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“ingroup” and “outgroup.” The languages of New Guinea and the region around it show diverse linkages and wide variations between languages. The Austronesian languages of the Pacific region are mostly |
classified as Oceanian languages, while the Chamorro and Palau languages of Micronesia are classified into the languages of Western Malaya and Polynesia (WMP, Indonesian family), and the indigenous languages of |
Maluku and Irian Jaya in Eastern Indonesia into the Central Malayo-Polynesian (CMP) or the South Halmahera-West New Guinea (SHWNG) subgroups. In particular, there are strong similarities between the linguistic characteristics |
of the CMP and SHWNG languages and those of the Melanesian branch of the Oceanian languages. These linguistic conditions and characteristics are attributable to ethnic migrations within the region over |
a long period of time, accompanied by contacts and linguistic merging with indigenous Papuan people. Papuan languages are still found in parts of Indonesia, including Northern Halmahera and the islands |
of Pantar and Alor and central and eastern Timor in the Province of Nusa Tenggara. In New Guinea, contact with Papuan languages has caused some Austronesian languages to exhibit a |
word order change from subject-verb-object to subject-object-verb (Austronesian Type 2) (Sakiyama 1994). 2. Linguistic Strata With the start of colonization by the European powers in the nineteenth century, a new |
set of linguistic circumstances developed in the region. First, pidgin languages based on European and Melanesian languages gradually emerged as common languages. The establishment of plantations in Samoa and in |
Queensland, Australia, which had concentrations of people who spoke Melanesian languages, was important in providing breeding grounds for pidgin languages. A pidgin language is formed from elements of the grammar |
of both contributing languages, though the pidgin languages tend to be looked down upon from the perspective of the more dominant of the two parent languages. The region’s newly formed |
common languages, including Tok Pisin, Bislama, and Solomon Pidgin, flourished after they were taken back to the homelands of the various speakers. This was possible because Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands |
and Papua New Guinea were all multilingual societies without dominant languages. The number of speakers of pidgin languages increased rapidly in this environment. At the same time, the continuing existence |
of ethnic minority languages came under threat. Examples of pidgins that were creolized (adopted as mother languages in their own right) include Solomon Pijin, which eventually had over 1,000 speakers |
aged five and over (1976) in the Solomon Islands. Bislama, a mixture of over 100 indigenous languages grafted upon a base of English and French, is now spoken by almost |
the entire population of Vanuatu (170,000 in 1996) and is partially creolized. Of particular interest is the fact that a group of more than 1,000 people who emigrated to New |
Caledonia have adopted Bislama as their primary language. The situation in Papua New Guinea, which has a population of 4,300,000 (1996), is even more dramatic. By 1982 the number of |
people using Tok Pisin as their primary language had reached 50,000, while another 2,000,000 used it as a second language (Grimes 1996). 3. Minority Languages and Common Languages in the |
Pacific Region The Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing published by UNESCO (Wurm 1996) provides merely a brief overview of the current situation in Papua New Guinea, |
Australia, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. There is no mention of Micronesia, New Caledonia, or Polynesia, presumably because of a lack of information resulting from the large number of languages |
in these areas. The following report covers areas and languages that I have researched and endangered languages covered by field studies carried out by Japanese researchers. 3.1 Belau (Palau), Micronesia |
According to Belau (Palau) government statistics (1990), the total population of 15,122 people includes 61 people living on outlying islands in Sonsorol State, and 33 in Hatohobei (Tochobei) State. Apart |
from the Sonsorol Islands, Sonsorol State also includes the islands of Fanah, Meril and Pulo An. In addition to the Hatohobei language, the language mix on these outlying islands also |
includes nuclear Micronesian (Chuukic) languages, which are the core Oceanian languages spoken in the Carolines. They differ from Palauan, which is an Indonesian language. To lump these languages together as |
the Sonsorol languages with a total of 600 speakers (Wurm and Hattori 1981-83) is as inaccurate as combining the Miyako dialects of Okinawa into a single classification. The number of |
Chuukic speakers has declined steadily since these figures were compiled. Starting in the German colonial period of the early twentieth century, people have been relocated from these outlying islands to |
Echang on Arakabesan Island in Belau. Today there are several hundred of these people. Many of those born in the new location only speak Palauan. A study by S. Oda |
(1975) estimated that there were 50 speakers of Pulo Annian. The language of Meril continued to decline and has now become extinct. From the early part of the twentieth century |
until the end of World War II, Micronesia was under Japanese rule, administered by the South Seas Mandate. Japanese was used as a common language, and its influence is still |
evident today. The linguistic data on Micronesia presented by Grimes (1996) is distorted by the fact that, while the number of English speakers is shown, no mention is made of |
Japanese. A study carried out in 1970 (Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996) found that people aged 35 and over could speak basic Japanese. This group is equivalent to people aged |
63 and over in 1998. An estimate based on Belau government statistics (1990) suggests that more than 1,000 of these people are still alive. In the State of Yap in |
the Federated States of Micronesia, where the percentage of females attending school is said to have been low, we can assume that the number of Japanese speakers has fallen below |
500. It has been suggested that if Japan had continued to rule Micronesia, Japanese would certainly have become the sole language in the region, and indigenous languages would have disappeared |
(Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996). This seems an overly harsh appraisal of Japan’s language policy. Except in the schools, as a matter of fact no significant steps were taken to |
promote the use of Japanese. Micronesia previously had no common language for communication between different islands. Even today, old people from different islands use Japanese as a common language (Sakiyama |
1995; Toki 1998). However, the role of this Japanese pidgin appears to have ended within a single generation, and in this sense it too is an endangered language. Pidgin Japanese |
continues to be used as a lingua franca by Taiwanese in their fifties and older (Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996), and the number of speakers is estimated to have been |
10,000 in 1993 (Grimes 1996). 3.2 Yap, Micronesia Ngulu Atoll is situated between the Yap Islands and the Belau Islands. The Nguluwan language is a mixture of Yapese and Ulithian, |
which belongs to the Chuukic family. It has inherited the Ulithian phonetic system and a partial version of Yap grammar (Sakiyama 1982). Nguluwan appears to have evolved through bilingualism between |
Yapese and Ulithian, and to describe it as a dialect of Ulithian (Grimes 1996) is inappropriate. In 1980 there were 28 speakers. Even with the inclusion of people who had |
migrated to Guror on Yap Island, where the parent village is located, the number of speakers was fewer than 50. Speakers are being assimilated rapidly into the Yapese language and |
culture. 3.3 Maluku, Indonesia The book Atlas Bahasa Tanah Maluku (Taber et al. 1996) covers 117 ethnic languages (Austronesian, Papuan), including numbers of speakers for each language, areas of habitation |
and migration, access routes, simple cultural information, and basic numbers and expressions. This work is especially valuable since it corrects inaccuracies and errors in the 1977 Classification and Index of |
the World's Languages by C. Y. L. Voegelin and F. M. Voegelin. It also distinguishes languages and dialects according to their a priori mutual intelligibility. Fifteen languages are listed as |
having fewer than 1,000 speakers. They include the Nakaela language of Seram, which has only 5 speakers, the Amahai and Paulohi languages, also of Seram, which are spoken by 50 |
people each, and the South Nuaulu and Yalahatan languages, which have 1,000 speakers each on Seram Island. The data, however, are not complete. For example, the Bajau language is not |
included, presumably because of the difficulty of accessing the various solitary islands where the Bajau people live. The author researched the Yalahatan language in 1997 and in 1998, and the |
Bajau language (2,000 speakers) on Sangkuwang Island in 1997. 3.4 Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea Detailed information about the names, numbers of speakers, and research data for over 800 languages |
spoken in New Guinea and its coastal regions can be found in the works by the Barrs (1978), Voorhoeve (1975), and Wurm (1982). However, not only the minority languages but |
even the majority languages other than a few have yet to be surveyed and researched adequately. There are many languages for which vocabulary collection has yet to be undertaken. It |
appears that dictionaries or grammars have been published for less than one-tenth of the region’s languages. However, the gospel has been published in several dozen languages using orthographies established by |
SIL. Papuan languages range from those with substantial speaker populations, including Enga, Chimbu (Kuman), and Dani, which are spoken by well over 100,000 people, to endangered languages such as Abaga |
with 5 speakers (150 according to Wurm ), Makolkol with 7 (unknown according to Wurm), and Sene with under 10. There are very many languages for which the number of |
speakers is unknown and more up-to-date information is needed. Also, despite having substantially more than 1,000 speakers (Wurm 1982; Grimes 1996), Murik is in danger of extinction due to the |
creolization of Tok Pisin (Foley 1986). Moreover, it is questionable whether the present lists include all of the region’s languages. Information about Irian Jaya is even sparser. A study on |
popular languages carried out by the author in 1984-85 revealed that Kuot (New Ireland), Taulil (New Britain), and Sko (Irian Jaya) all had several hundred speakers and that, in the |
case of Taulil in particular, an increasing number of young people were able to understand what their elders were saying but could no longer speak the language themselves. There has |
been a rapid shift to Kuanua, an indigenous language used in trade with neighboring Rabaul, which is replacing Taulil. 3.5 Solomon Islands, Melanesia The total population of the Solomon Islands |
is 390,000 (1996). There are 63 Papuan, Melanesian, and Polynesian indigenous languages, of which only 37 are spoken by over 1,000 people (Grimes 1996). The Papuan Kazukuru languages (Guliguli, Doriri) |
of New Georgia, which were known to be endangered as early as 1931, have become extinct already, leaving behind just some scant linguistic information. The Melanesian Tanema and Vano languages |
of the Santa Cruz Islands and the Laghu language of the Santa Isabel Islands were extinct by 1990. This does not mean that the groups speaking them died out, but |
rather that the languages succumbed to the shift to Roviana, a trade language used in neighboring regions, or were replaced by Solomon Pijin (Sakiyama 1996). 3.6 Vanuatu, Melanesia The situation |
in Vanuatu is very similar to that in the Solomon Islands. The official view, written in Bislama, is as follows: I gat sam ples long 110 lanwis evriwan so i |
gat bigfala lanwis difrens long Vanuatu. Pipol blong wan velej ol i toktok long olgeta bakegen evridei nomo long lanwis be i no Bislama, Inglis o Franis. (Vanuatu currently has |
110 indigenous languages, which are all very different linguistically. On an everyday basis people in villages speak only their local languages, not Bislama, English, or French). (Vanuatu, 1980, Institute of |
Pacific Studies) Among the Melanesian and Polynesian indigenous languages spoken by 170,000 people, or 93% of the total population (1996), there are many small minority tongues. These include Aore, which |
has only a single speaker (extinct according to Wurm and Hattori [1981-83]); Maragus and Ura (with 10 speakers each); Nasarian, and Sowa (with 20); and Dixon Reef, Lorediakarkar, Mafea, and |
Tambotalo (with 50). If languages with around 100 speakers are included, this category accounts for about one-half of the total number of languages (Grimes 1996). The spread of Bislama has |
had the effect of putting these languages in jeopardy. 3.7 New Caledonia, Melanesia New Caledonia has a total population of 145,000 people, of whom 62,000 are indigenous. As of 1981, |
there were 28 languages, all Melanesian except for the one Polynesian language Uvean. The only languages with over 2,000 speakers are Cemuhi, Paicî, Ajië, and Xârâcùù, along with Dehu and |
Nengone, which are spoken on the Loyalty Islands. Dumbea (Paita), which is spoken by several hundred people, has been described by T. Shintani and Y. Paita (1983). And M. Osumi |
(1995) has described Tinrin, which has an estimated 400 speakers. Speakers of Tinrin are bilingual in Xârâcùù or Ajië. Nerë has 20 speakers and Arhö 10, while Waamwang, which had |
3 speakers in 1946, is now reported to be extinct (Grimes 1996). Descendants of Javanese, who began to migrate to New Caledonia in the early part of the twentieth century, |
now number several thousand. The Javanese language spoken by these people, which has developed in isolation from the Javanese homeland, has attracted attention as a new pidgin language. When Europeans |
first arrived in Australia in 1788, it is estimated that there were 700 different tribes in a population of 500,000-1,000,000 (Comrie, Matthews, and Polinsky 1996). By the 1830s Tasmanian had |
become extinct, and today the number of Aboriginal languages has fallen to less than one-half what it once was. However, T. Tsunoda left detailed records of the Warrungu language, the |
last speaker of which died in 1981, and the Djaru language, which has only 200 speakers (Tsunoda 1974, 1981). Yawuru, which belongs to the Nyulnyulan family, reportedly has fewer than |
20 speakers, all aged in their sixties or older. The language is described by K. Hosokawa (1992). The Pacific has been heavily crisscrossed by human migration from ancient to modern |
times. All Pacific countries except the Kingdom of Tonga were colonized. This historical background is reflected in the existence of multilevel diglossia in all regions of the Pacific. Depending on |
the generation, the top level of language in Micronesia is either English (the official language) or pidgin Japanese (used as a lingua franca among islands). The next level is made |
up of the languages of major islands that exist as political units, such as Palauan, Yapese and Ponapean. On the lowest level are the various ethnic languages spoken mainly on |
solitary islands. In the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, local Malay languages such as Ambonese Malay, North Maluku Malay and Bacanese Malay, form a layer beneath the official language, Indonesian. Under |
them are the dominant local languages, such as Hitu, which is spoken by 15,000 people on Ambon Island, and Ternate and Tidore, which are spoken in the Halmahera region. These |
are important as urban languages. On the lowest level are the various vernaculars. In Papua New Guinea, standard English forms the top level, followed by Papua New Guinean English. Tok |
Pisin and Hiri Motu are used as common languages among the various ethnic groups. Beneath these layers are the regional or occupational common languages. For example, Hiri Motu is used |
as the law enforcement lingua franca in coastal areas around the Gulf of Papua, Yabem as a missionary language along the coast of the Huon Gulf, and Malay as a |
trade language in areas along the border with Indonesia. On the next level are the ethnic and tribal languages used on a day-to-day basis. An example of a similar pattern |
in Polynesia can be found in Hawaii, where English and Hawaiian English rank above Da Kine Talk or Pidgin To Da Max, which are mixtures of English and Oceanic languages |
and are used as common languages among the various Asian migrants who have settled in Hawaii. Beneath these are ethnic languages, including Hawaiian and the various immigrant languages, such as |
a common Japanese based on the Hiroshima dialect, as well as Cantonese, Korean, and Tagalog. All of the threatened languages are in danger because of their status as indigenous minority |
languages positioned at the lowest level of the linguistic hierarchy. Reports to date have included little discussion of the multilevel classification of linguistic strata from a formal linguistic perspective. It |
will be necessary in the future to examine these phenomena from the perspectives of sociolinguistics or linguistic anthropology. Barr, Donald F., and Sharon G. Barr. 1978. Index of Irian Jaya |
Languages. Prepublication draft. Abepura, Indonesia: Cenderawashih University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. Comrie, Bernard, Stephan Matthews, and Maria Polinsky. 1996. The Atlas of Languages. New York: Chackmark Books. Foley, William |
A. 1986. The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Grimes, Barbara F., ed. 1996. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: International Academic Bookstore. Hosokawa, Komei. |
1992. The Yawuru language of West Kimberley: A meaning-based description. Ph.D. diss., Australian National University. Oda, Sachiko. 1977. The Syntax of Pulo Annian. Ph. D. diss., University of Hawaii. Osumi, |
Midori. 1995. Tinrin grammar. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, No. 25. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Sakiyama, Osamu. 1982. The characteristics of Nguluwan from the viewpoint of language contact. In Islanders |
and Their Outside World.Aoyagi, Machiko, ed. Tokyo: Rikkyo University. ---. 1994. Hirimotu go no ruikei: jijun to gochishi (Affix order and postpositions in Hiri Motu: A cross-linguistic survey). Bulletin of |
the National Museum of Ethnology,vol. 19 no. 1: 1-17. ---. 1995. Mikuroneshia Berau no pijin ka nihongo (Pidginized Japanese in Belau, Micronesia). Shiso no kagaku, vol. 95 no. 3: 44-52. |
---. 1996. Fukugouteki na gengo jokyo (Multilingual situation of the Solomon Islands). In Soromon shoto no seikatsu shi: bunka, rekishi, shakai (Life History in the Solomons: Culture, history and society). |
Akimichi, Tomoya et al, eds. Tokyo: Akashi shoten. Shintani, Takahiko and Yvonne Païta. 1990. Grammaire de la Langue de Païta. Nouméa, New Caledonia: Société d'études historiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Taber, |
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