\u27National\u27 and \u27Official\u27 Languages of the Independent Asia-Pacific (original) (raw)
Related papers
National' and 'Official' Languages of the Independent Asia-Pacific
2020
In November 2018 New Caledonians went to the polls to vote on whether the French territory should become an independent state. In accordance with the terms of the 1998 Noumea Accord between Kanak pro-independence leaders and the French government, New Caledonians will have the opportunity to vote on the same issue again in 2020 and should they vote for independence, a new state will emerge. In another part of Melanesia, the people of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARB) will vote on 23 November 2019 on whether to secede from Papua New Guinea and form an independent state. With the possibility of two new independent states in the Pacific, the possible political and economic consequences of a vote for independence have attracted attention but little consideration has been paid to the question of which languages might be used or adopted should either territory, or both, choose independence. This article explores the question of language choice, specifically whether in several de...
Papua New Guinea Needs a Language Policy, 2017
Our diverse cultures and languages may be our strength in terms of culture, belief systems and world views, but in essence, it is our source of identity problems and political coherence. So, how do we integrate all that into a one coherent system of thought, language and communication? Through Tok Pisin, English or Motu? As it is now, English is the official medium of communication. Tok Pisin is both a social and official language in parliament and daily life, while Motu remains purely a social language. The three languages were adopted at independence day as the official languages of Papua New Guinea yet only one becomes the official language of education, justice system, business and foreign relations-English. Not because of its universality, but because we have come to accept it as such at post-independence. Look across our neighbor; Indonesia has its own language-Bahasa, China-Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese and the Japanese language for Japan. What I am saying here is that unless we have a national language of our own, our identity and comprehension of issues we learn about in a foreign language will remain elitist as long as time permits. In other words, we remain subservient in our own land because we speak in a foreign tongue while the bulk of the population speak different languages and dialects. This affects literacy levels and promotes illiteracy-the very basis of segregation between the poor and the rich, educated and the illiterate is forever widening-all because we cannot communicate in One Language. Unity is strengthened by language-and that language once it is well structured and taught, it becomes the medium of instruction and business. In this regard, I am propagating the idea that Papua New Guinea needs an official language policy. We may have to do away with English and use either Motu or Tok Pisin as the official language. The sooner we do this, the better it is for PNG to become more coherent and integrated as a united country. Furthermore, it will eliminate language and cultural divisions which have become the basis of conflicts.
Language Policy in Oceania: in the frontiers of colonization and globalization
Revista Alfa, 2019
In this paper, we present an overview of the language policies adopted in the Oceanian countries and territories after analysis of legislation, plans and government programs. Representing 22.9% of all languages in the world-the vast majority spoken by few people and endangered-, this continent suffered an intense linguistic colonization marked by the instrumentalisation of indigenous languages by missionaries and by the subsequent imposition of European languages as the only ones allowed during European and American imperialism. Such a scenario has broadened the complex linguistic situation in Oceania and has imposed on the countries of the region many challenges about languages to adopt after their independences, in view of the many local problems, which caused the Oceanian peoples to seek diverse political solutions and to become frontier peoples-frontiers of languages, frontiers of meanings, frontiers of memories, frontiers between colonizer languages, indigenous languages and immigrant languages.
Language in Papua New Guinea: the Value of Census Data
Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 2012
One of the most linguistically diverse nations on earth, Papua New Guinea, has consistently included a question about language in censuses conducted in the past (Laycock 1985; National Statistical Office 1994, 2002b). Laycock (1985) presents language data from the censuses conducted under the Australian Administration in 1966 and 1971 and draws some conclusions about the distributions of Indigenous languages, the two National Language pidgins (Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu), and of English, the Official language. He also raises some concerns about a change in the format and focus of the language question in the first census taken post-Independence, in 1980. With reference to more recent scholarship and the data from the most recent reported censuses in 1990 and 2000, this paper considers the changing form of the language question and its impact on the value of data collected for longitudinal analyses of language in PNG. In particular, we address the shift in the focus of the language question from competence in 1966 and 1971, to an assessment of domains of language use in 1980, and then to a singular focus on literacy in 1990 and in 2000. This paper presents a discussion of this changing data set and an analysis of its value in assessing long-term language trends from 1966 to 2000, and into the future. In addition, this paper presents basic figures drawn from the 2000 census on the languages used in Papua New Guinea, revealing the important reality of multi-language skills in the country. It considers the value of the data collected post-1985 for linguists‘ understanding of the linguistic makeup of the national community, and for pidgin and creole studies, in particular.
Ku Waru: Language and Segmentary Politics in the Western Nebilyer Valley, Papua New Guinea
The aim of this series is to develop theoretical perspectives on the essential social and cultural character of language by methodological and empirical emphasis on the occurrence of language in its communicative and interactional settings, on the socioculturally grounded 'meanings' and 'functions' of linguistic forms, and on the social scientific study of language use across cultures. It will thus explicate the essentially ethnographic nature of linguistic data, whether spontaneously occurring or experimentally induced, whether normative or variational, whether synchronic or diachronic. Works appearing in the series will make substantive and theoretical contributions to the debate over the sociocultural-functional and structural-formal nature of language, and will represent the concerns of scholars in the sociology and anthropology of language, anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, and socioculturally informed psycholinguistics. Editorial Board 1. Charles L. Briggs: Learning how to ask: a sodolinguistic appraisal of the role of the interview in social science research 2. Tamar Katriel: Talking straight: Dugri speech in Israeli Sabra culture 3. Bambi B. Schieffelin and Elinor Ochs (eds.): Language socialization across cultures 4. Susan U. Philips, Susan Steele, and Christine Tanz (eds.): Language, gender, and sex in comparative perspective 5. Jeff Siegel: Language contact in a plantation environment: a sodolinguistic history of Fiji 6. Elinor Ochs: Culture and language development: language acquisition and language socialization in a Samoan village 7. Nancy C. Dorian (ed.): Investigating obsolescence: studies in language contraction and death 8. Richard Bauman and Joel Sherzer (eds.): Explorations in the ethnography of speaking 9. Bambi B. Schieffelin: The give and take of everyday life: language socialization of Kaluli children KwWaru
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edition), 2006
This article looks at the language situation in the Republic of Palau, which is located in the Western Pacific Ocean. We first consider the languages regarded as indigenous to this group of islands before looking at the other, nonlocal languages used there. Owing to a century of rule by a number of colonial powers as well as recent immigration, Palau is a relatively diverse multilingual and diglossic nation-state.
While a distinction between first person inclusive and exclusive among pronouns is widespread in Oceanic languages, gender is only rarely encountered in pronominal systems. This article takes a look at 120 languages in the western part of the large Oceanic family and examines in some detail languages where clusivity is missing (partially or completely), as well as languages where pronominal gender has developed. By looking at both the locus of these features within the pronominal system and the mechanisms of language change which account for these developments, this paper attempts to contribute to the synchronic and diachronic typology of pronominal systems. John Nystrom (Arop, Sera), Malcolm Ross (Torricelli and Skou pronouns), Edgar Suter (Finisterre-Huon languages), Lenore Tillitson (Miu), Aaron Weatherl (providing NTM contact information), and Luke and Laura Warrington (Sissano). Earlier versions of this paper (which included sections on other aspects of pronominals, such as number and paradigms) were presented at an SIL synergy meeting in ), when I was there for two months as a visiting scholar. I wish to thank the audience at each of these venues for helpful feedback and Prof. Alexandra Aikhenvald for facilitating my stay in Cairns. Valérie Guérin provided helpful critical comments on an earlier written draft, my wife Lydia read and commented on several pre-publication drafts, Phil King gave helpful feedback on the final version, and comments from three reviewers for LLM led to further improvements.