THESES SIS/LIBRARY TELEPHONE: +61 2 6125 4631 R.G. MENZIES LIBRARY BUILDING NO:2 FACSIMILE: +61 2 6125 4063 THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY EMAIL: [email protected] CANBERRA ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA USE OF THESES This copy is supplied for purposes of private study and research only. Passages from the thesis may not be copied or closely paraphrased without the written consent of the author. Tahitian French The vernacular French of the Society Islands, French Polynesia. A study in language contact and variation. Susan Betty Love A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University March 2006 Statement This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any nniversity or other tertiary institntion and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. ~. Acknowledgements This project was made possible by the friendly co-operation of many people and institu­ tions of French Polynesia. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who gave some time to speak with me whom I cannot name individually. In particular I would like to thank the following for providing assistance and access to resources: The director, Maiana Teihotu, staff and residents of the Foyer de Jeunes FUles de Paofai with whom I lived for six months; The Universite de la Polynesie franr;aise and president (until 2005) Sylvie Andre, especially noting the co-operative agreement between the UPF and the ANU and the assistance of Katia Sanfal of the Relations internationales section. Additionally I would like to thank Pierre-Marie Decoudras, Jean-Marius Raapoto, Sylvia Richaud and Bruno Saura; RFO Polynesie, director Walles Kotra and staff, with special thanks to Michele de Chazeaux for sharing the exceptional resource of her audio recordings; Radio Maohi, director Terii Paquier and staff; The CRIOBE, Moorea; The staff and students ofthe Lycee Agricole d'Opunohu, Moorea; The staff and students of the College de Papara; The groupe langues of ITER EVA; The IRD and CRDP of Polynesia; Heiva co-ordinator Marie-Rose Lai; Heimata and lafamille Sarti of Faanui; Robert & Denise Koenig and the memory of Marie-Therese Danielsson. This research was supported by an Australian National University PhD Scholarship and fieldwork funding from the Department of Linguistics RSPAS. I would like to acknowledge the support and contribution of the members of the Department of Linguistics RSPAS, the School of Language Studies and the Centre for Research on Language Change who have provided comments and advice during the course of my candidature. Special thanks to Guy Olding for all the commas. Finally, thanks to my supervisors Dr Harold Koch, Dr John Bowden and Professor Darrell Tryon, whose input and encouragement provided ongoing inspiration, mauriiru pour moil Typeset in Times Roman 12pt with ll}T}3X, September 24, 2006. CXJ Printed on acid free archival paper. Abstract The study oflanguage contact has expanded and consolidated over recent years, with theoretical approaches moving beyond a traditional pidgin and creole classification to encompass a wider variety of languages from a variety of contact situations. Studies of migrant language, mixed and restructured varieties and new vernaculars have con­ tributed to a growing understanding of language contact and language change, and to a growing number of labels for the new varieties. This study examines one such variety, the French spoken by the Polynesians of the Society Islands, French Polynesia. It is argued that this variety exhibits a number of features which place it in the category of contact languages, but also that it does not fit neatly within the subcategories defined by current labels. Tahitian French, as we call this vernacular, is the result of contact between a small but dominant minority of French immigrants with a relatively homogeneous majority of Polynesians in their own islands. The sociolinguistic situation does not provide the clas­ sic multiple-substrate or displaced population scenarios of pidgins and creoles, nor does the language display the criteria of indigenised or restructured varieties. Additionally, both the prestige administrative language, French, and the local vernacular, Tahitian, still remain in active use, forming three poles of linguistic and social influence. Tahitian French is a continuum varying from an acrolect approaching colloquial French to a basilect heavily influenced by features from Tahitian. It has a set of stable features while admitting more variation than standard spoken French. It is used as a socially marking identity vernacular and its use is contextually defined, with many speakers able to choose and adjust their range of the continuum based on these factors. This thesis begins with an introduction to the historical and social situation of French Polynesia, followed by an examination of the current literature on the islands and the field oflanguage contact. The core of the work is a linguistic description of the phonol­ ogy, lexicon and granunatical features of Tahitian French. For this section, a com­ parative approach is taken in order to clearly analyse the differences between standard French and Tahitian French. The influence of Tahitian is assessed through comparison with colloquial Tahitian structures and numerous transfer features are described. The description is extensively illustrated with examples of Tahitian French recorded during two field trips to Tahiti and the Society Islands. Following the descriptive section, a dis­ cussion of sociolinguistic factors situates the linguistic data, complemented by a series of case studies on individual speakers with selected texts presented in the Appendices. A detailed examination of the central themes of the thesis and analysis of the models presented then draw out the theoretical implications of the study. A short concluding chapter situates the study and expands the scope of the thesis. Resume L' etude des langues en contact s' est developpee dans les annees recentes. Les ap­ proches tMoriques se sont deplacees au dela des classes traditionnelles de pidgin et de creole pour comprendre nne plus grande variete de langues d'une plus grande variete de situations de contact. Les etudes des langues des immigres, des varietes melangees ou restructurees et des nouveaux vemaculaires ont contribue a nne comprehension crois­ sante de contact et de changement des langues, et a nn nombre de plus en plus im­ portant d'etiquettes pour ces nouvelles varietes. Cette etude examine nne telle variete, Ie franc;ais parle par les Polynesiens des lIes de la Societe, Polynesie franc;aise. Nous soutenons que cette variete montre un certain nombre de traits qui la placent dans la categorie des langues de contact, mais egalement qU'elle n'entre pas d'une maniere or­ donnee dans les sous-categories definies par les etiquettes courantes. Le franc;ais de Tahiti, comme nous appelons ce vemaculaire, est Ie resultat du con­ tact entre une minorite, petite mais dominante, d'immigres franc;ais avec une majorite relativement homogtme de Polynesiens dans leurs propres iles. La situation sociolin­ guistique ne fournit pas Ie substrat a langues multiples classique, ni Ie scenario de 00- placement des populations que I' on trouve chez les pidgins et les creoles. La langue ne montre pas non plus les criteres des vari6tes dites 'indigenisees' ou 'restructurees.' En plus, et la langue administrative de prestige, Ie franc;ais, et Ie vemaculaire local, Ie tahitien, sont toujours d'usage courant, ce qui nous donne trois poles d'influence lin­ guistique et sociale. Le franyais de Tahiti est un continuum en variation d'un acrolecte qui approche Ie franc;ais familier a un basilecte fortement influence par des traits de tahiti en. II a un ensemble de traits stables tout en admettant plus de variation que Ie franc;ais parle norme. II est employe en tant que vemaculaire qui marque I' identite sociale et son utilisation est contextuellement definie, avec beaucoup de locuteurs capables de choisir et d'adapter leur etendue du continuum a base de ces facteurs. Cette these commence par une introduction a la situation historique et sociale de Polynesie franc;aise, suivie d'un bilan de la litterature courante sur les iles et Ie champ de contact des langues. Le noyau du travail est une description linguistique de la phonolo­ gie, du lexique et des traits grammaticaux du franc;ais de Tahiti. Dans cette partie, une approche comparative est adoptee afin d' analyser les differences entre Ie franc;ais standard et Ie franyais de Tahiti. L'influence de tahitien est evaluee a travers une com­ paraison avec les structures du tahitien familier, et des nombreux traits de transfert sont decrits. La description est abondamment illustree avec des exemples du franc;ais de Tahiti enregistres pendant deux voyages d' etude sur Ie terrain a Tahiti et les lies de la Societe. Apres la partie descriptive, une discussion des facteurs sociolinguistiques, completee par une serie d'etudes de cas sur differents locuteurs y compris des textes presentes dans les Annexes, situe les donnees linguistiques. Un examen detaille des themes principaux de la these et une analyse des modeles presentes accentuent alors les implications theoriques de l'etude. Un court chapitre de conclusion situe I'etude et augmente la portee de la these. Contents Statement i Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Resume vii Table of Contents ix List of Figures xv List of Tables xvi List of Abbreviations xvii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Questions on Tahitian French. 3 1.2 Some working terminology . 5 1.2.1 Geographic terms. 5 1.2.2 Languages .... 6 1.2.3 Socio-ethnic terms 7 1.2.4 Orthography . 7 1.3 Outline of the research project and fieldwork. 8 1.3.1 Field sites and informants 9 1.3.2 Collecting data .