DKH01-035_nam_kombonga - Nam komboŋa ‘The female mussel’

Nam komboŋa ‘the female mussel’ and Oluk komboŋa ‘the male mussel’ are made in a nearly identical way, with only a single move being decisive in whether the resulting figure will turn out as ‘male’ or ‘female’(if the right loop in the ‘loop exchange’ is inserted into the left one, the string figure design will turn into nam komboŋa ‘the female mussel’, and, conversely, if the left loop in the ‘loop exchange’ is inserted into the right one, this will result in oluk komboŋa ‘the male mussel’). The naming of these string figures has nothing to do with the biological sex of freshwater mussels, which are, just like the names of string figures, called ‘male’ and ‘female’ on the basis of their shape, and are associated with male and female genitals (Hoenigman, forthcom.). Freshwater mussels are collected for their shells, which the Awiakay burn to make lime (quicklime) to chew with betelnut. In the all-night song-dance cycle Kaunjambi, komboŋa ‘the shell’ is used as a synonym for lime (Hoenigman 2015: 232). Images: 02: the final design of nam komboŋa ‘female mussel’ 03: left: female mussel, right: male mussel. Hoenigman, Darja. 2015. ‘The talk goes many ways’: Registers of language and modes of performance in Kanjimei, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Canberra: The Australian National University. (PhD thesis.) Hoenigman, Darja. Forthcoming. Talking about strings: The language of string figure-making in a Sepik society, Papua New Guinea. Language Documentation & Conservation Journal. . Language as given: Awiakay

Nam komboŋa（“雌性贻贝”）与Oluk komboŋa（“雄性贻贝”）的编法几乎完全相同，仅通过一个关键步骤即可决定最终形态为“雌性”还是“雄性”——在“换环”操作中，若将右侧环插入左侧环，则绳结图案会变为Nam komboŋa（“雌性贻贝”）；反之，若将左侧环插入右侧环，则会形成Oluk komboŋa（“雄性贻贝”）。这些绳结图案的命名与淡水贻贝的生理性别无关——正如绳结图案的名称一样，淡水贻贝的“雄性”与“雌性”称谓亦基于其形态，并与男女生殖器相关（Hoenigman，待刊）。Awiakay人采集淡水贻贝以获取其贝壳，将贝壳焚烧制成石灰（生石灰），用于与槟榔一同咀嚼。在通宵歌舞周期Kaunjambi中，komboŋa（“贝壳”）被用作石灰的同义词（Hoenigman 2015：232）。Hoenigman, Darja. 2015. 《言语的多元路径：巴布亚新几内亚东塞皮克省Kanjimei地区的语言语域与表演模式》。堪培拉：澳大利亚国立大学（博士论文）。Hoenigman, Darja. 待刊。《绳语：巴布亚新几内亚塞皮克社会的绳结图案制作语言》。《语言记录与保护期刊》。语言：Awiakay