Subject: tok masta - an addition to summary

this mail is an addition to the summary of sources on tok masta , foreigner talk ( ? ) of new guinea , which i not long time ago . the message was not in - cluded in the summary , because of a few problems with my adress . it seems very relevant to the subject to me - thanks a lot to robert mannell < robert . mannell @ mq . edu . au " > for sending it : > i do n't have any references , but when i was in papua new guinea in 1974 / 75 > i often heard this term . i spent several months trekking in the new guinea > central highlands . the term was sometimes used by local people in response > to hearing english being spoken and was sometimes used when tok pisin ( then > called tok pidgin ) was being spoken poorly by a native speaker of english . > in this second case the form of tok pisin being spoken was strongly > contaminated by australian english pronunciation and by the use of extra > english words which were not then current in tok pisin ( what effect this > had on the subsequent development of tok pisin vocabulary i do not know ) . > > to summarize : > tok masta = = english tok masta = = heavily anglicised tok pisin ( whic h may have sounded > like english to the local people ) you may recall > various studies of the english - creole continuum in > jamaica where " broad " creole speakers believed that > their somewhat anglicised creole was actually > english . > tok masta = = any other non - png language being spoken by a > european ( ? ? ? ) this is possible , but i do n't > recall ever hearing it used this way . > > other terms that i heard which also referred to english were : - > tok place bilong masta > place tok bilong masta > > " tok place " and " place tok " appeared to be used interchangeably and referred > to the local language at the place of birth of the person being referred to . > this term , when used generically , distinguished between the lingua franca , tok > pisin and the person 's own first language . therefore , it can be assumed that > the use of the term " tok place bilong masta " was intended to mean the language > spoken at the place of birth of the foreigner . > > the term " masta " was always a term that i had great difficulty with when i > was in png . on a number of occasions i asked local speakers what they thought > the word meant . in no cases did they associate the word with meanings similar > to the english word " master " and simply saw it as a term for male europeans or > " white skins " as they called us ( less formally ) . it may be that local people > working on plantations in areas such as new britain may have used the word > differently as in such regions the europeans were very much more in control . > in the central highlands the people were extremely independant . they did > have some experience of working for europeans however but in such cases the > correct term for their employer was usually " boss " or " boss man " ( a term > also used to refer to village elders ) . the term " masta " was reserved as a > generic term for all europeans , not just their employers . " masta " could be > used to refer to europeans in the abstract , to a particular group of europeans , > or ( in my experience , most commonly ) as a form of address to a specific > european ( eg i was often greeted as follows : - " api nun masta " = > " good afternoon < masta > " ) > > i hope this is of some use to you . > > regards > > dr robert h . mannell > speech , hearing and language research centre > macquarie university > sydney , nsw , 2109 , australia . > e-mail : robert . mannell @ mq . edu . au
