The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CARROLL2024-003

Kinkin mələs

Papua New Guinea · Kinkin village, Pahoturi River country, South Fly District, Western Province · Oceania · Sahul

Function not recorded

Conservator E. Krause's three zincographs of the gadfly bullroarer, 1888
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Conservator E. Krause's three zincographs of the gadfly bullroarer, 1888 Public domain · Image source

mələs

Source term: bullroarer: mələs

mələs: bullroarer (Yamfinder, Taeme, Kinkin, Kate L. Lindsey field data)

At Kinkin, in the Pahoturi River country of south-western Papua New Guinea, two languages share one village and each has its own name for the bullroarer. Taeme speakers call it mələs. Their Ende-speaking neighbours say waglla, and to the Ende the waglla was the voice of their first words, cut from a palm and swung at Boze when the Ende and Agob languages began. Taeme and Ende are sister languages of the small Pahoturi family.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called mələs; its form is not recorded.
Function
Not recorded.

Sources

  1. Matthew J. Carroll, Wolfgang Barth, Nicholas Evans et al., Yamfinder: The Southern New Guinea Lexical Database (University of Melbourne), concept 'bullroarer' View
  2. CLDF dataset derived from Carroll et al., "Yamfinder: The Southern New Guinea Lexical Database", Lexibank release v1.0 (2024) View
  3. Kate L. Lindsey, Ghost Elements in Ende Phonology (PhD dissertation, Stanford University, 2019), p. 229 View · archived
  • Kiriwa sosamPapua New Guinea · Arammba (Upper Morehead) language area, Kiriwa village, South Fly District, Western Province · Function not recorded
  • Wim wɑgrɑPapua New Guinea · Wim village, Pahoturi River country, South Fly District, Western Province · Function not recorded
  • Tais mburerePapua New Guinea · Tais village, southern Morehead district near the coast, South Fly District, Western Province · Function not recorded
  • Daraia áki kwèfanPapua New Guinea · Daraia village, north-east of Morehead station, Morehead district, South Fly District, Western Province · Function not recorded
  • Mibini saɸaŋgəPapua New Guinea · Mibini village, south of Morehead station, Morehead district, South Fly District, Western Province · Function not recorded
  • Namo mbulu and moyaŋgPapua New Guinea · Namo language area, south of the Morehead River toward Tais, Morehead district, South Fly, Western Province · Function not recorded

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.