{"id":7420,"date":"2013-02-14T16:56:24","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T05:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/?p=7420"},"modified":"2013-05-27T02:52:25","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T15:52:25","slug":"whats-your-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/2013\/02\/whats-your-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s your ‘skin’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Updated 15 Feb, 2013]<\/p>\n

On the AustKin 2<\/a> project we\u2019ve been taking an interest in generic Aboriginal words for \u2018skin\u2019 in the sense of ‘section’ or ‘subsection’. As readers have pointed out, the notion of a ‘skin name’ is by no means universal across Aborginal Australia. But what we\u2019d really like to know are generic terms for \u2018skin\u2019 in any Australian languages that include this concept. We\u2019re also keen to know if these terms are polysemous. For example, in some languages, the generic word for \u2018skin\u2019 (‘section’) has the additional meaning of \u2018body\u2019 or \u2018smell\u2019. In Mawng, the word ngiri<\/em> means both ‘subsection’ and ‘shell; bark’. In Tiwi, the word pukwi<\/em> means both ‘matriclan; totem’ and ‘sun’. These meanings draw attention to the consistent metaphors used to invoke kinship relationships and may also shed light on the origin of the word \u2018skin\u2019 in Aboriginal English.<\/p>\n

In addition, we would love to know if there is any Australian language wherein the word for \u2018skin\u2019 (section\/subsection) is also<\/i> the word for a literal \u2018skin\u2019 (the dermis). Tom Honeyman has pointed out that the Tok Pisin word skin <\/i>means \u2018body\u2019. Given the that NSW pidgin is known to have been a core lexifier of Melanesian pidgins, this is an intriguing lead.
\n
\nThe earliest printed sources we have found for \u2018skin\u2019 in English are from Baldwin Spencer’s 1912\u00a0 An introduction to the study of certain native tribes of the Northern Territory<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"p34\"<\/a>
Spencer 1912, p34. CLICK FOR A CLEARER IMAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amongst the Melville Island natives the word for totem is Mupira. Inter marri mupira means<\/em> “What name your totem (or skin)”. Descent is counted in the female line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"P35\"<\/a>
Spencer 1912, p35. CLICK FOR A CLEARER IMAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amongst the Port Essington natives the word for totem is Angnolye. Marunuqua gnoii agnyole<\/em> means “What (is) your totem (skin)?”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

[Update: off-blog comments; 15 Feb, 2013]:<\/p>\n

In WDL at Kintore NT people use ‘yara’ (= story). Eg to ask another’s skin name<\/span><\/p>\n

Nyaa yara nyuntu?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

what \u00a0story \u00a02sg<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Whats your skin name?’<\/span><\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/p>\n

The areas where I have been working don’t use skin\u00a0 in that sort of meaning.<\/span>
\nPaakantyi says ‘meat’- and Arabana-Wangkangurru\u00a0 ‘flavour’!<\/span><\/p>\n

**<\/span><\/p>\n

Please share any words you know, or relevant remarks, in the comments field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Updated 15 Feb, 2013] On the AustKin 2 project we\u2019ve been taking an interest in generic Aboriginal words for \u2018skin\u2019 in the sense of ‘section’ or ‘subsection’. As readers have pointed out, the notion of a ‘skin name’ is by no means universal across Aborginal Australia. But what we\u2019d really like to know are generic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7420"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7441,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420\/revisions\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}