amsd_01368

Title: Term for 'message stick' in Yir-Yoront

Description: Original source gloss: "Message stick, oII‑8"

Date Created: 1991

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: lexical item

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: kulpm ('kolpm')

Sources:

  • Alpher, Barry. 1991. Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and Dictionary of an Australian Language. Vol. 6. Trends in Linguistics: Documentation. Berlin, New York: Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    • Source types: book

    Notes: From page 185-186 of Alpher (1991): "KOLPM (N) MESSAGE STICK. Paml mon+1 kopl ngorvm kolpm monliy an pal 'w e— [Island-song text:] The people from the island [the Mornington Islanders] sent us a message here from the west [to invite us to a dance-show in Cairns to the [185] southeast]. Kolpm, ngan wanl; lat; yarra nh monliyrr. The one we call kolpm, it's a letter, which we send away. Kolpmvl awr win 'y. Pal waw wal pinn. I told them with that message stick. They might come here. Note: RLS [PK: R. Lauriston Sharp] records two message sticks pam-kith ngorvm (because of a dead man); one stick was the pam-kith (dead man) and the crosswise parallel strokes the kol (army, revenge expedition); the other had crosswise marks up and down its length and represented the pam-yor-maq (those against whom vengeance was to be directed) and the spears to be thrown at them. The recipient was responsible for the payback and was to have kept the sticks monl-an (forever). Totem of: II-8." PK: This text above is also reproduced in the Chirila OtherNote field. Page 311 of Alpher: "Pamvl monl-kopl ngorvm kolpm mon=liy an pal 'w. [From a song.] The people from the [Mornington] island sent a message stick here from the west." PK: Suspected source for this is Sharp, Lauriston. 1937. The social anthropology of a totemic system in North Queensland, Australia. [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University; copies held in the Cornell and Harvard University libraries and the library of the AIAS, Canberra.]. A copy is kept at AIATSIS, see: https://iats.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/external/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:216315/one?qu=%22The+social+anthropology+of+a+totemic+system+in+North+Queensland%2C%22&h=1

    Media Files:

    Data Entry: Piers Kelly