Victoria Fromkin’s Reform-Pakuni of 1995

Victoria Fromkin’s Reform-Pakuni of 1995

Autor: Thomas Alexander

MS-Datum: 05-09-2014

FL-Datum: 06-01-2014

FL-Nummer: FL-000021-00

Zitat: Alexander, Thomas. 2014. “Victoria Fromkin’s

Reform-Pakuni of 1995.” FL-000021-00, Fiat
Lingua, . Netz. 01 Jun.
2014.

Urheberrechte ©: © 2014 Thomas Alexander. Diese Arbeit ist

lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unportierte Lizenz.

!
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Fiat Lingua is produced and maintained by the Language Creation Society (LCS). For more information
über die LCS, Besuchen Sie http://www.conlang.org/

Victoria Fromkinʼs Reform-Pakuni of 1995

A review and commentary of Victoria A. Fromkinʼs “The
Grammar and Lexicon/Dictionary of PAKU”

Thomas Alexander

Pakuni is the language spoken by the “monkey men” in the 1970ʼs TV show Land Of
The Lost. This language was created for the show by the late UCLA linguistics professor
Victoria Fromkin. Fans of the show and the language have long been wishing to have
access to “Fromkinʼs original 300 words.” It turns out that the “300 words” are probably
legendary, but a full description of the language by Fromkin herself has been circulating,
even though as of this writing, it has not been posted anywhere online.

This description of the language begins with a notice: “© Copywrite 1995, by Victoria A.
Fromkin, Author.” The spelling of copyright (repeated the same way on every page)
seems symbolic of the many typos and other errors in the document. Dennoch, as a
document by the original author of the language, it is a goldmine of information for the
fan. This is the most complete description of Pakuni available, and the only one by the
original author. The merits of the document are self-evident, so this review will focus
mostly on the shortcomings, and on the elements that are different from the language
as used in the show.

Note on the name of the language: Fromkin calls the language “Paku.” This is
the singular form of a typical speaker of the language. “Pakuni” is the plural form.
While I agree with the logic of using the word “Paku” as the name of the
language, I have chosen to call it “Pakuni” in this document, as this is the what
the language is called in the show and it is how most fans refer to the language.

Note on the term “Reform-Pakuni”: Fromkinʼs 1995 description includes many
differences from the language as used in the show. Some of these may have
been mistakes. In einigen Fällen, she says explicitly that sheʼs “correcting” the
language. To distinguish the language described in this document from “the
language as used on the show”, I have chosen to refer to the former as a reform
by the original author.

Phonologie:

Fromkin begins her description with the pronunciation of vowels (see CIPD, Die
Comprehensive Illustrated Pakuni Dictionary, originally published on fiatlingua.org on
Feburary 1, 2014), and then describes some phonological rules related to consonants.
Zum Beispiel, CH and J (as in church and judge respectively) only appear before A, E,
and I. Nasal consonants (M, N, and NG) vary depending on what consonants they are

near. The syllable structure is listed as (C) V (N), das ist, an optional consonant, An
vowel, and an optional nasal. The only examples of consonant clusters are with the use
of the negative, which is a nasal that varies depending on the first consonant on the
stem. Her examples are ba ‘come’ mba ‘not come’ and ting ‘push’ nting ‘not push’.

Morphology:

Nouns in both original Pakuni and reform-Pakuni begin with a vowel “representing a
semantic class.” Before her 1995 grammar came to light, it was already clear that
Pakuni had semantic class, but it was difficult to determine from the show alone what
these classes were. Was it divided by animals versus plants? Sentient versus non-
sentient? Living versus nonliving? A number of the words were known from written
sources (such as the TV guide article) but most were only known from the TV show, und
as the actors were not linguists, they often made mistakesespecially with pronouncing
E distinct from A. It was difficult to tell whether two nouns were in the same category, oder
whether they were in different categories with one of them simply being a
mispronunciation.

Reform-Pakuni includes four distinct noun classes. Bedauerlicherweise, this is one aspect of
the language for which Fromkin specifically states as a correction from the “original
scripts.” Another issue is that this correction contains at least one glaring error.

The noun-categories in reform-Pakuni are:

a-nouns“human” (d.h. paku or human)
i-nouns – Tier
o-nounscollective, abstract, or mass nouns.
e-nounsinanimate.

The example for i-class nouns is “egamba” (dinosaur). This word appears in the show
as “agamba” (less often as “agomba”) but it would have to be “igamba” if itʼs an i-class
noun. Itʼs obvious that “egamba” is a mistake here, but itʼs not clear whether itʼs a
simple typographical error, or whether “egamba” was the original version and was
mispronounced in the show. The pronunciation in the show is clearly and repeatedly
“agomba.”

These noun classes are not followed consistently even within the 1995 grammar and
lexicon. In the grammar section, “ega” (lethal substance) is given as an example of an
e-class noun. In the lexicon section, the word is listed as “iga”. The lexicon also lists
“igamba” giving the impression that Fromkin perhaps hadnʼt made up her mind about
the distinction between i-nouns and e-nouns, and perhaps had switched the letters for
each category, and perhaps the kind of nouns that belong in each one.

Within the reform-Pakuni, itʼs fairly clear what is intended by a-class nouns (Menschen,
family relationships, and similar), and o-class nouns (concepts such as everything,
manhood, Gut, or evil; non-countable substances like food, Wasser, fire, or paint). The e-

class nouns seem to include countable non-living objects and living plants (cactus, day,
Tür) and parts of animate things such as hair.

The i-class nouns are a little harder to figure out. This category generally includes
animals (including fish and worms), but it also includes inanimate objects such as “ijji”
egg, “iga” poison, and “irosi”[sic] mark, none of which are animals.

This last example is interesting because “iroshi”[sic] is the only example from the show
where I glossed a word with an initial I (see CIPD). Both Ta and Chaka use the phrase
“iroshi eshisu” (mark of the test) in different scenes of second episode of the show, und
both of them pronounce the initial vowels of each word distinct from each other. Itʼs
difficult to imagine a semantic category that includes “mark” and not “test”, so I might
have concluded that this was a mistake in the show.

For comparison, the noun categories from the original show appear to be



People and family relations start with A (amura friend)
Animals start with E or A (ebobo abobo egobi akingo emu amenda)
Plants and some inanimate objects start with E (flower, carrot, house)
More abstract nouns begin with O (Wasser, fire, magic, stone, evil.)

Adjectives, according to the 1995 grammar, can be formed with the suffix -sa. Adverbs
are formed from nouns and adjectives with the suffix -chi. The example given is the
following sequence: abu (child) -> abusa (childish) -> busachi (childishly.) Itʼs not
explained when it is necessary to keep the noun-class prefix, and when itʼs necessary to
drop it when forming words.

Verbs are uninflected except for future tense. The prefix ko- is used to make a verb
future tense. In the show, “ko” is often pronounced as if itʼs an independent word, So
many of the fan glossaries have it listed as “will.”

Numbers were rarely used in the show, but since Chaka was the “first one” to make art,
we learn the word “todari” (first). The grammar includes a Pakuni number system which
is not incompatible with this word. The system is schematic, based on the sounds of the
words, and itʼs a base 7 system. Itʼs not clear from the show why they would use a base
7 system, and Fromkin doesnʼt explain it in her grammar. A paku has 5 fingers just like a
human does, and since the system is schematic, itʼs difficult to imagine that these are
the names of seven common objects (such as thumb, Index, middle, ring, pinky, wrist,
elbow) that the pakuni may use for counting.

The numbers toda, doda, koda, goda, poda, boda soda. The odd digits begin with a
voiced consonant. The even digits start with a voiced consonant. Numbers larger than
seven are formed by multiples of seven.
Sotodaseven plus one.

Sododaseven plus two.

Dosonitodatwo sevens plus one.

Linguistic elements in the show:

The system of numbers brings us to an important point. Fromkin was not a fan of Land
of the Lost. She mentioned on a few occasions (see notes below) that sheʼd never
watched the show. It appears she created the language independent of the fictional
world in which it was set. Her schematic base-seven number system may be interesting,
but itʼs not clear how it relates to the fictional world. Fans of the show need to keep this
in mind when reading into details such as whether Pakuni has a native word for
Sleestack. It may be fun to speculate, but ultimately it seems many of these details were
not considered by the creators of the show because the people who knew the backstory
were not the people creating the linguistic elements, and the people creating the
linguistic elements apparently did not know the backstory.

She did make occasional references to Pakuni over the years, and used it as examples
in her classes. She apparently thought it was an obscure program till the late 80ʼs or
early 90ʼs when people who had seen it as children started showing up in her classes.
This 1995 document appears to be a cobbled-together answer to requests for more
information, perhaps from multiple students between 1991 and 1995.

There is no mention of pakus or paku culture in the 1995 document, nor is there any
mention that this is a language spoken by non-humans. What she says is:

A language developed for use in the television series LAND OF THE LOST
produced by SID & MARTY KROFFT TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS, INC
originally shown on NBC in 1974, 1975

Fans of the show have long been wishing for a complete, authentisch, and authoritative
description of the language. While there is quite a bit of useful information in the 1995
document, this is not the ultimate description fans have been waiting for. Even without
considering the disconnect from the language as presented on TV in 1974, the 1995
document is missing some details of the language from Fromkinʼs own pen.

Zum Beispiel, Fromkin was co-author of the textbook An Introduction to Language. In
this book, there is a short list of vocabulary, including the words adusa and abuma (boy
and girl) never referenced on the show (however abuma dates back at least 1976).
“Abuma” made it into the 1995 lexicon. It was also included in a TV Guide article on
Pakuni, but no word for boy is listed. One wonders what other interesting details may
have been inadvertently left out.

Partial list of errors (large and small):

ni salisted as two words (should be nisa).

Adverb is abbreviated as “adf”.

jo (to jump) and ajo (jumper) violates phonology.

The following examples contradict the pronouns used elsewhere in the document and
as used in the show. The third example looks like the editor got a little over-enthusiastic
with Aʼs instead of Eʼs.



Ya ba! – Come! [should be ye ba!].
Ba ya? – Are you coming? [should be ba ye?]
Ya ba a? – Are you coming? [should be ye ba e?]

de is listed as both “to do” and “to look”, and yet there is also an example phrase“Sa
efi meni dang si”where “si” is clearly intended to mean “to do” but is listed nowhere in
the lexicon.

The syllable “cha” is explicitly permitted by the phonology (consider the name Chaka),
and yet there is not one word in the 1995 lexicon containing this syllable. It is interesting
to note that the word “kesa” (found in the Pocket Pakuni Dictionary (1998), but probably
not used in the show) is not permitted by the 1995 phonology. It is listed as chesa
(young) in the 1995 lexicon. The Pocket Pakuni dictionary appears to have systematic
errors converting ch to k, because it lists -ki as the adverb ending (-chi in both the 1995
document and on the original show). It would be interesting to know what the Pocket
Pakuni Dictionary used as its source, since neither “kesa” nor “chesa” appear to have
been used in the show.

Notes and appendices follow.
————————————————–
Notes:

With regard to Fromkin never having seen the show, here are some quotes from her.

From http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/cv/lotl.htm

“I have little to say about the show itself. They would send me a script and I would
translate the designated portions into Paku and that was the extent of my involvement.”

“At the time the show first aired no one knew I had written the language and I had no
idea it was a popular program for children. Sicherlich, my students at that time would not
have watched it since they were all college students.”

From http://lotl.popapostle.com/html/pearchive_04.html
(originally from an e-mail to Linguist List dated 02 Sep 91 20:33 PDT)

“I think my major claim to fame with the Linguistic 1 students at UCLA is that I wrote a
language called PAKU spoken by the Pakuni (monkey people) in a children’s TV
program called Land of the Lost. I had no idea anyone knew of it and happened to
mention it and got a standing ovation from the usual bored, noisy group of 500 students.
It seems they keep showing it. For those of you who are Africanists out thereyou will

notice that it is very much like a Kwa language of West Africa. This of course has no
relation to any of the linguistic novels. To finishre Paku andLand of the LostI never
saw the showjust the scripts which I had to translate into Paku. The whole
experience was very funny. Sie — the producers were worried about the sear words I
wrote in Paku. I tried to convince them that no one would know what they meant
anyway but I am not sure they believed me. Anyway, it is a lovely language which I
understand children were beginning to pick up (which was my purpose of course) –nice
regular anti-penultimate stress, homorganic nasals, nasalization of vowels before
nasals, deletion of final vowels before vowel initial suffixes. A wonderful language! Vicki
Fromkin”

———
Appendix 1Partial list of words from the 1995 lexicon not used in the show.

The 1995 lexicon does not include the words emu (pig) or eram (moon) which featured
prominently in the show. It does, Jedoch, include a number of root words that were not
used in the show. The list below does not include words that were plausibly
mispronounced in the show, or even words like yosa (fierce) which appear to have been
reformed for this lexicon. (It is clearly “gosa” in the show.) Also see adusa under
“linguistic elements” above. The words listed below appear to be new words, or words
that were created in the 70ʼs but for some reason never used in the show above.

binosaheavy
bongubeware
buchibefore
abumagirl
ebundacave
chesayoung
chimuto stop
dito dare
edungniballs/testicles
fingato wave (but “mufinga” was used and appears to mean “donʼt move.”)
fangto fxxx/copulate
gato kill
igakiller (inanas in poison). Note the word “tusa” (schlecht) was used in the show for
poison.
egachibead
ejikustick
joto jump
kabito wake
kubato climb
merto defecate [note, this word violates section 2A(3) of the phonology]
ometamaduration/time period
misasmall/little (c.f. amimother)

emifowall
nuba – verursachen
nunjito hunt
pudoto lie down
pugasanext
pumito know (see tebo)
opundospear
rachisasacred
rashi – rot (the only color in lexicon)
Re – to get/receive (see puchi)
to receive (in lexicon twice)
oripasalt
esamsun
teboto know well (see pumi)
wemutall/high
wi – auf
owim – Wind
yeng – zu machen

Appendix 2an inversion of Fromkinʼs 1995 Lexicon

Fromkinʼs 1995 Reform-Pakuni included an English-to-Paku lexicon, which I have
inverted to make a Paku-to-English lexicon. All words are part of Fromkinʼs 1995 work
and may or may not have been used in the TV show in this form. Any typographical
errors are my own.

Alphabetical order is by root. Gewöhnlich, this means by first consonant, but I’ve tried to
follow the following arbitrary order when a root is listed in multiple forms:

a-noun form
verb form
adjective form
adverb form
e-noun form
i-noun form
o-noun form

If for some reason I felt it necessary to break from that order, or if I needed to have a
sub-entry, I marked it with a double dash (–)

Ein
An – noun prefix for humans (note, she said human, not paku)
a – and
An? – question word – e.g. Ya ba, An?

B
bato come
bakoto bring
banto paint
ebanpicture
oban – paint (N)
bisabig
abibig one
abibigiant
abisahuge person
ibisahuge animal
ebisahuge thing
ibibig animal
ebibig thing
abimiman
bimisamannish [These are the same two glosses from the Pocket Pakuni ]
bimichimanly [Dictionary (bimisa and bimIKI) which I found questionable.]
obimimanhood
binosaheavy [why not “binasa”?]
binato be heavy
bingto follow
bishikato vomit
iboboallosaur
boda – 6
abomaleader
bongubeware
abuchild
busachildish
busachichildishly
buchibefore
abumagirl
ebundacave

CH
chesayoung
acheyouth
chito chase
chimuto stop
chingto pull

D
ada – Vater
dan – für

dangmust
der – to do (from Phonology section)
to look (from lexicon)
denato need
dito dare
dindato eat
edobi – Tür
dochi – runter
doda – 2
doma – hässlich
doruto throw
odumanieverything
edungniballs/testicles

e – noun prefix for inanimate

Ff
fato take
fangto fxxx/copulate
efithing
nefinothing
fingato wave
foto say
fusaquick
mfuto be slow
fusachiquickly
efuramaceremony/rite

Gg
gato kill
agakiller
igakiller (inan) Notiz: this is listed ias ega in the morphology section.
egachibead
igambakiller lizard (why same noun class asinankiller?) (“egamba” in main section.)
gansa – magic(adj)
ogansa – magic(N)
ago/yooyes [typo?]
Ego – place
negonowhere
ego ejiga – Dort
goda – 4
igobicoelophysis
eguga – Das
ego eguga – Hier

Ii
Ich – noun prefix for non-human animate

Jj
oje – noise
jesanoisy
jibeg
me ji (ye) – please
ejiga – Das
ijijiegg
ejikustick
ejirihouse
jitoto thank
ajojumper [according to Morphology, “jo” is not a permitted syllable.]
joto jump
josajumpy

Kk
kasahappy
ngkasaunhappy
kabito wake
ikangaiguana
ikingotyrannosaurus
kofuture verb prefix.
koda – 3
kojito open
kubato climb
kuto go
ye ku wesachigoodbye.
kunto fight

Mm
OM – An
emagift
mato give
meI/me/mine
mechimore
merto defecate [note, this word violates section 2A(3) of the phonology]

ometa – Zeit
nometanever
sa ometa
ometamaduration/time period
amimother
misasmall/little [c.f motherly]
emifowall
mikato want
imindatriceratops
moto smell
omo – Geruch
omundifear
In – aus
amurafriend

Nn
onamfood
nandasorry
nisa – böse
nisachinastily
nirato tell
enoday
ino [sic] egugatodayday this. (Compare prefixes for day,
ino [sic] pugasa – tomorrow today, morgen)
anu/nu – NEIN
nuba – verursachen
nunnot [also zero]
anunjihunter
nunjito hunt

o – noun prefix for collective or abstract / mass nouns prefix.
OM – (prep) An — also alphabetized under M.

Pp
epaway/manner
sa epa – Wie
pakuperson
mapkuno one
pamto happen
parito reason
opari – Grund
sa opari
epi – Licht (compare to opi)
pisa – Licht

opidanger
pisa – dangerous
— ? — piroto be in danger
pikato trade
opimasoup
piroto be in danger (see also opi)
epohair
mposahairless
poda – 4
Pu – to understand
puchi – zu erhalten – see re.
pudoto lie down
pugasanext
pumito know (see tebo)
opundospear

Rr
ra – to save
rachisasacred
erapacarrot
rashi – rot (the only color in lexicon)
Re – to get/receive (see puchi)
to receive (in lexicon twice)
oripasalt
arokafreak/strange one
rokasastrange
irosimark [-i = non-human animate]
ruto steal
erunathorn

Ss
osa [sic] – Wasser
sawhat
sa efi
sa paku
sa ego
sa epa – Wie
sa opari
sa ometa
esamsun
esamsamsunshine (sun with reduplication?)

sansasunny (see esam)
sito do (from syntax sectionpossible typo for shi)
sisu – zu hören
soda – 7
esukaland/territory

SHsh
sha – Das (relative clauses relativizer)
sie – to put
shito do
ashipretty one
shisapretty
ishimifish
shinu – Fragen
eshisutest

Tt
otafire
teboto know well (see pumi)
tibato bite
tingto push
atiria quiet one
tiriquiet
tobito greet
toda – 1
todari1st
etogocactus
otu – evil
tusaevil
atuevil person
itoevil onenon human.
tumby means of
itushiworm

Uu
u – in

Ww
washe/her/hers
wachinow
wachi a n-wachi – wieder
wamto run
Wir – he him his (note plural iswani”)
wesa – Gut
wesachiwell
owe – das gute
wemutall/high
wi – auf
owim – Wind
woto have
ewoyaflower
wuto see

Yy
ya – apparent typo forye
yantogether with (see yeni yeni)
yeyou/your/yours
yeni yenitogether
yeng – zu machen
yoo/agoyes [typo?]
yosafierce [in two different episodes, itʼs pronounced “gosa” in the show, but never
“yosa”.]Victoria Fromkin's Reform-Pakuni of 1995 image

PDF Herunterladen

(2 Mal besucht, 1 Besuche heute)