Language Contact and Language Change in the Sepik Region of New Guinea: The Case of Yalaku (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide
2017
The New Guinea Area is arguably the region with the highest level of language diversity on earth, in terms of both total number of languages, and number of apparently unrelated language families. On the basis of present knowledge, it is home to more than 1,300 languages, almost one fifth of the world's total number, belonging to upward of 40 distinct language families with no generally accepted wider phylogenetic links, as well as several dozen isolates 2. It is also the world's least documented linguistic region. Of Hammarström's (2010) list of the 27 least documented families (including isolates) in the world, 20 are located in this area. In some cases, an entire family is known only from a few short wordlists of its members. The region is also the locus of considerable language endangerment. Many of its languages are spoken by a few hundred or very few thousand people, and extensive pressure from larger languages is common, including from larger indigenous languages supplanting smaller languages, and from lingua francas such as Tok Pisin in the east and Papuan Malay in the west. For the exceptionally complex Sepik-Ramu basin, for example, Foley (this volume chapter 3) states that "virtually all languages within the Sepik-Ramu basin are endangered, some critically so" (Foley's emphasis). The sheer number of languages that are largely unknown to research, together with the rapid pace of language loss, means the complete phylogenetic and typological picture of the area may never be fully known. This volume sets out to give an overview of the languages, families and typology of this area on the basis of current knowledge.
The languages and linguistics of the New Guinea area: A comprehensive guide ed. by Bill Palmer
Oceanic Linguistics, 2019
The New Guinea Area is arguably the region with the highest level of language diversity on earth, in terms of both total number of languages, and number of apparently unrelated language families. On the basis of present knowledge, it is home to more than 1,300 languages, almost one fifth of the world's total number, belonging to upward of 40 distinct language families with no generally accepted wider phylogenetic links, as well as several dozen isolates 2. It is also the world's least documented linguistic region. Of Hammarström's (2010) list of the 27 least documented families (including isolates) in the world, 20 are located in this area. In some cases, an entire family is known only from a few short wordlists of its members. The region is also the locus of considerable language endangerment. Many of its languages are spoken by a few hundred or very few thousand people, and extensive pressure from larger languages is common, including from larger indigenous languages supplanting smaller languages, and from lingua francas such as Tok Pisin in the east and Papuan Malay in the west. For the exceptionally complex Sepik-Ramu basin, for example, Foley (this volume chapter 3) states that "virtually all languages within the Sepik-Ramu basin are endangered, some critically so" (Foley's emphasis). The sheer number of languages that are largely unknown to research, together with the rapid pace of language loss, means the complete phylogenetic and typological picture of the area may never be fully known. This volume sets out to give an overview of the languages, families and typology of this area on the basis of current knowledge.
Oceanic Linguistics, 2003
The author, Geoff P. Smith, provides an in-depth analysis of the status and development of Tok Pisin, or Melanesian Pidgin, amongst one group of the population of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Having lived in the country for 22 years, beginning in the early 1970s, he has been exposed to two decades of Tok Pisin, during which time he has noted its development and more common use, especially amongst the young people of PNG. As he rightly states, 'Tok Pisin is widely used as a lingua franca to communicate across linguistic boundaries' (p.1). The specific nature of the research, whilst drawing attention to the use of Tok Pisin by 'people aged from about 10 to late adolescence who spoke Tok Pisin as a first language' (p.1), is acknowledged as being applicable to only a subsection of the demographic population, and therefore not easily representative of the total population. Given the rapid changes which have occurred in PNG since independence in 1975, the subject group has been exposed to a plethora of different influences. In a country which is known as 'the land of the unexpected', and in a time of political, educational, social and cultural change, it is difficult and dangerous to generalise regarding any trends. My exposure to Melanesian Pidgin in various parts of PNG over the last ten years has taught me to appreciate the fact that it can be spoken in different ways in different places, as it is primarily an oral language. According to the Ethnologue (Grimes 2000), PNG has over 800 language groups, and 'the language distribution in PNG is the most complex in the world' (Dorney 2000, 20). Moreover, illiteracy is high, a factor which further complicates attempts to standardise Tok Pisin: A wide range of figures is available on the national literacy rate; for example, the 1990 census found it to be 45.1 percent (National Statistical Office 1994: 131, cited in Department of Education, 2000b: iii), whilst Sir Paulias Matane (1998), a leading entity in education, quoted the rate as 25 percent. BOOK REVIEWS 25.1
Growing up with Tok Pisin: Contact, Creolization, and Change in Papua New Guinea's National Language
Oceanic Linguistics, 2003
The author, Geoff P. Smith, provides an in-depth analysis of the status and development of Tok Pisin, or Melanesian Pidgin, amongst one group of the population of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Having lived in the country for 22 years, beginning in the early 1970s, he has been exposed to two decades of Tok Pisin, during which time he has noted its development and more common use, especially amongst the young people of PNG. As he rightly states, 'Tok Pisin is widely used as a lingua franca to communicate across linguistic boundaries' (p.1). The specific nature of the research, whilst drawing attention to the use of Tok Pisin by 'people aged from about 10 to late adolescence who spoke Tok Pisin as a first language' (p.1), is acknowledged as being applicable to only a subsection of the demographic population, and therefore not easily representative of the total population. Given the rapid changes which have occurred in PNG since independence in 1975, the subject group has been exposed to a plethora of different influences. In a country which is known as 'the land of the unexpected', and in a time of political, educational, social and cultural change, it is difficult and dangerous to generalise regarding any trends. My exposure to Melanesian Pidgin in various parts of PNG over the last ten years has taught me to appreciate the fact that it can be spoken in different ways in different places, as it is primarily an oral language. According to the Ethnologue (Grimes 2000), PNG has over 800 language groups, and 'the language distribution in PNG is the most complex in the world' (Dorney 2000, 20). Moreover, illiteracy is high, a factor which further complicates attempts to standardise Tok Pisin: A wide range of figures is available on the national literacy rate; for example, the 1990 census found it to be 45.1 percent (National Statistical Office 1994: 131, cited in Department of Education, 2000b: iii), whilst Sir Paulias Matane (1998), a leading entity in education, quoted the rate as 25 percent. BOOK REVIEWS 25.1
Magɨ: An undocumented language of Papua New Guinea
Oceanic Linguistics, 2016
In this paper I introduce Magɨ, a previously undocumented speech variety of central Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Magɨ is closely related to the Aisi language; however, I argue that it should not be considered an Aisi dialect but rather a separate language. I present arguments from various domains in support of this position, including lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, historical change, mutual intelligibility, and language attitudes. The facts provided as evidence for these arguments also double as an outline of Magɨ structure , and I conclude that Magɨ is a separate language. The first appendix contains Magɨ and Aisi wordlists, and the second contains a short Magɨ text.
Contact-Induced Change in an Oceanic Language: The Paluai – Tok Pisin Case
Many studies have focused on substrate influence on the creole languages of Melanesia – Tok Pisin, Solomons Pijin and Bislama. The same cannot be said with regard to influence in the opposite direction: contact-induced change occurring in local vernaculars due to pressure from the creole. This paper presents a case study of several instances of structural borrowing and semantic category change in Paluai, an Oceanic language spoken in Papua New Guinea. It is shown that a number of functional elements originating from Tok Pisin are now firmly embedded in Paluai grammar: two verbs, gat and inap, and a conjunction, taim. Moreover, semantic categories are undergoing change and possibly attrition due to many-to-one correspondences. This suggests that it is important to view language contact situations as dynamic and involving two-way processes of change. Keywords structural borrowing – creole languages – language contact