A local history of Tok Pisin
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Gillian Sankoff
Abstract
Research on language contact in Papua New Guinea beginning in the mid 1960s, prior to national independence, revealed linguistic micro-evolution as constrained by society, culture, and people’s relationships “on the ground”. Among speakers of Buang, most men and women under 40 were already fluent in Tok Pisin. Many also spoke another Austronesian language learned at missionary schools: Yabem. Exploring the micro-evolution of Buang speech varieties along the river valley, this chapter situates ‘place’ as fundamental in the differentiation of Buang speech varieties. It further attempts to show how the inter-influence of speech varieties in complex repertoires can be culturally framed as natural and unproblematic.
Abstract
Research on language contact in Papua New Guinea beginning in the mid 1960s, prior to national independence, revealed linguistic micro-evolution as constrained by society, culture, and people’s relationships “on the ground”. Among speakers of Buang, most men and women under 40 were already fluent in Tok Pisin. Many also spoke another Austronesian language learned at missionary schools: Yabem. Exploring the micro-evolution of Buang speech varieties along the river valley, this chapter situates ‘place’ as fundamental in the differentiation of Buang speech varieties. It further attempts to show how the inter-influence of speech varieties in complex repertoires can be culturally framed as natural and unproblematic.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Acronyms and glosses ix
- Portrait of Salikoko S. Mufwene xiv
- Introduction 1
- A sociolinguistic typology for languages in contact 23
- A local history of Tok Pisin 57
- Conventionalized creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri 81
- Acquisition or shift? 105
- Substrate influence in Northern Quechua languages 133
- Coordination in the Suriname Creoles 161
- Reflections on Darwin’s natural selection 191
- Building grammar in the early stages of development of French Creoles 211
- Foundings and futures 243
- Detecting loan words computationally 269
- Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change 289
- The restructuring of Salikoko Mufwene through competition and selection 307
- Language Index 327
- Subject Index 329
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Acronyms and glosses ix
- Portrait of Salikoko S. Mufwene xiv
- Introduction 1
- A sociolinguistic typology for languages in contact 23
- A local history of Tok Pisin 57
- Conventionalized creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri 81
- Acquisition or shift? 105
- Substrate influence in Northern Quechua languages 133
- Coordination in the Suriname Creoles 161
- Reflections on Darwin’s natural selection 191
- Building grammar in the early stages of development of French Creoles 211
- Foundings and futures 243
- Detecting loan words computationally 269
- Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change 289
- The restructuring of Salikoko Mufwene through competition and selection 307
- Language Index 327
- Subject Index 329
