LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 7 November 1918, Page 6

LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES.

Two very good stories of the slanguage genre come to us from one of the 'South Sea Islands that prove English as she is spoken is not the only ■tongue that trips over the accent. Story No. 1 tells how a high official’s wife told one of the native boys to bring her his piripo, as she intended going out visiting. The boy (who was realy a man) • was tremendously shocked. The lady had meant him to bring the buggy , (pereo.o)., . What she had asked for was his pants! 7 Story No 2 also concerns a lady of the house. She told her native servant to bring a puaka, under the impression that she would receive the soap (pua). Faring forth to see why there was so great delay, she beheld the native struggling with a lusty and noisy pig (puaka). The Islandic language is full of such pitfalls, and what is an ordinary and polite expression on one isle is an insult or an oathful threat on another.