Sequential number word formation and children's secret language games in New Ireland (Papua New Guinea) – Christoph Holz (LCRC, JCU), 4 Dec 2019 Abstract 1: Sequential number word formation Number words in several Tungak-Nalik languages are morphologically complex. This kind of complexity is not the result of arithmetic operations, but has its origin in the sequence of successive Proto Oceanic number words. The pattern is called sequential number word formation here. As sequential number word formation is also found in several other Meso-Melanesian languages, and non-Austronesian languages of New Ireland and New Britain, it is likely to be an areal feature. Abstract 2: Children’s secret language games Secret languages play an important role in Melanesian communities. Traditionally, they are more commonly found among men in their endeavour to keep their secrets from uninitiated social groups. This article, in contrast, presents a secret language code primarily used by school girls in New Ireland: a language game that can be played in many local languages, in Tok Pisin and in English. Schools, often accommodating children from various linguistic backgrounds, harbour a creative environment for the development and spread of language games within the province, and apparently further in Papua New Guinea. This article also focusses on how young speakers deal with applying a fixed set of game rules to a variety of phonotactically unlike languages. 1. Sequential number word formation 1.1. Introduction - typological studies on number words (e.g. Hurford 1975, Stampe 1976, Greenberg 1978, Lean 1992, Comrie 2005a, Comrie 2005b, Owens et al. 2018) focus on arithmetic operations and bases - base = numeric value to which arithmetic operations are applied to create higher number words - five arithmetic operations: (1) a. Addition in Haruai b. Multiplication in Chukchi mos paŋ qliq-qlikkin two one twenty-twenty ‘three [= 2 + 1]’ ‘400 [= 20 x 20]’ c. Subtraction in Latin d. Division in Welsh un-de-viginti hanner cant one-from-twenty half hundred ‘nineteen [= 20 – 1]’ ‘fifty [= 100 : 2, or 100 x ½]’ e. Exponentiation in English bi-llion two-thousand.thousand ‘billion [= 10002 x 1000]’ - arithmetic operations and bases in Tiang (Tungak-Nalik) (2) (2) a. Addition in Tiang (own data) b. Multiplication in Tiang (own data) patlima pâ tâlât iuâi saŋaulá five with four two ten ‘nine [= 5 + 4]’ ‘twenty [= 2 x 10]’ 1 - another pattern in Tiang (3): only second part of ‘3’, ‘4’ and ‘5’ resembles POC; first part unrelated (3) ‘1’ ‘2’ ‘3’ ‘4’ ‘5’ Tiang saka iuâi utál tâlât patlima (own data) POC *sakai *rua *tolu *pat(i) *lima (Lynch et al. 2011: 72) - same pattern in southern Tungak-Nalik (Tiang, Kara, Lakurumau, Nalik) (4) (4) ‘3’ ‘4’ ‘5’ Tiang u-tál tâl-ât pat-lima (own data) Kara tala-tul tala-faat pa-ma (Dryer 2013: 83) Lakurumau ralo-run rala-vaat vat-mit (Lidia Mazzitelli, p.c.) Nalik o-rol orola-vaat kavit-mit (Volker 1996: 6) POC *X-tolu *X-pat(i) *X-lima - northern Tungak-Nalik (Tungak, Tigak) (5): ‘5’ similar pattern to (4); ‘3’ and ‘4’ with fossilised POC classifier *puaq as first element (5) ‘3’ ‘4’ ‘5’ Tungak po-tol pu-at palpal lima (Fast 1990: 10) Tigak po-tul po-iat pal-mit (Beaumont 1979: 105) POC *puaq-tolu *puaq-pat(i) *X-lima (cf. Lynch et al. 2011: 73) 1.2. Sequential number word formation - phonologically similar formatives in ‘3’, ‘4’ and ‘5’ in southern Tungak-Nalik (6) (6) ‘3’ ‘4’ ‘5’ Tiang u- tâl- pat- Kara (tala-) tala- pa- Lakurumau (ral-)o- rala- vat- Nalik o- (o-)rola- (ka-)vit- POC *rua- ‘2’ *tolu- ‘3’ *pat(i) ‘4’ (?) - formatives do not match value of actual number word, but of preceding POC number word, i.e. ‘3’ with formative from POC *rua ‘2’; ‘4’ with formative from POC *tolu ‘3’; etc. - cannot be explained by arithmetic operations, but sequence of successive POC number words: (7) Sequential number word formation x = present-day number word xn = y(n – 1)-zn y, z = POC number words n = numeric value of number word x (8) ‘3’ < POC *rua-tolu ‘two-three’ ‘4’ < POC *tolu-pat(i) ‘three-four’ ‘5’ < POC *pat(i)-lima ‘four-five’ (?) - Nalik o-rola-vaat ‘4’ < POC *rua-tolu-pat(i) ‘2-3-4’ - Kara tala-tul ‘3’ < POC *tolu-tolu ‘3-3’ - Lakurumau ral-o-run ‘3’ < POC *tolu-rua-tolu ‘3-2-3’ - Tungak-Nalik ‘5’ < POC *pat(i)-lima ‘4-5’ or ‘part-hand, i.e. one hand (with five fingers)’, cf. Dryer (2013: 30) for Kara; Beaumont (1979: 145) for Tigak; Fast (2015: 29) for Tungak 2 1.3. Beyond Tungak-Nalik - Kandas (southern New Ireland, St George linkage) with sequential pattern for ‘3’ to ‘9’ (9a), and cyclic for higher numbers words with ‘7’, e.g. ‘17’ and ‘70’ (9b, 10) (9) Kandas (Davies 2009) a. ‘three’ u-tul < POC *rua-tolu ‘two-three’ ‘four’ lu-wat < POC *tolu-pat(i) ‘three-four’ ‘five’ ti-lim < POC *pat(i)-lima ‘four-five’ ‘six’ w-onom < POC *lima-onom ‘five-six’ ‘seven’ ma-wit < POC *onom-pitu ‘six-seven’ ‘eight’ ti-wal < POC *pitu-walu ‘seven-eight’ ‘nine’ li-su < POC *walu-siwa ‘eight-nine’ b. ‘17’ noino ma w-ono-ma-wit < POC *[…] lima-onom-onom-pitu ‘five-six-six-seven’ ‘70’ w-ono-ma-wit na noino < POC *lima-onom-onom-pitu […] ‘five-six-six-seven’ (10) Cyclic pattern in Kandas [w-ono]-[ma-wit] [five-six]six-[six-seven]seven ‘seven (in higher number words)’ - Nakanai, Meramera (New Britain, St George linkage), Nehan (northern Bougainville, St George linkage) (11): ‘9’ < POC *walu-siwa ‘8-9’ (11) ‘9’ Nakanai uala-siu (Johnston 1980: 183) Meramera iala-sue (Johnston 1980: 183) Nehan lu-sio (Todd 1978: 1195) POC *walu-siwa ‘8-9’ - Selau (northern Bougainville, St George linkage), Vaghua (Solomon Islands, St George linkage) (12): ‘8’ < *pitu-walu ‘7-8’ (12) ‘8’ Selau tu-al (Blust 2004) Vaghua (ka-)z-al (Gross 1995) POC *pitu-walu ‘seven-eight’ - Kuot (central New Ireland, non-Austronesian isolate) (13): ‘2’ based on ‘1’; ‘7’ based on ‘6’ (13) ‘one’ ‘two’ . ‘six’ ‘seven’ Kuot ar ar-as gun-amur g-amur-a (Lindström 2009: 1) - Qaqet (New Britain, Baining, non-Austronesian): approximative ‘1, 2’ with singular or dual marker - Taulil (New Britain, Taulil-Butam, non-Austronesian): ‘3’ based on ‘2’ (14) ‘one’ ‘two’ ‘three’ Qaqet qunas-kɑ qunɑs-iɑm (depguas) (Hellwig 2019: 90) Taulil (təgəta) mukəm mukəm magərum (Meng 2018: 136) 3 1.4. Conclusion - sequential number word formation in Meso-Melanesian languages of New Ireland, New Britain, Bougainville and Solomon Islands; also in some non-Austronesian languages of New Ireland and New Britain → areal feature - no clear pattern, which number words are sequentially formed - possible factors for devoloping sequential number words: - counting things aloud, lexicalising final segments of number word string, e.g. there are one- two-three-four pigs > three-four pigs ‘4 pigs’ - approximative number words (cf. Aikhenvald 2012: 353 for Amazonian): POC number words might have lost exact numeric value, e.g. POC *tolu ‘3’ > paucal marker ‘a few’; sequential formative could narrow down vague meaning to exact numeric value - successive number words influence each other: nasal mutation in Irish with ‘7’, ‘8, ‘9’ and ‘10’, although nasal ‘8’ not inherent from Proto Indo-European (Windisch 1879: 27) 2. Children’s secret language games 2.1. Origin of secret languages - two types of language in Melanesia (Aufinger 1942) - straight language (gerade Sprache): understood by everyone in the speech community - secret language: register only known to initiated people - figurative secret language (Bilder-Geheimsprache): normal words get new meaning - secret language proper: new words from foreign languages or newly constructed words - motivation: only initiated people understand privat group-internal speech, excluding: - other clans (Laycock 1977: 136), foreigners, certain gender, age group (Aufinger 1942: 630), animals, plants (Laycock 1977: 137), ghosts (Aufinger 1942: 630) - may be bound to certain area or activity as a special registers, e.g. pandanus languages in Highlands (Franklin 1972: 69-70) - schools as ground for creation and spread of secret languages among children: in-group identity, gossip (Sarvasy 2019: 21), exploring rhetoric possibilities (Storch 2017: 292) 2.2. Current situation in New Ireland - multilingual speakers: own local language, Tok Pisin, English, neighbouring languages - local languages in decline, especially on more developed east coast - language games common in New Ireland: learnt from friends and family members of same age, especially girl, some middle-aged women from Tiang, Kara and Mussau area probably as first- generation users (first use in New Ireland in 1990s for Tok Pisin at high school in Nalik area) - sex-based secret languages more commonly described for men, e.g. Tolai in New Britain (Volker 1989: 20), language groups near Madang (Aufinger 1942: 633) - language games played in Tok Pisin, sometimes English, some local languages: - played in Tungak, Tigak, Tiang, Kara, Lihir, Notsi, Madak, Patpatar - not played in Mussau, Nalik, Mandara, Kuot, Barok - three language games: breaking up all syllables of word by inserting [p ~ ɸ] (favourite of most students), [ŋk], or [l, ɡ] (least favourite, because too complicated) - outside New Ireland: almost identical game in Morobe Province for Tok Pisin and Nungon (Finisterre-Huon, non-Austronesian) with [b] insertion (“Long Pidgin”, “girls’ and boys’ language”) by speakers under the age of thirty (Sarvasy 2014: 58); similar games in East New Britain - other Austronesian: Tagalog (Blust 2013: 143), Malay, Indonesian (Blust 2013: 145) - almost identical games → mutual influence of various speech communities through schools: high schools in PNG often boarding school, children from different linguistic backgrounds; innovations spreads on school ground, then home villages and whole province 4 2.3.