Regarding cultural differences between the Upper and Lower Abu',
there are two prominent things that diferentiate them. First is the
practice of 'sorcery' ehu' (Tok Pisin sanguma) and 'witchcraft' auluh
(Tok Pisin poisen). The former, although claimed to have been dreamed
^The bow and arrow were suggested to have spread to the Aitape
east-coast and islands from the Aitape west coast, cf. Woichom,
1979:18; Mead, 1961 and Nekitel 1975:29. In view of the presence of the same in many parts of the Sepik region as well as other parts of lowland and highlands New Guinea, one cannot be too sure of the original homeland of these implements. They could have been developed independently by the Arapesh or other Torricelli mountain communities who needed swift and accurate weapons to catch the wild game in the thick jungles.
number of Upper Abu' men have been trained and have become sorcerers (Tok Pisin sanguma m a n ) and thus are identified by it. Lower Abu' on the other hand, are generally regarded as skilful witches (Tok Pisin poisen m a n ) just as are many coastal men.
The above discussion sums up some of the cultural features that the Abu' often refer to when asked about the sort of things that distinguish one Abu' dialect group from another. In what follows I will discuss the linguistic dhf-ference^ between the two dialects. However, as there are no grammatical nor phonological differences between the two Abu' dialects these aspects of language will not be discussed.
2.3*2 Lexical Differences Between Abu' Dialects
The main difference between the two Abu' dialects lies in the area of lexicon. Both dialects have a considerable number of different words and some of these are presented in the following
table.
Table 2-3: Lexical dissimilarities between Abu' Womenika and Abu' Ounibisima
(Gloss) Abu' Womenika Abu' Ounibisima (Upper A bu' ) ("Lower Abu' )
51. children betois nikasis
O
Mahite Butehe, pers. com. 1981, informed me at Hambini village that a man from Bombosilime, another Warn village located south-west of Hambini, had a dream during which he was instructed to make sorcery, which is referred to in Miye as arungineme. If all the instructions were followed correctly, he was told, the sorcery would be powerful and hence could be used to kill his enemies. He followed the instructions and tested its strength by killing a small child. When the child died^he tried it on an old lady. When it proved successful, he tried it on healthy young adults and found it workable. He kept the secret to himself and used that knowledge to kill a number of enemies in the village before he passed its knowledge on to neophytes whom he trained and instructed and accompanied in their initial experimental killings before they were allowed to go out on killing trips on their own. Seniority in the rank of sorcerers is won through the number of people one kills.
52. mother amiya ame'u'
53* father aiwa ame'ina
54. father-in-law numa'ita n a ' ur
55. eye naim nabom
56. nose mu tu' mukuras
57. big(man) (aleman) ubahineri (aleman) dabanari 58. small (girl) (numata') koio'u'i (numata') so'u'i
59. big ubah daba
60. q_uiet mete' muu'/kusu'a
61. what melein uma
62. many welei abuwatakw
6 3. basket serah uram
64- food w e 'isi werikin
65* sago soup maruf bous
66. stirred sago lehin kwuin
67. wallaby masu' aiban
68. snake (generic) uul uleta
69* ground, soil itaf amanab
70. forest/jungle ouruf urah
71• coconut shell
plate nubura' aurah
72. k.o.coral tree bunohuka welihika (Erythrina indica)
73. play(noun) nikitok aureh
74« to sleep kis nisuh
75- yes edilisi pei'-'o'-u-hou/wosi'
76. he-went n-ala' n-edei'
2.3*2.1 Summary
Presented in the above table are some of the common lexical differences between the two dialects of Abu'. Although quite considerable in number, they do not hamner mutual intelligibility between the two dialects. The amalgamation of the Upper-Abu' and Low-Abu' speakers at Womsis village since the 1930s intensified sociocultural contact among the two groups. As a result the degree of mutual unintelligibility between the two dialects was reduced. In fact there is so much integration that many young Womsis people cannot tell to what dialect the words they use belong. Many younger Abu' parents cannot distinguish between the two dialects. Lexical items like those presented above are taken as alternative terms for the items and not as words from two different dialects. Consequently, speakers of either dialect may switch codes at any time during conversation and in any context and each party knows that the other will understand with relative ease. Difficulty in understanding words becomes more evident
w h e n spea k e r s r e p r e s e n t i n g the two d i a l e c t s d iscuss subj e c t s r e l a t i n g to z o o l o g y or botan y. The v o c a b u l a r y p e r t a i n i n g to s p e c i a l i z e d areas tend to d i f f e r quit e co nsi derably.
I w i s h to re ite rate, by w a y of conclu si on, that the Abu' scene is c h a r a c t e r i z e d by a m i x i n g of m e m b e r s of b o t h d i alect gr o u p s as well as m i g r a n t s fro m Miy e and M u h i a n g villag es . The m o b i l i t y and s u b s e q u e n t r e s e t t l e m e n t of m i g r a n t s in the Abu' v i l l a g e s cre ated a l i n g u i s t i c a l l y d i s t u r b e d scenario. As a result the Abu' lang u a g e has b een c o n t i n o u s l y subje c t e d to l i n g u i s t i c p r e s s u r e s to exp and its store of l e x i c o n to cope w i t h the c h a n g i n g l i n g u i s t i c trends.