boys and the coconut in the languages." The speakers include; Sinaka Goave - Roro (Koro?), Central Province Daure Gaigo- Motu, Central Province Lucas Waka - Bola, West New Britain Province Vere Bau - Sinaugoro, Central Province Vaburi Dauge - Koitabu, Central Province Samuel Kukuris - Notsi, New Ireland Province The Story of the boys and the coconut. A small boy and his food, he puts them on the mat. Another boy he comes. He sees the food and he takes it. He gives some to his small brother and they eat. Not long, the oldest boy comes. He sees the mat but there is no food. He looks over and two boys are eating. “Why are you eating my food?” he says. “You do not have any?” “No, we don’t have any but you are eating!” “Who said you got mine?” “No one, we saw them and we got them” “But I want, these are mine but I will give some back to you and we will eat together” And then they shared it, then sat together and then they ate it. When the finished eating, one said, “I want some more, are there any coconuts?” “Yes, coconuts are on the tree. If you want to climb, I won’t climb that tree because it’s big, I am not big. But my big brother knows how to climb!” He went and called his big brother. The big brother came and climbed and then he threw three down for the boys and he kept one for himself. He got the knife and bore holes and they drank the water. When they were satisfied, they played again. They played a little bit and they slept. They lay on the ground and they went to sleep. They woke up and they were hungry again but they had no food. One boy said, I”I am going to my mother, she will give me more food” And the other one said, “Me too, I am going because she gave me food yesterday!” So they all went to his mother. “Mother, we want eat some things!” one said. “You’ll give us some?” “Here, some yams are here! Am I the one who is feeding you all? Yesterday I gave you food! If you want food, you should go and look for it yourself. After this don’t return today”. The boys took the food and left. They sat down in the shade and ate. Then one boy said, “I saw a snake!” “Where did you see it?” the others asked. “Over there, near the stone!” “Okay, let’s catch it!” but the boys were afraid of the snake and didn’t go for it. “Hey, did the snake see them. Is it afraid of us too?” The snake slithered under the rock and the boys looked for other things to go. Transcribed by Eileen Bobone. (Steven Gagau, January 2021) Further Notes: First Language: Roro (original description here was 'Koro'), but recording clearly sounds like /Roro/. Both are languages spoken in PNG - Roro being a dialect of Waima. Second Language: Motu recorded by Daure Gaigo and [unclear] Dekavi?. Other Languages, as above: Bola, Sinaugoro, Notsi

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