Papua New Guinea

English in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere Prof. R. Hickey WS 2015/16 English in Papua New Guinea

Jan Kullik

Course of study: LA-MA

Type of credit: LN

Module I Geography Geography

Source: www.paige-west.com General Data

p Surface area: 462,840 km²(Germany: 357,021 km²)

p Population: 7,476,000 (est.)

p Population density: 16 people per sq km

p Capital: Port Moresby (338,000 inhabitants)

p Highest peak: Mount Wilhelm at 4,509 metres Demography

p Population growth rate: 2.1 %

p Sex ratio: 104.1 males per 100 females

p Life expectancy at birth: 64.5/60.3 (females and males)

p Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births): 47.6 History

p Duration of human habitation is estimated to at least 40,000 years

p Archaeological evidence indicates that people most likely arrived by sea from Southeast Asia

p First arrivals were hunters and gatherers

p Early indications of gardening anyway History

p 16th century: First Europeans to sight New Guinea were Portuguese and Spanish navigators sailing in the South Pacific

p 1526-27: Don Jorge de Meneses came upon the principal island and named it “Papua”

p 1545: Ynigo Ortis de Retez applied the term “New Guinea”because of a fancied resemblance between the islands’inhabitants and the people of the African Guinea coast History

New Guinea pGoddefroy’s of Hamburg (family of merchants and ship owners) started trading coconut oil and copra in the New Guinea islands à European influence increased rapidly p1884: Germany formally took possession of parts of the main island p1899: German imperial government assumed direct control of the territory à Thereafter known as German New Guinea History

http://www.culcc.uni-bremen.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Colonial-and-postcolonial- linguistics.pdf History

p 1914: Australian troops occupied German New Guinea à Australian military remained until 1921

p 1920: British government assumed a mandate from the League of Nations for governing the Territory of New Guinea

p Administration lasted until Japanese invasion during World War II History

Papua p1884: British protectorate was proclaimed over the southern coast of the island à British New Guinea

p1902: Possession was placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia

p1905: Papua Act à Australian administration until Japanese invasion (1942) History

p 1945-46: Administrative union between Papua and New Guinea under Australian control was built following the surrender of Japan p 1949: The Papua and New Guinea Act à International trusteeship system and administrative union under the title of “The territory of Papua and New Guinea”was confirmed p Act provided a Legislative Council, judicial organization, a social service, and a system of local government History

p 1972: Name of the territory was changed to Papua New Guinea

p 1973: The nation became self-governing

p 1975: Achievement of independence Languages in Papua New Guinea

p More than 800 indigenous languages à most widely spoken indigenous language is ‘Enga’(approximately 200.000 speakers) p Three official languages: à Hiri Motu à English à Tok Pisin Hiri Motu

p Originally called Police Motu p Spoken by the local police force in the former British New Guinea à expanded pidgin p Officially encouraged by the government between World War I and II p Enjoyed a period of revitalization during separatist movements in the 1970s à symbol of selfidentification Hiri Motu

p Status as a major general language was given after independence à Equal with New Guinea Pidgin

p Number of speakers has never greatly exceeded 200,000 English in Papua New Guinea

p English-in-education policy was pursued during Australian colonial rule

p Source language for lexical elements in Tok Pisin

p High social prestige is associated with knowledge of English

p Today: Only casual language use in higher and tertiary educational establishments Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin)

p Came to New Guinea as a plantation pidgin from Samoa in the late 19th century

p After the takeover of German New Guinea in 1914, the spread of Tok Pisin continued rapidly

p It became the principal parliamentary debate language after independence (1975)

p Extent in primary education and media Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin)

p Officially renamed to Tok Pisin in 1981

p 75-85 % is derived from English

p Today it has approximately 4 million speakers à General language of solidarity à strong means of self-identification Sources

p http://www.culcc.uni-bremen.de/wp- content/uploads/2013/03/Colonial-and-postcolonial- linguistics.pdf

p Romaine, Suzanne; Pidgin and Creole Languages; London,2015

p Youngblood Coleman, Denise; Countrywatch Review 2015, Papua New Guinea; Houston, 2015

Source: Literature reference OR My own text English in Asia and the Southern Hemisphere Prof. R. Hickey WS 2015/16 Phonology of Tok Pisin

Timo Ricke

Course of study: LA-MA

Type of credit: LN

Module I The origins of Tok Pisin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesia The origins of Tok Pisin

Ø 1800s: whaling expeditions

Ø Mid-19th: trading activities (sandalwood, trepang)

Ø Plantation labour (esp. In Queensland)

Ø Formation of Pacific Pidgin English (Melanesian Pidgin)

Smith, Geoff 2008: Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea: phonology . In Kortmann (ed.) Varieties of English. Vol 3: The Pacific and Australasia (p. 188ff). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Origins of Tok Pisin

Ø German New-Guinea (1884-1914)

Ø Plantation labour: Samoa and Central Pacific

Ø Most labourers from New Guinea islands (linguistically diverse)

Ø Stabilisation of Pacific Pidgin

Smith, Geoff (2008): Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea: phonology . In Kortmann (Ed.) Varieties of English. Vol 3: The Pacific and Australasia (p. 188ff). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/tokpisin.html Development in New Guinea Area

Ø Early 20th: labourers returned home

Ø Local labour schemes

Ø Stabilisation of New Guinea Pidgin

Ø Two influences:

1) German language

2) Austronesian & Papuan languages

Ø After WWI:

(1) Territory of New Guinea: Tok Pisin

(2) Territory of Papua: Hiri Motu

Ø 1975: Three national languages

I. English

II. Tok Pisin (de facto national language)

III. Hiri Motu

Ø Pidgin or Creole ?

Ø Translation of the NT into Tok Pisin

Ø Jacaranda Dictionary of Melanesian Pidgin (1957)

Ø Translation of the constitution of Papua New Guinea

Ø Newspaper: Wantok Niuspepa (1969)

Dana Bertram

Course of study: LA-Ba Tok Pisin in the Context of Pidgin and Creoles

Pidgin and Creole Languages Pidgin: -Also referred to as contact language -(simplified) means of communication -Deveolps between groups of speakers of two or more languages -Mixture of languages, mostly a simplifies primary language (lexifier) with elements of other languages included -Not a native language of a speech community (only spoken as L2)

Creole: -Stable language that has developed from a Pidgin language

-status of development many pidgin languages debatable, no clear distinction -Important factor: official use and standardisation

-Negative connotation of the term Pidgin (context of Colonialism) à many languages have been named differently by their speakers, e.g. Tok Pisin