The rise and fall of English in a trilingual village in Papua New Guinea (original) (raw)

Two major debates in contemporary linguistics are the fate of thousands of small languages, doomed to disappear by the end of this century, on the one hand, and the spread of English to become the only truly global language, on the other. While both trends – the extinction of small languages and the spread of English – are undeniable facts, far less has been said about the area in between. An implicit conclusion from the two trends mentioned would be that more and more languages will die and ultimately be replaced by English. However, the processes happening in the ‘middle field’ are much more complex. I will describe the sociolinguistic situation of a Papua New Guinean village which is currently trilingual. The traditional language of the area is the Papuan language Iatmul; on the national level, the dominant language in education, business, and administration, is English; and the regional, and increasingly national, lingua franca is Tok Pisin. Currently, Tok Pisin is the language best known among the villagers, as all generations are fluent in it. Next in competence comes Iatmul, which is the native language of most adults, but has been relegated to second-language status for the children, who could be labelled semi-speakers. Finally, English, which is well known by many in the middle generation, who were educated in schools still characterized by the legacy of an English-speaking colonial administration. English is less well known among the elder and the younger generation. I will then compare the trilingual situation of today with the situation of previous generations, which were ultimately monolingual in Iatmul, reconstruct how subsequent generations became bi- or trilingual, and finally present an outlook into the future, where monolingualism in Tok Pisin is likely to prevail. Thus, while the Iatmul situation confirms scenario I, the disappearance of small languages, it does not confirm scenario II, the spread of English. Surveys among the Iatmul confirm that English has the highest prestige, but is the least used, while Tok Pisin is the language with the lowest prestige, but at the same time the most widely known, and the one to ultimately oust both Iatmul and English. I will discuss the sociocultural background and environment in which language shift is taking place, to explain the discrepancy between professed prestige and actual use. My paper is based on intense long-term immersion fieldwork of 14 months, between 2005 and 2008.