workshop on the languages of melanesia

So I am currently in Kioloa, Australia–about 3.5 hrs from Canberra–at an informal conference on Papuan linguistics entitled ‘Workshop on the Languages of Melanesia’. It’s my first time to attend a linguistics conference. I have been looking forward to it for months. It’s not every day one gets to fly to Australia and present a paper on his linguistic work to an interested audience. Most of the people I socialize with aren’t linguists at all, so it is good to be in this kind of environment. It’s a short workshop–only 2 days–and now we are already halfway through the presentations. Today these were the presentations:

Tone in Mian and other Mountain Ok languages, by Sebastian Fedden
What can we say about the Sepik family?, by William Foley
The Kaoka speakers are visiting: archives, museums and language documentation, by Deborah Hill
A preliminary investigation on Papuan Malay: language images and attitudes, by Fanny Cottet & Yusuf Sawaki
Nuts to years, by Peter Lincoln
Contact-induced language and social change in southern Bougainville, by Bethwyn Evans
Reconstructing Awyu-Dumut mood, by Ruth Wester

Lots of interesting topics! I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings! I will be presenting on ‘Epenthesis and vowel reduction in Ma Manda’. I will discuss how these two processes are diachronically related, and I will relate them to recent literature on epenthetic and intrusive vowels. As it’s my first time in such an environment, I didn’t feel comfortable presenting anything ‘new’ or ‘unusual’. Instead, my goal is to present my own data and relate it to the linguistic literature already out there. This is my chance to get my feet wet and present a paper for the first time. It’s also a chance to learn about recent developments in the field of Papuan linguistics–particularly relevant is Foley’s discussion on Sepik languages this morning. I will return to Ukarumpa and present to all the translators there the most relevant data so they will be aware of recent findings and research. Another benefit is the chance to rub shoulders with Papuan linguists, many who are doing PhD research on languages of New Guinea. I confess I am overwhelmed by all of the people who are so much more informed and educated than I am. In spite of this, I am trying to humbly present my own findings and get feedback. These days in the realm of Papuan linguistics the name of SIL seems to carry some negative baggage, I am finding. These linguists of such high caliber (from the ANU and various other institutions) see the work of SIL as often being of low quality. SIL members spend so much longer in their fieldwork sites than most professional linguists do, so we are in a position to have the highest quality of linguistic descriptions. However, this is often not the case due to the many obligations that pull on an SIL translator. Anyway, one of my main hopes this weekend is to be a good representative of an SIL member who is competent and interested in professional linguistic fieldwork. Moreover, I hope to be a good representative of a Christian. Not just a nominal Christian, but a practicing, devout, well-thought-out believer in Christ. Not someone who follows the conservative status quo, but who pursues the Christ who brings freedom in all aspects of life. I hope I am representing my Savior well. I would hate to think that I could be a part of defaming my Christian faith and heritage. It’s difficult, however, to socialize with such an academic crowd and remain faithful to my own beliefs. I want to be agreeable and friendly. This occasionally causes me to be fearful of taking a stand for the sake of Christ, because I want to be liked and appreciated. It’s a balance I am searching to find in a new environment, in a new place, and at a new time in my life.

the hooded pitohui – toxic songbird

The week before last as I was investigating vernacular words for the various birds that are found in the Ma Manda language area, I encountered mañgoñgok. As I wrote down the name, Tuboin began telling me about how they eat this bird. Typically when I learn about a new animal, I ask them whether they eat it, what it looks like, and what else they might do with it (for instance, using the feathers in the decorations for a particular celebration, or using the claws for magic spells, etc.). Here is what they told me in Tok Pisin:

Mipela save rausim wanpela gras bilong het bilong dispela pisin na subim i go insait long as bilong en. Oke nau mipela rausim narapela gras bilong as bilong em na putim i go insait long maus bilong en. Taim mipela i bihainim dispela pasin, em bai no inap kukim mipela. Tasol sapos mipela i no mekim dispela, oke em bai pait nogut tru ia!

In English now:

We pull out a feather from this bird’s head and push it up into its anus. Then we take a feather from around its anus and put it in its mouth. When we follow this custom, it won’t burn us. But if we don’t do this, it will burn like crazy.

So I was sitting and listening to this story, wondering as I often do how this custom began. With my Western mindset I contemplate whether the people understand that it’s just superstition. I explain as much as possible as scientifically as possible. That’s what we Westerners tend to do. Then I looked up the picture in the book (Birds of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago: A Photographic Guide, by Brian J. Coates) to find the name of the bird and to double check that this is in fact the bird they were discussing. It was the Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous). Here’s a picture:

The first line in the book caught my attention: “This species recently became famous as the first known poisonous bird – when toxin was discovered in its feathers and skin…” (166). Fascinating! Now wonder they had a superstition about it!

Apparently, in 1989 American scientist John Dumbacher stumbled across the Hooded Pitohui as he was investigating the Raggiana Birds of Paradise. After accidentally catching them in a net, then handling them, and then later putting his finger in his mouth to soothe a cut he got, he noticed a tingling and burning sensation. He goes on, “The next time we caught a pitohui, we tasted a feather, and there was the tingling burning sensation – and the toxin. When we asked the local guides, they all seemed to know about this” (http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/factfile/5123/hooded-pitohui-toxic-songbird). “Dumbacher investigated further by applying a feather directly to his tongue and found the sensation could last for hours. Carting some pitohui feathers back to the U.S., he showed chemist John Daly at the National Institute of Health, who in 1992 identified the presence of batrachotoxins, extremely potent neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids that in high doses can lead to paralysis, cardiac arrest and death. Gram for gram, it is one of the most toxic natural substances known, and had been identified by Daly years earlier in the poison dart frogs of South America. That year the poisonous pitohui found itself on the cover of Science.”

That’s the picture at the top of this post. Apparently the bird gets the poison by eating a certain type of beetle:

“…a further discovery made by New Guinea villagers that the pitohuis got their batrachotoxins by feeding on small, colourful melyrid beetles. “We found the same toxins in these beetles, and we found the beetles in the birds’ stomachs.” “

Pretty cool huh? The Hooded Pitohui – toxic songbird.

our papua new guinean friends

After the mumu, we took a group photo of our family with all of our closest Papua New Guinean friends who were there. Next to Crystal is Naniso, our “haus meri” who looks after our home on Tuesday and Friday mornings. She is a wonderful Christian woman who prays for us, loves on our kids, and serves us week in an week out. We love her! Then Garambon and Tuboin, who came to Ukarumpa to spend three works doing language work with me. Both want to commit themselves to become translators. In the front is Beni, our “yard man” who gardens for us once a week. We have known Beni for two years. He’s a great guy that we have enjoyed getting to know and build a relationship with. On either side of the picture are Tim and Damet, who provided most of the garden food for the mumu. Damet was born in Kesengen, the southernmost Ma Manda village, but she lives here in the Highlands with her husband. That’s one of their six children down in front. We will be sad to leave these men and women when we go on furlough!

plans to build a linguistic center at Ukarumpa, from may 1969

I just found a new treasure trove of information after looking on our friends’ blog.

The following link will bring you to a copy of the May 1969 SIL PNG “The Informant” newsletter. In it, plans are laid out for building of a linguistic center at Ukarumpa, the very place we call home today. At the end, a page has been attached which shows the linguistics library here from 1972, and then again from 2011 (copied below for your convenience). The overhead view from 1972 shows the skinny rows of buildings on either side of the library. Over these last three weeks I was sitting in the cubicle on the bottom left of the screen. It’s cool to see the history.

Earlier in this newsletter (p3), the “ultimate result” for the Ukarumpa linguistics center is listed, for “every tribe a little closer to having the Word in its own language.” 43 years after this newsletter was printed, I was sitting in the very cubicles (what they called “consultant rooms”) they set out to build, doing the very thing they hoped for them to be used for.

Amen.

a mumu celebration – the food

This gallery contains 20 photos.

So now we’ve seen the work leading up to the important part of the celebration – the food! For this event, I went to the store and bought tons of meat – 24 chicken breasts, 36 sausages, and 48 lamb flaps. The lamp flaps are something that many Papua New Guineans like, especially the Seventh […]

a mumu celebration – the preparation

This gallery contains 14 photos.

Garambon and Tuboin left this morning after 3 weeks of work here in Ukarumpa. It was incredibly productive. We made valuable changes to the orthography, printed mini story books for each village, interlinearized 10 texts, and spent a lot of time praying, laughing, and growing together as friends. It was a great way to end […]

ma manda birds of paradise

In order to break up the more draining tasks of interlinearizing stories and recording wordlists, I have been collecting a lot of vocabulary. It’s a more fun way to spend our time. One day I hope to document all of the words I have collected by producing a Ma Manda dictionary. Now that I have already gathered all the frequently used terms, it takes more creativity to find new words. The best way to get more words is to interlinearize a story, and any time I approach a new word I stop and ask questions about its meaning, and then often this opens up to other words. But this week I checked out from the library several books on PNG animals, one on birds, one on frogs, one on mammals, one on snakes, one on rats… I gave these books to them and told them to write down the name of any animal for which they see a picture. This is how I got about 100 new lexical items. I now have over 80 words just for different types of birds. For instance, I have seven different words for different types of Birds of Paradise that they have:

kondhnam – Emperor bird of paradise
dhmaak – Raggiana bird of paradise
yamayama – Lesser bird of paradise
fidhnhñdhnhñ – Wahnes’ six-wired bird of paradise
wandoñ – Huon astrapia
ghlandat – Magnificent riflebird (male)
dañgembhlam – Magnificent riflebird (female)

I really enjoy that part of my job. It’s cool to get a chance to look at the world through their eyes. So many of the names for birds are onomatopoeic, but the sounds they think they make are so different from the sounds we think they make (though their name for cat is miaauñ [think 'miaung']). Anyway, what’s cool is how they call some of these birds by compound names, like ‘frog face’ or ‘come go quickly’.