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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I heard an interview on National Public Radio last night with a resident of the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, near New Zealand. The story focused on the rising sea forcing the residents to leave. New Zealand is going to take them in. Now that's a story in itself, to be sure (who ever heard of this place before?) but what struck me especially was that this Tuvaluan's accent was hardly an accent at all (to this American's ears). I understood him perfectly, better than I can understand some folks from small burgs in Scotland or even remote towns in the US deep South. This gobsmacks me and I was hoping some of y'all (especially CapK and Max) could listen to the interview and comment on it. Once I figure out how to listen to radio on my brand spankin new Mac, I want to hear it again, too. I can't remember if he had an opportunity to use a du- or tu- word; I sure hope so!  Here's the link, if it's too wide I'll try to fix it: http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=11/15/2001&PrgID=2post-edit I just looked up this place and English is not listed as a language for it.  Both native languages listed are, well, native. So maybe this guy learned his English elsewhere or as the former colonial language at school and my post will have been all for naught, yet, not pointless. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Tuvalu
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old hand
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old hand
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who ever heard of this place before?
Well, from whom do you think the US bought the rights to the website extension .tv?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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AnnaS: I heard the same report, and it was also mentioned that another theory about the sinking nation was that the volcanic rock is compacting and also contributing to the submerging.
For the record, our elementary school chorus, The Globemasters, sang all the island nations of Oceania along with their capital cities. Funafuti, Tuvalu, oozes with potential for tsuwm, don't you think? The Most Diffusing Word Oozer (currently a boozer word oozer), tsuwm, of Funafuti, Tuvalu...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm afraid I haven't really been around for the past few days, and I missed AnnaS' original post.
As any glance at a map of the Micronesian region of the Pacific will tell you, Tuvalu is a few atolls spread out north/south with a trend from the south-east to the north-west. It was part of the Gilbert and Ellice Island group (the Gilberts) prior to "independence" from the nominal suzerainty of Australia via Britain. It had been a British colony since about the 1880s, but don't quote me on the decade. May have been the 1890s.
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were "ruled", if that is an appropriate word, from Ocean Island (Banaba) by a Commissioner for several decades, and mostly the British and Gilbertese/Ellice Islanders rubbed along pretty well. The colony prison was on Ocean Island, and many a wife or husband who wanted a holiday from his/her family committed some offence precisely calculated to guarantee a sentence from the District Officer which coincided, length-wise, with the length of time the offender wished to be away.
The main economic export in the early years was guano. Ocean Island and Nauru were literally covered in it, and the New Zealand and Australian phosphate ships literally carted the islands away. Australia has paid reparations and done some restoration work on Nauru, but I'm not sure about Ocean Island. That stopped less than 30 years ago - I still remember the phosphate ships from Nauru arriving at Dunedin. The other economic mainstay is copra, and the market for that is, shall we say, not overheated. They also, as Max pointed out, sell anything they can which the world wants. If it's .tv, then .tv can go!
Most Americans and Japanese will have heard of Tarawa, which is the main island in the Gilberts (Kiribati). And Christmas Island, of course, was used as a nuclear test site. No doubt the fact that the atolls are sinking is blamed by some on that.
If you want to know what it's like on the islands now, look at the websites. If you want to know what it was like at the turn of the 20th century, read "A Pattern of Islands" by Arthur Grimble. Grimble was a District Officer in the G&Es for years and eventually became the Commissioner. He loved the place and the people, and I think the feeling was pretty much reciprocated. He wrote two books about the G&Es, the second being "Return to the Islands".
The islands are nominally independent, but as Max has hinted, that independence is propped up pretty much by New Zealand and Australia, which mostly try to be good Pacific citizens to our island neighbours. Especially if it means they don't emigrate to South Auckland. However, it's a sad fact that there are more Cook Islanders (next door to Kiribas and Tuvalu) in Auckland that there are in the Cooks. Same for Niue. Pretty much getting that way for Samoa. And now it looks like Tuvalu will pack up lock stock and barrel and head Aucklandwards. It'll probably work out cheaper for NZ than supporting them in the islands.
Being posted to Tarawa for a New Zealand diplomat has much the same connotations as for someone in the American military being posted to Alaska ... you wonder who you offended. There's nothing to do, and nowhere to do even that nothing. I think it's the only place in the world where the NZ High Commissioner's main vehicle is an outboard dinghy. The kids there still play in the wreckage of tanks and landing craft, and the place is pretty much a tip. Yuck.
But it's peaceful and the beaches away from the main islands are great. Unpolluted. Well, except for plastic bottles and fishing floats, I suppose.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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the missionary who first set down the language had a faulty "s" on his typewriter, so he used "ti" instead
This sounds like the story behind Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango). The missionary was faced with a language with a plethora of ng sounds and not enough ns in his type set so he made do with the g. Apparently the g sound was not present in the language and all his ns were used up representing the n sound. Or so the story goes.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Missin' key story again, wwh? Is that why they're called missin'aries?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Or so the story goes.The missionaries didn't actually alphabetise the languages of Kiribas. The British Colonial Service did. The missionaries had a go at it, the Catholics more noticeably than the protestants, but they all effectively failed Poof! Ex urban myth. The missionaries did, however, force the women, who had happily gone as topless as the men for ever, into "Mother Hubbard" dresses. They also brought Christianity - for the want of a better expression - to the islands and set denomination against denomination. This in an island population who just loved an excuse to go to war. And Fijian names and nouns with the "ng", "mg" or "nd" sound are also spelled without the "n" or "m". So therefore, the name of General Rabuka (who led two coups against the legitimate government in Fiji) is actually pronounced "Rambooka", and the international airport in Fiji on Viti Levu, spelled "Nadi" is actually pronounced "Nandi". Go figure! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
Most Americans and Japanese will have heard of Tarawa, which is the main island in the Gilberts (Kiribati). And Christmas Island, of course, was used as a nuclear test site.
Umm. Are there two Christmas Islands? I was under the impression Christmas Island was not far south of my present whereabouts and was a sort of Australian holiday island where they don't want people describing themselves as refugees to land.
Bingley
Bingley
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