HENRY

William Thurston on the role of humor in language change in his 1987 book “Processes of Change in the languages of North-Western New Britain”:

Many linguistic innovations arise in the context of humor, a common mechanism for mediating interpersonal relationships. For example, in 1978, during my second trip to work with the Anêm, but Goulden’s first, we had passed weeks without eating an egg. One morning, an Anêm woman proudly presented Goulden with one, and carefully enunciated the phrase nilŋêm texik ‘chicken-egg’ (nil-ŋ2 ‘egg/testicle’, texik ‘chicken’) for Goulden to repeat. (The Anêm apply Pavlovian principles to language teaching.) At this stage, Goulden’s knowledge of Anêm was at the wordlist level. He graciously accepted the gift, but in his fluster to be polite and repeat what he thought he had heard, he uttered biŋêm texik ‘chicken vulva’ instead. Both bi-ŋ2 and nil-ŋ2 belong to the genital class of nouns.

No sooner had the slip left his tongue than he knew his mistake, but it was too late. Goulden’s obvious discomfiture only accentuated the hilarity of the event. Acutely embarrassed, he returned to the house with the egg in hand. In subsequent weeks, Goulden was the recipient of all available eggs in Karaiai and Pudeling villages; each one was presented as biŋêm texik, a lexeme temporarily reassigned a new meaning for the duration of the gag. (pp. 66-67)

Posted on April 12th, 2008 by Simon Greenhill