Issue # 4: Yet
Wanem Kain Tok Pisin Yu Toromoi - "Yet"
Tok Pisin Vocabulary Series: Wanem kain Tok Pisin Yu Toromoi
Issue # 4 - "Yet"
Dear Members,
We now have over 600 members! It is great to know based on PNG homegrown values, that we do not have to shout the name of our group from the mountain tops. We know that the value of our common language and the value of PNG style humour.
So bai yumi tok wanem? Yumi Yet!
Today we shall discuss the very short Tok Pisin word: "Yet"
The words yet in Tok Pisin have two roots. The first is the English word "yet" as found in phrases as "Not Yet". The second is the Rabaul Kuanua word; "yat", as found in Phrases as: "amur yat" watch yourselves (referring to two people) and a second significance: "Lua yat" - much earlier or much further ahead, "aro yat" - way over there.
Modern Tok Pisin Dictionaries compilers, who are not aware of the second root of this word are unable to separate the families of meaning of "yet". Below (1 and 2) is an entry from Mihalic's definitions of "yet".
1. Yet, still
i no yet - not yet
mi stap yet - I'm still here
2. Self
em yet - he himself, she herself
mipela yet - we ourselves
mi yet mi mekim - I did it myself
ol yet - they themselves
yupela yet - you yourself
We know the English meanings of "yet" but to understand why it as extra meanings in Tok Pisin, we have to realise how two words from two languages have combined to form this very particular Tok Pisin word.
Traditionally, the phrase Tolai people used to bless someone who has just sneezed was "U yat" or "U yati" in my dialect. One of the abstract meanings of "yat" is concerned with unlimited immeasurable time and space. When you are wished "U yati" the speaker refers to the return of your soul into your body from the spiritual world. As your presence in the land of the living is re-acknowledged, you are also wished an infinite life and peace with your surrounding.
So when the Tolai's are telling their friends " yu yet", from their cultural perspective, they are reaffirming your right to life and existence in the the living world and the spiritual world.
This word is still transforming and at least two new meanings are being implied but they are not definite enough for me to offer them for discussion here.
Yu yet barata blo mi, na yu yet susa blo mi.
Best,
Martin