…on the British Empire. That is to=
say, with the heydey of the worldwide British Empire now an item of the=
past, one lasting result is the spread of the English language. Even w=
hile technology (international forms of communication such as telegraph,=
telephone, radio, television, the Internet) certainly helped spread the=
English language, it's still true that the colonial days of the Emp=
ire planted the tongue all over the globe. …
Or as Will=
iam Shakespeare put it, a rose by any other name would still smell as sw=
eet. What is in a name? Here at DWU in Madang, the school is erecting =
a new office building. This is one of those deals wherein they purchase=
d the entire building as a kit, from China. With the concrete foundatio=
n finished and all of the frames and girders on site, two Chinese civil =
engineers have come to guide and assist the university work force as the=
y put the pieces together. I met one of them; on introduction he said t=
o me, "My name is Jack. Well, that's not my Chinese name, but =
it's what I use when working with English speaking people."
I understood perfectly what he means. I have a Chinese friend w=
ho goes both by Zili or by Neil. Some years ago I took a bus tour in Th=
ailand; our tour guide told us her name was Virginia. We finally did ge=
t her to agree that was not really her name. She has and uses a Thai na=
me, but uses Virginia whenever working as a tour guide. (We never did g=
et her Thai name out of her, though we tried.)
One of the thing=
s that surprised me, I think, was finding out the names of the people wi=
th whom we interact here. I can't say exactly what I expected, or m=
ore correctly I suppose I should say I hadn't given it all that much=
thought. We have met or seen in movies people from other parts of the =
world and I suppose in some subconscious sense we may have an inkling of=
what to expect, say, among first names of Australians we might meet. W=
hat sort of names would you expect to find in Papua New Guinea?
e Word University.
Abraham Frank Martin Alfred James Michael Arthur Janet Pauline Caroline Jason Ryan Chris Jenny Sandra David Jermaine Tanya Doris Jessica Timmy Ebby Judith Vanessa Elliot Lois Wendy Esther Lorraine Wesley
The above list includes=
both students' and staff members' names. Three of them are Aus=
tralian; I won't tell you which.
The first time I discussed=
this topic of the very "European" or Western-sounding given n=
ames of so many Papua New Guineans, the other person replied that most o=
f these names have been in their respective families for several generat=
ions. Of course that makes sense but then again it still makes the poin=
t, doesn't it?
We also have "more expected" sound=
ing names here, such as these from Papua New Guinea: Belavi, Raunu; or I=
taly: Giorgio; or Poland: Iwona, Zdzislaw; or India: Amuthageetha, Karth=
ikeyan; or the Phillippines: Asuncion, Luis; or Sri Lanka: Chandana, Cha=
rith. Besides all these, we have met or work with also folks from the U=
K, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, Canada and Nepal. (Eh, did I leave an=
yone out?)
So — our names. So very important to us. They co=
me from many places and many different sounding tongues. And yet, when =
you get into exploring it all sometimes you come away very surprised.
English truly is the worldwide medium of communication today. An=
d I say it to our lack: too bad for so very many Americans who cannot sp=
eak any other language.=