Language Planning and Policy in the Pacific, Vol 1: Fiji, The Philippines, and Vanuatu 9781853599224

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Language Planning and Policy in Pacific, Vol.1

LANGUAGE PLANNING AND POLICY Series Editors: Dr Richard B. Baldauf Jr., University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and Professor Robert B. Kaplan, University of Southern California, USA Other Books in the Series Language Planning and Policy in Africa, Vol.1: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa Richard B. Baldauf Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan (eds) Language Planning and Policy in Europe, Vol.1: Hungary, Finland and Sweden Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (eds) Language Planning and Policy in Europe, Vol. 2: The Czech Republic, The European Union and Northern Ireland Richard B. Baldauf Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan (eds) Other Books of Interest Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Joshua Fishman (ed.) Language and Society in a Changing Italy Arturo Tosi Language Planning: From Practice to Theory Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf Jr. (eds) The Other Languages of Europe Guus Extra and Durk Gorter (eds) Multilingualism in Spain M. Teresa Turell (ed.) Beyond Boundaries: Language and Identity in Contemporary Europe Paul Gubbins and Mike Holt (eds) Ideology and Image: Britain and Language Dennis Ager Where East Looks West: Success in English in Goa and on the Konkan Coast Dennis Kurzon English in Africa: After the Cold War Alamin M. Mazrui Politeness in Europe Leo Hickey and Miranda Stewart (eds) Language in Jewish Society: Towards a New Understanding John Myhill Urban Multilingualism in Europe Guus Extra and Kutlay Yagmur (eds) Cultural and Linguistic Policy Abroad: The Italian Experience Mariella Totaro-Genevois Language Decline and Death in Africa: Causes, Consequences and Challenges Herman M. Batibo In and Out of English: For Better for Worse Gunilla Anderman and Margaret Rogers (eds)

For more details of these or any other of our publications, please contact: Multilingual Matters, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HH, England http://www.multilingual-matters.com

LANGUAGE PLANNING AND POLICY

Language Planning and Policy in the Pacific, Vol. 1 Fiji, The Philippines and Vanuatu Edited by

Richard B. Baldauf Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD Clevedon • Buffalo • Toronto

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Language Planning and Policy in Pacific/Edited by Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan Language Planning and Policy Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. Fiji, the Philippines, and Vanuatu. 1. Language planning–Pacific Area. 2. Language policy–Pacific Area. I. Baldauf, Richard B. II. Kaplan, Robert B. III. Series. P40.5.L352P3355 2006 306.44'91823–dc22 2006014470 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1-85359-921-2/EAN 978-1-85359-921-7 (hbk) Multilingual Matters Ltd UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Copyright © 2006 Richard B. Baldauf Jr, Robert B. Kaplan and the authors of individual chapters. The articles in this book also appeared in the journal Current Issues in Language Planning Vol. 1 (3), 2000, in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development Vol. 19 (5&6), 1998 and in Current Issues in Language Planning Vol. 4 (3&4), 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Typeset by Archetype-IT Ltd (http://www.archetype-it.com). Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd.

Contents The Contributors

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Series Overview Language Policy and Planning in Fiji, The Philippines and Vanuatu Richard B. Baldauf Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan The Language Situation in Fiji Francis Mangubhai and France Mugler

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The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines Andrew Gonzalez The Language Situation in Vanuatu Terry Crowley

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The Contributors Terry Crowley, who unexpectedly passed away on 16 January 2005 at the age of 51, was an important voice in Pacific studies, in pidginisation and creolisation, and in the recording of some languages that have disappeared, and of some that have survived despite the tender ministrations of western languages, western missionaries, and western scholars. He taught linguistics at the University of Waikato after having taught at the University of the South Pacific. He has published extensively on Bislama – the English-lexifier pidgin national language of Vanuatu – and Oceanic languages since 1976, and has also published on the sociolinguistic situation. His major books on Vanuatu languages included Ura: A disappearing Language of Southern Vanuatu (1999), An Erromangan (Sye) Grammar (1998), A New Bislama Dictionary (1995), A Dictionary of Paamese (1992), Beach-la-Mer to Bislama: The Emergence of a National Language in Vanuatu (1990) and The Paamese Language of Vanuatu (1982). Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, who passed away on 29 January 2006, was a former Secretary of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports in the Philippines, and was at the time President Emeritus of De La Salle University-Manila and President of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. He was President of De La Salle University from 1978 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1998. Brother Andrew was a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology, Republic of the Philippines and an Academician. He earned his doctorate degree in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He received honorary degrees from Waseda University, Tokyo Japan; Soka University, Hachioji, Japan; St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada; and St. Mary’s College of California, Moraga, USA. He was bestowed prestigious awards such as Officer de ‘Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Government of France, St. Vincent de Paul Medal of Academic Excellence by Adamson University, the Fourth Degree of the Order by the Knight Grand Officer of Rizal, St. Bede Medal by San Beda College, and Ex Corde Ecclesiae by the International Federation of Catholic Universities, Paris, France. His activities include membership on Boards of Trustees of various educational institutions and professional organizations, local and international. At one time, he was President of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, and Chairman of the International Association of University Presidents for the Southeast Asian Region. He was Chair of the recently concluded Task Force to Evaluate Graduate Education in the Philippines. He was also a member of editorial advisory boards of various educational journals. He has written and published extensively in the field of language planning, language teaching, higher education, and sociolinguistics. Francis Mangubhai worked in the South Pacific for many years in the area of language education. He worked with Professor Elley on the well-known Book Flood Project in Fiji, has written on literacy in the South Pacific and in 2002 published in the Journal for Multilingual and Multicultural Development various frameworks for language-in-education policies for South Pacific countries. He is currently A/Professor and the Director of the newly established Learning and Teaching Support Unit at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. vii The Contributors

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France Mugler is Assistant Professor at the University of the South Pacific where she has taught linguistics for nearly 20 years. Her main research interests have been in the area of sociolinguistics, in particular the minority Indian languages of Fiji, especially the Dravidian languages, and Fiji English. With John Lynch, she edited the 1996 Pacific Languages in Education, and with Jan Tent, she has written several articles on Fiji English and conducted two surveys of language use and attitudes in Fiji, the most recent one in November 2005. She is currently also working on a dictionary of English for Fiji with Jan Tent and Paul Geraghty.

Series Overview Since 1998 and 1999 when the first six polity studies on Language Policy and Planning – addressing the language situation in a particular polity – were published in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 20 studies (from 2000 through the end of 2005) have been published in Current Issues in Language Planning. These studies have all addressed, to a greater or lesser extent, 22 common questions or issues (Appendix A), thus giving them some degree of consistency. However, we are keenly aware that these studies have been published in the order in which they were completed. While such an arrangement is reasonable for journal publication, the result does not serve the needs of area specialists nor are the various monographs easily accessible to the wider public. As the number of available polity studies has grown, we have planned to update (where necessary) and republish these studies in coherent areal volumes. The first such volume published concerned Africa (i.e. Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa) (Baldauf & Kaplan, 2004), both because a significant number of studies had become available and because Africa constituted an area that is significantly under-represented in the language planning literature and yet is marked by extremely interesting language policy and planning issues. The second and third volumes dealt with Europe (i.e. Hungary, Finland and Sweden, Kaplan & Baldauf (2005); and the Czech Republic, the European Union and Northern Ireland, Baldauf & Kaplan (2006)). This forth volume focuses on the Pacific, and includes, Fiji, The Philippines and Vanuatu, again examining two polities that have not been the subject of a lot of published language planning and policy activity, while drawing together the work on the Philippines, which is perhaps better known. These will shortly be followed by other areal volumes, focusing perhaps on Africa, Europe, Latin America, or Asia. We hope that these areal volumes will better serve the needs of specialists. It is our intent to continue to publish other areal volumes subsequently as sufficient studies are completed. We will do so in the hope that such volumes will be of interest to areal scholars and others interested in language policies and language planning in geographically coherent regions. The areas in which we are planning to produce future volumes, and some of the polities that may be included are: Africa (2), including Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tunisia; Europe (3 and 4), including the Baltic States, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy and Malta; Latin America (1), including Ecuador, Mexico and Paraguay; and Asia (1 and 2), including Bangladesh, Chinese Characters, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. In the mean time, we will continue to bring out Current Issues in Language Planning, adding to the list of polities available for inclusion in areal volumes. At this point, we cannot predict the intervals over which such volumes will appear, since those intervals will be defined by the ability of contributors to complete work on already contracted polity studies. 1

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Assumptions Relating to Polity Studies There are a number of assumptions that we have made about the nature of language policy and planning that have influenced the nature of the studies presented. First, we do not believe that a broader and more coherent paradigm addressing the complex questions of language policy/planning development is yet available. On the other hand, we do believe that the collection of a large body of more or less comparable data and the careful analysis of that data will give rise to a better paradigm. Therefore, in soliciting the polity studies, we have asked each of the contributors to address some two-dozen questions (to the extent that such questions were pertinent to each particular polity); the questions were offered as suggestions of topics that might be covered. (See Appendix A.) Some contributors have followed the questions rather closely; others have been more independent in approaching the task. It should be obvious that, in framing those questions, we were moving from a perhaps inchoate notion of an underlying theory. The reality that our notion was inchoate becomes clear in each of the polity studies. Second, we have sought to find authors who had an intimate involvement with the language planning and policy decisions made in the polity about which they were writing; i.e. we were looking for insider knowledge and perspectives about the polities. However, as insiders are part of the process, when developing their studies they may find it difficult to take the part of the ‘other’ – to be critical of that process. But it is not necessary, or even appropriate, that they should be – this can be left to others. As Pennycook (1998: 126) has argued: One of the lessons we need to draw from this account of colonial language policy [i.e. Hong Kong] is that, in order to make sense of language policies we need to understand both their location historically and their location contextually. What I mean by this is that we can not assume that the promotion of local languages instead of a dominant language, or the promotion of a dominant language at the expense of a local language, are in themselves good or bad. Too often we view these things through the lenses of liberalism, pluralism or anti-imperialism, without understanding the actual location of such policies. While some authors do take a critical stance, or one based on a theoretical approach to the data, many of the studies presented in these volumes are primarily descriptive, bringing together and revealing, we hope, the nature of the language development experience in the particular polity. We believe this is a valuable contribution to the theory/paradigm development of the field. As interesting and challenging as it may be to provide theoretical a priori descriptions of the nature of the field [e.g. language management (Neustupný & Nekvapil, 2003), language rights (May, 2003), continua of biliteracy (Hornberger, 2003)] based on partial data – nor have we been completely immune from this ourselves (e.g. Kaplan & Baldauf, 2003, Chapter 12) – we believe the development of a sufficient data base is an important prerequisite for paradigm development. Of course, the author(s) of each volume also brings somewhat different methods (e.g. historical, ethnographic, sociolinguistic, linguistic) and issues (e.g. minority rights, education of linguistic minorities, national identity) to their studies and this adds to the richness of our understanding of language

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planning as we are shown that there are different ways of approaching this field of study and that particular issues are important to specific contexts. An edited volume by Ricento (2006) also provides a brief introduction to some of these relevant theories, methods and issues in language policy (and planning). In 1945, Vannevar Bush (Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development in the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt) published a report in which he established a clear distinction between pure research (basic science) and applied research (applied science). He did so in the belief that pure research had little chance of attracting government funding even though basic science constituted a public good that demanded government support. The dichotomy articulated by Bush has served as the guideline for federal funding in the United States, in Australia and elsewhere over the past 60 years. More recently, Donald Stokes (1997) has argued that scientific research should be conceived as falling into quadrants. In this configuration, one quadrant contains scientists who conduct pure research but have no concern in the potential uses in the real world of the findings. Niels Bohr might be an example of a scholar-scientist who fits this category, as might Noam Chomsky in his theoretical linguistics research. A second quadrant contains scientists who have a primary concern for applied research and little interest in the scientific aspects of such work; Thomas Edison might serve as an example in this quadrant. A third quadrant would contain scholars whose work is neither overly theoretical nor overly applied. Work in this quadrant might contain taxonomic or classificatory studies – i.e. work which is worthwhile but is not driven by the desire either to advance knowledge or to develop practical solutions. A fourth quadrant contains work that might be described as ‘use-inspired basic science’, research that has potential for real-world utility without losing sight of the desire to advance scientific understanding. Stokes believed that the bulk of governmental funding should be addressed to this quadrant. Louis Pasteur might be the prototypical figure in this quadrant, and thus this quadrant Stokes labeled ‘Pasteur’s Quadrant.’ We insert this brief aside at this point in the explanation of our assumptions guiding the polity studies upon which we have chosen to focus because we are convinced that language policy studies fall squarely in Pasteur’s Quadrant – studies marked by taxonomic description married to a desire to advance knowledge and to lead to a theory for language policy research. Regrettably, Stokes’ suggestion that the bulk of government funding should be directed at this quadrant has not been taken seriously by governments around the world.

An Invitation to Contribute We welcome additional polity contributions. Our views on a number of the issues can be found in Kaplan and Baldauf (1997); sample polity monographs have appeared in the extant issues of Current Issues in Language Planning. Interested authors are invited to contact the editors, present a proposal for a monograph, and provide a sample list of references. It is also useful to provide a brief biographical note, indicating any personal involvement in language planning activities in the polity proposed for study as well as any relevant research/publication in LPP. All contributions should, of course, be original,

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unpublished works. We expect to work with contributors during the preparation of monographs. All monographs will, of course, be reviewed for quality, completeness, accuracy and style. Experience suggests that co-authored contributions may be very successful, but we want to stress that we are seeking a unified monograph on the polity, not an edited compilation of various authors’ efforts. Questions may be addressed to either of us. Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. [email protected]

Robert B. Kaplan [email protected]

References Baldauf, R.B., Jr. and Kaplan, R.B. (Eds) (2006) Language Planning and Policy: Europe, Vol. 2: The Czech Republic, The European Union and Northern Ireland. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Baldauf, R.B., Jr. and Kaplan, R.B. (Eds) (2004) Language Planning and Policy: Africa, Vol. I: Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Hornberger, N.H. (2003) Continua of biliteracy. In N. H. Hornberger (Ed.) Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research and Practice in Multilingual Settings (pp. 3–34). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kaplan, R.B. and Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (Eds) (2005) Language Planning and Policy: Europe, Vol. I: Hungary, Finland and Sweden. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Kaplan, R.B. and Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (2003) Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Kaplan, R.B. and Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (1997) Language Planning From Practice to Theory. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. May, S. (2003) Rearticulating the case for minority language rights. Current Issues in Language Planning 4(2), 95–125. Neustupný, J.V. and Nekvapil, J. (2003) Language management in the Czech Republic. In R.B. Baldauf Jr. and R.B. Kaplan (Eds) (2006) Language Planning and Policy: Europe, Vol. 2: The Czech Republic, The European Union and Northern Ireland (pp. 16–201). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Pennycook, A. (1998) English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London and New York: Routledge. Ricento, T. (2006) An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Stokes, D. (1997) Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press.

Appendix A Part I: The Language Profile of . . . 1. 2. 3.

4.

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Name and briefly describe the national/official language(s) (de jure or de facto). Name and describe the major minority language(s). Name and describe the lesser minority language(s) (include ‘dialects’, pidgins, creoles and other important aspects of language variation); the definition of minority language/dialect/pidgin will need to be discussed in terms of the sociolinguistic context. Name and describe the major religious language(s); in some polities religious languages and/or missionary policies have had a major impact on the language situation and provide de facto language planning. In some

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Series Overview

5. 6.

7.

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contexts religion has been a vehicle for introducing exogenous languages while in other cases it has served to promote indigenous languages. Name and describe the major language(s) of literacy, assuming that it is/ they are not one of those described above. Provide a table indicating the number of speakers of each of the above languages, what percentage of the population they constitute and whether those speakers are largely urban or rural. Where appropriate, provide a map(s) showing the distribution of speakers, key cities and other features referenced in the text.

Part II: Language Spread 8.

9. 10. 11.

12.

Specify which languages are taught through the educational system, to whom they are taught, when they are taught and for how long they are taught. Discuss the objectives of language education and the methods of assessment to determine that the objectives are met. To the extent possible, trace the historical development of the policies/ practices identified in items 8 and 9 (may be integrated with 8/9). Name and discuss the major media language(s) and the distribution of media by socio-economic class, ethnic group, urban/rural distinction (including the historical context where possible). For minority language, note the extent that any literature is (has been) available in the language. How has immigration effected language distribution and what measures are in place to cater for learning the national language(s) and/or to support the use of immigrant languages.

Part III: Language Policy and Planning 13. 14. 15.

16. 17.

18.

Describe any language planning legislation, policy or implementation that is currently in place. Describe any literacy planning legislation, policy or implementation that is currently in place. To the extent possible, trace the historical development of the policies/ practices identified in items 13 and 14 (may be integrated with these items). Describe and discuss any language planning agencies/organisations operating in the polity (both formal and informal). Describe and discuss any regional/international influences affecting language planning and policy in the polity (include any external language promotion efforts). To the extent possible, trace the historical development of the policies/ practices identified in items 16 and 17 (may be integrated with these items).

Part IV: Language Maintenance and Prospects 19. 20.

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Describe and discuss intergenerational transmission of the major language(s); (is this changing over time?). Describe and discuss the probabilities of language death among any of the

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21. 22.

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languages/language varieties in the polity, any language revival efforts as well as any emerging pidgins or creoles. Add anything you wish to clarify about the language situation and its probable direction of change over the next generation or two. Add pertinent references/bibliography and any necessary appendices (e.g. a general plan of the educational system to clarify the answers to questions 8, 9 and 14).

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Language Policy and Planning in Fiji, The Philippines and Vanuatu Richard B. Baldauf Jr. Associate Professor of TESOL, School of Education, University of Queensland, QLD 4072 Australia Robert B. Kaplan Professor Emeritus, Applied Linguistics, University of Southern California Mailing Address: PO Box 577, Port Angeles, WA 98362 USA

Introduction This volume brings together three language policy and planning studies related to the Pacific.1 (See the ‘Series Overview’ in this volume for a more general discussion of the nature of the series, Appendix A for the 22 questions each study set out to address, and Kaplan et al. (2000) for a discussion of our underlying concepts for the studies themselves.) In this introductory paper, rather than trying to provide a summary of the material covered in these studies, we draw out and discuss some of the more general issues raised by them. The Pacific has long held a fascination for linguists because of its linguistic and cultural diversity. Laycock (1969, cited in Mühlhäusler, 1996: 10) estimates ‘that up to 4,000 languages are spoken in the region, most of them in Melanesia where 2 million people speak one-quarter of the world’s languages.’ This diversity is perhaps best illustrated by Vanuatu, where Crowley (this volume) estimates that the 80 actively spoken languages are spoken by about 195,000 people – a population about the size of a provincial city in many countries. Although the Philippines has a much larger population (more than 81 million), it also has a large number of languages (about 120). Fiji on the other hand, which lies on the border between Melanesia and Polynesia, with a population of about 800,000, has only three predominant languages (i.e. Fijian, Hindustani and English), although Fijian is dialectalised. Many linguists have argued that this diversity is threatened in the globalising world in which we live (Crocombe, 1989; Dixon, 1991; Mühlhäusler, 1996; cf. Crowley, this volume). Given the linguistic heterogeneity in the region, this diversity also raises the emergent questions about which research model(s) would be most likely to produce reliable, valid, and objective information about the role of language in society. The social science research community has been engaged, for nearly three decades, in discussions about the ‘correct’ role of academic research. In Europe and North America this has lead to the emergence of major theoretical shifts, which, when taken together with the growing number of indigenous voices out of post-colonial societies, has generated new models to reconsider the primacy of positivist and post-positivist research. These discussions, at least to some extent, have sought ways in which positivist and post-positivist method7

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ologies might coexist. Collectively, post-positivist research, phenomenological studies and critical theory have stimulated some contribution to a more precise understanding of language in society and have contributed to the growth of robustness and subtlety applicable to social policy development. This is evident in recent work which has produced an increasing change in focus in the discipline of language planning from an almost exclusive examination of the macro to a greater interest in the micro (see, e.g. Canagarajah, 2005). However, as far back as the end of the 70s, some scholars believed that détente was emerging. The question demanding an answer was whether experimentalism was the single best model for providing reliable, valid, and objective knowledge about the role of language in society. Scientists and researchers began to discuss the possible contributions of various models – not exclusively the experimentalist model – to understanding the complexity of differing social and educational structures. The chapters in this volume show that détente may be possible. Indeed, the chapters in this volume demonstrate that positivist and post-positivist models can in fact coexist. Current Issues in Language Planning, however, does not favor any particular research model; on the contrary, much of the work on polity studies is descriptive rather than experimental. Some scholars might argue that the description of language situations is not really ‘scientific,’ but, as we have said elsewhere, thick policy description represents an effort to build a robust data source from which theoretical model building might be approached with greater subtlety.

Fiji In Fiji, different from the heavy linguistic heterogeneity characteristic of much of the region, there are only three dominant languages – Fijian, Hindustani and English – if the small numbers of speakers of immigrant languages are not considered. However, as a result of the checkerboard patterns of colonial settlement, both Fijian and Hindustani are marked by the co-existence of a number of varieties. Among the complex questions facing language planners in Fiji is the question of which of the several varieties will be privileged. There is, however, an emerging call for greater attention to the vernaculars. The emerging concern results from: (i) the loss of vernacular language fluency to English among the youth, particularly in urban settings, (ii) the evident concern that a significant portion of the population, lacking fluency in formal English, cannot access important texts – political, social, indeed in every area of life, (iii) the concern about language in the educational system and (iv) the absence of a coherent national language policy as well as a national language-in-education policy, the latter having wash back effects on teacher training, materials development, assessment of student progress, and – ultimately – funding for language-ineducation activity. While some would interpret the Fijian situation as a reaction against English, it is likely that poorly thought out language practices privileging English have played a role. The issues are not really about the usefulness of English but rather about the failure to recognise the role of vernacular languages in the communication needs of the polity.

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The Philippines The situation in the Philippines is vastly more complex simply because of the linguistic diversity of the polity – c. 120 languages – and the much larger population. Since well before independence (1946), there has been a desire to identify a ‘national’ language; indeed, while the Philippines were still a dependency of Spain (before 1900), the spirit of rebellion and the thrust to independence were being expressed in Tagalog. From the time of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the entry of the United States onto the stage, English has been an important linguistic element. (Despite the 300-year Spanish domination, the Spanish language has not been a significant linguistic factor except in the preponderance of Spanish names.) Japan occupied the Philippines from late 1941 until 1945, though the occupation was too brief to have any significant effect from Japanese language. In short, despite the internal workings of its 120 languages, the major external linguistic influence has come from English. Both the geographic distribution of the Philippine languages and the disparity in population weight have played a role in the emergence of a small number of languages as having greatest importance. Out of that smaller number of languages, Tagalog has emerged as the most important language, in part at least because it is the language of the capital city (Manila). In the more recent past, significant efforts have been made to have Tagalog, variously renamed over the past 70 years – referred to as Wikang Pambansa (‘national language’) after 1939, renamed as Pilipino in 1959, and presently called Filipino by the 1987 Constitution of the Republic – become the official national language. While the historical emergence of Tagalog is more complex and more convoluted than this oversimplified chronology would suggest, it clearly shows the attention devoted to Tagalog and the importance of the idea of a national language through the modern history of the Philippines. Despite the attention and effort dedicated to the issue of a national language, there really has never been a national language policy in the Philippines; there is evidence of discussion and debate, but little evidence of a clear plan to achieve the objectives implied in the debate. A major issue that has emerged in the most recent decades has been the need to ‘intellectualise’ Tagalog so that it may indeed serve the linguistic needs of all registers. This chapter illustrates why it is necessary to describe in chronological sequence the on-going development of Tagalog-based Pilipino, now Filipino, the national language of the Republic of the Philippines, as a language of intellectual discourse, and to offer some generalisations that may contribute to the articulation of a theory of the process of intellectualisation of a language through language planning.

Vanuatu Vanuatu is an independent republic located in the south western Pacific between Fiji (qv), the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia – an archipelago of 13 large islands and 70 smaller ones, in a Y-shape that extends over a northsouth distance of approximately 850 km – lying to the south of the Solomons and having an area of 14,760 sq km (5,699 sq miles) and a population of about 195,000, spread throughout this large number of islands of varying size. Formerly known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu gained its independence from

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joint Anglo-French colonial control in 1980. Given that this political ‘condominium’ was not established until 1906, it is possible that Vanuatu is the last part of the pre-colonial world ever to have been colonised by a European power. Vanuatu may be the world’s most linguistically diverse nation in terms of the number of actively spoken indigenous languages per head of population; at least 81 local languages are spoken by an average of only about 2,500 speakers each. This extreme linguistic – and accompanying cultural – diversity is acknowledged in the preamble to the constitution of Vanuatu: We the people of Vanuatu Proud of our struggle for freedom Determined to safeguard the achievement of this struggle Cherishing our ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity Hereby proclaim the establishment of the united and free Republic of Vanuatu. That bilingual – English/French – constitution (Art 3; ¶ 1) declares Bislama, English and French to be ‘official languages’; Bislama is declared the ‘national language’ and English and French are declared to be the ‘principal languages of education’. There is a paragraph (Art 3; ¶ 2) protecting the indigenous vernaculars, and providing for the possible elevation of any of them to the status of ‘national language’ at some time in the future. As was the case in many parts of Europe, a large number of languages in the Pacific Basin exist as dialect chains. Thus, diversity has been not only a matter of languages, but also of dialects and language boundaries – each small community having its own version of a language. As communities have become larger and more inclusive, there has been pressure on them to choose a language variety (or a variety has been chosen for them) to standardise for literacy and schooling purposes, and such a process can have the potential to reduce dialect variation and linguistic diversity. Is it better, then, not to introduce literacy for some indigenous languages, hoping that vibrant oral language communities will be more likely to sustain a language and its dialects (see e.g. Mühlhäusler 1991, 1995), or is vernacular literacy potentially a sustaining factor that will, in the long term, lead to better language maintenance at least for some languages (e.g. Crowley this volume)? While linguists may debate these issues, decisions are likely to be taken by governments, and to be implemented by development projects funded by UNESCO or the World Bank. This question is particularly relevant for Vanuatu where literacy has been introduced into primary education in the local vernaculars. Up until the 1950s the Anglo-French ‘condominium’ government left education to the missions, which generally operated their schools in the vernaculars. Because their main objective was proselytising, school and literacy were narrowly conceived – a way of bringing the gospel to the people. Written materials were mainly religious – hymnals, catechisms and parts of the New Testament, providing only restricted, if any, access to information of a political, social or cultural nature. Many of these schools did not even divide students into classes, but taught basic skills – the alphabet, memorising the catechism, then reading and writing in the vernacular. The ‘better’ students (however defined) may have been taught some English or French. (Nearly half the languages in

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Vanuatu are still not written so vernacular literacy was not available in those languages.) In the 1960 first the British, then in the spirit of competition the French, set up their own school systems – English- or French-medium primary schools, with the British also providing a secondary school and teacher training college in Port Vila. English schools were fee paying while French schools charged no fees and tried to provide better facilities to attract more students to study in French. The vernacular languages and Bislama were not used in these schools and were even prohibited, since schools and parents saw education in the metropolitan language as a key to economic advancement (Thomas, 1990). Vanuatu is currently involved in an effort to standardise its national language, Bislama – actually a pidgin. English and French are official languages and languages of education in Vanuatu, but despite this status, English and French have only become the first languages of a very small minority of the population. Echoing some of the fears to be found in Fiji, vernacular languages have acquired the focus of attention.

Summary Comments Thus, the discourse represented in these three studies varies from the more traditional descriptive to the more post-modern, and from the macro to issues of more micro consequence. Table 1 suggests the diversity of the polities represented in the areal volumes published to date in this series varies along virtually any scale one wishes to apply. The emergence of the EU created a platform from which the diversity of Europe can confront some common problems, but, as Van Els (2006) suggests, the EU has done relatively little about the language diversity among its member states, perhaps precisely because the organisation has insisted on the sanctity of its linguistic diversity. If, as the guiding documents of the EU suggest, ‘The Union shall respect cultural, religious and linguistic diversity,’ that diversity, now locked into policy, creates both great expense (in the form of translation2 into and out of all of the languages of the member states), and the impossibility of a solution both to the expense and the administrative complexity. While there is a functioning supraordinal entity in Europe, the situation in the Pacific Basin is more complex; there is no international organisation passing rules which apply to its member states; rather, independence is rampant. It is interesting to note the extent to which the respective Ministries of Education are basically responsible for language policy. In all the polities listed, it is the Ministry of Education that is responsible for first language education. It is also of interest that the number of the minority languages that will be given serious consideration is defined by the Ministries of Education. It is apparent that smaller language communities do not have the resources for extensive language education. Thus, there is a need to provide language support for minorities, and a need to explore the difficulties this need poses for all the polities under discussion here. It is interesting that all of the Pacific Basin polities under discussion are struggling with a number of issues. First, all have English as a world language; as a result, all are faced with the problem that no indigenous language is sufficiently

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Table 1 Basic facts pertaining to the polities (Expanded from Europe II, 2006) Country Name

Population

Area in Sq. Km.

GDP* in billions US$

Czech Republic

c. 10,272,179

78,703

$116.7

Fiji Finland Hungary

Type of Government Parliamentary Democracy

c. 832,494

7,078

$5.4

Republic

c.5,167,486

337,030

$103.6

Republic

c. 10,000,000

93,000

$75.4

Republic

Northern Ireland

c. 1,688,600

14,121

NA

Philippines

c.81,159,644

300,000

$270.5

Republic

Part of UK

Sweden

c. 9,000,000

449,000

$175.0

Constitutional Monarchy

Vanuatu

c.180,618

14,760

$240.0

Republic

*GDP = Gross Domestic Product

elaborated to function in all possible ranges of discourse. That realisation brings two major issues to the fore: (1) (2)

Is it essential to identify and develop one language as the national language for political unity and educational efficiency? and Which of the indigenous languages or dialects will be promoted to standardisation?

In turn, the answer to the second question (assuming that the answer to the first question is ‘Yes’) gives rise to a new set of questions: (3) (4) (5)

What does ‘standardisation’ mean in lexical, grammatical and rhetorical terms? Who will do the standardising, over what amount of time, at what cost? How will the ‘standard’ version be promulgated through the population, over what time duration, starting when in relation to the learners’ ages, through what societal mechanisms?

All of these Pacific polities report low rates of literacy. (The meaning of ‘literacy’ is not uniform across the polities, and the problem is simply augmented by the fact that the polities support different points of termination for formal schooling.) In sum, in all of the polities, basic long-term policies have been directed toward assimilation (perhaps an inevitable outcome of standardisation). While these polities share a number of common educational, social and economic problems, the approach to problem solution tends to be largely restricted within the polity; there is relatively little evidence of broader solutions. (For example, the languages spoken in Vanuatu are linguistically similar to Fijian, but Fiji and Vanuatu do not seek joint solutions or pool their resources to reduce overhead costs.) At the same time, the environment (i.e. ‘globalisation’) has exacerbated problems relating to the role and reach of English as a language of wider communication. There is no question that English has assumed an important role

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(as for that matter have Arabic, French and Mandarin). Not only has the role of English changed, but attempts at enriching vernacular languages have also created a significant terminological issue, since it is probably desirable that terminology should be consistent. These matters have placed great pressure of language policy practitioners with respect to language maintenance in the context of both inter-polity and intra-polity use. More common issues will be apparent to the reader. We hope that this areal volume (and its companions) will better serve the needs of specialists. It is our intent to publish other areal volumes subsequently. We will do so in the hope that such volumes will be of interest to areal scholars and others interested in language policies and language planning in geographically coherent regions. (See the Series Overview elsewhere in this volume for more detail on our future plans.) Notes 1. The studies in this volume were previously published as follows: Fiji: Current Issues in Language Planning 4 (3&4), 367–456; The Philippines: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 19 (5&6): 487–525; and Vanuatu: Current Issues in Language Planning 1 (1), 47–132. Authors’ updates to their studies for Fiji – taking into account major changes in the language planning and policy situations relevant to the subject of the study – follow that monograph as an addendum to the original article, while the Philippines monograph has been updated by the author. 2. The problem of translation is not just one of expense, but is also related to the fact that it is so massive an exercise because of the number of languages involved that translation into lesser used languages is often done via one of the major languages – often English. Tosi (2004) argues that this process, along with the use of language work-benches, translation tools which draw on already translated stock phrases, means that translations into, e.g., Italian, may often be hard to recognise as standard Italian, and in some cases may not be comprehensible. Eventually such translation problems will need to be addressed if the EU equality-of-languages policy is going to be anything more than symbolic. EU translation problems are small by comparison to those that would be needed to meet the needs of the Pacific. Perhaps for this reason, lingua franca pidgins and creoles have arisen, and English has spread to meet the interlingual communication needs. (See, e.g., Baldauf & Djité, 2002.)

References Baldauf, R.B., Jr. and Djité, P. (2002) Australasia and the South Pacific. In J. Maurais and M.A. Morris (eds) Languages in a Globalising World (pp. 217–27). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Canagarajah, A.S. (2005) Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Crocombe, R.G. (1989) The South Pacific: An Introduction. Christchurch: Institute of Pacific Studies. Crowley, T. (1989) Language issues and national development in Vanuatu. In István Fodor and Claude Hagège (eds.) Language Reform: History and Future, Vol. IV (pp. 111– 39). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Dixon, R.M.W. (1991) The endangered languages of Australia, Indonesia and Oceania. In R.H. Robins and E.M. Uhlenbeck (eds) Endangered languages (pp. 229–55). Oxford: BERG. Kaplan, R.B., Baldauf, R.B., Jr., Liddicoat, A.J., Bryant, P., Barbaux, M.-T. and Pütz, M. (2000) Current issues in language planning. Current Issues in Language Planning 1, 135–44. Mühlhäusler, P. (2000) Kommunikationale Probleme der Anglikanischen Mission in Melanesien und deren Lösung. Paper presented at the Hagen Conference, Interd-

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isziplinäres Kolloquium Kommunikation an Kulturellen Grenzen Akteure, Formen, Folgen, 11–12 January 2000, FernUniversität, Gesamthochschule in Hagen. Mühlhäusler, P. (1996) Linguistic Ecology: Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region. London: Routledge. Mühlhäusler, P. (1995) The interdependence of linguistic and biological diversity. In D. Myers (ed.) The Politics of Multiculturalism in the Asia-Pacific (pp. 154–61). Darwin: University of the Northern Territory. Mühlhäusler, P. (1991) Intercultural communication in the Pacific Area in precolonial days. Paper presented at the Fifth Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Honolulu. Thomas, A. (1990) Language planning in Vanuatu. In R.B. Baldauf, Jr. and A. Luke (eds) Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (pp. 234–258). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Tosi, A. (2004) The language situation in Italy. Current Issues in Language Planning 5 (3), 247–335. van Els, T.J.M. (2006) The European Union, its institutions and its languages: Some political observations. In R.B. Baldauf, Jr. and R.B. Kaplan (eds) Language Planning and Policy in Europe, Vol. 2: The Czech Republic, The European Union and Northern Ireland (pp. 202–56). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Further Reading Fiji Calder, A. (1996) Language, empire and the ‘home colonies’. Span: Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature & Language Studies 42–43, 1–14. Crowley, T. (1984) Pacific languages: Directions for the future. Language Planning Newsletter 10 (4), 1–2. Geraghty, P. (1989) The reawakening of the Fijian language. Ethnies: Droits de l’homme et peuples autochtones 8/9/10, 91–5. Hindson, C. (1985) Post-primary school non-academic alternatives: A south Pacific study. Comparative Education 21 (2), 135–56. Mangubhai, F. (1987a) Literacy in Fiji: Its orgins and its development. Interchange 18 (1–2), 124–35. Mangubhai, F. (1987b) Literacy in the South Pacific: Some multilingual and multiethnic issues. In D.A. Wagner (ed.) The Future of Literacy in a Changing World (pp. 186–206). Oxford: Pergamon. Mugler, F. (2000) South-East Asia and the South Pacific. Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (pp. 237–41). India: Sage. Shameem, N. and Reed, J. (1996) Administering a performance test in Fiji Hindi. In G. Wigglesworth and C. Elder (eds) The Language Testing Cycle: From Inception to Washback (pp. 80–104). Canberra: Applied Linguistics Association of Australia. Siegel, J. (1987) Language at the University of the South Pacific. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (1), 53–63.

The Philippines Alberca, W.L. (1990) The continuing controversy: Agreement or disagreement over the bilingual education policy. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 21 (1), 67–76. Alberca, W.L. (1998) Language agenda for the Philippines in the third millennium: The case for English. In M. Bautista and S. Lourdes (eds) Pagtanaw: Essays on Language in Honor of Teodoro A. Llamzon (pp. 158–69). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Almario, V.S. (1988) Wika at kritisismo [Language and criticism]. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 75–81. Anderson, B. (1996) Colonial language policies in Indonesia and the Philippines: A contrast in intended aims and unintended outcomes. In L. Garcia-Moreno and P.C. Pfeiffer (eds) Text and Nation: Cross-Disciplinary Essays on Cultural and National Identities (pp. 17–27). Columbia, SC: Camden House.

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Ang, G.R. (1978) The Filipino as a bilingual or multilingual: Some implications. Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 6, 187–9. Bajunid, I.A. (1996) Using two/three languages in Philippine classrooms: Implications for policies, strategies and practices. A response. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 17 (2–4), 220–24. Bartens, A. (2001) The rocky road to education in Creole. Estudios de Sociolinguistica 2 (2), 27–56. Baumgartner, J. (1977) The national language, bilingualism, and literacy: Some questions on the current policy. Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 5, 266–70. Baumgartner, J. (1989) The controversy about the National Language: Some Observations. Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society 17 (2), 168–72. Bautista, M.L.S. (1988) The parameters of intellectualization-Applications to Filipino. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 35–44. Bautista, M.L.S. (1990) The bilingual education policy: Its problems and promise for La Salle Schools. De la Salle University Graduate Journal 15 (2), 1–11. Bautista, M.L.S. (2004) Researching English in the Philippines: Bibliographical resources. World Englishes 23 (1), 199–210. Bauzon, L.E. (1991) Language planning and education in Philippine history. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 88, 101–19. Benton, R.A. (1987) Language rights in a Philippine setting. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 18–19 (2–1), 73–90. Bresnahan, M.J. (1978) Language policy in the Philippines. The SECOL Bulletin: Southeastern Conference on Linguistics 2 (2), 38–44. Bresnahan, M.J. (1979) English in the Philippines. Journal of Communication 29 (2), 64–71. Bumatay, R.T. (1988) The semiotics of written discourse in a new language. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 13–17. Clements, R.J. (1977) The language dilemma in the literature of emerging countries (with particular emphasis on Asia and the South Pacific). World Literature Today 51 (4), 553–9. Constantino, P.C. (1990) Pagpaplanong Pangwika tungo sa Modernisasyon: Karanasan ng Malaysia, Indonesia at Pilipinas. Daluyan 1 (2), 15–20. Cristobal, A. (1987) Philippines’ elite must learn the language of the poor. Far Eastern Economic Review 138 (44), 27–27. Cruz, I.R. (1986) English and Tagalog in Philippine literature: A study of literacy bilingualism. World Englishes 5 (2/3), 163–76. David, R.S. (1996) Politika ng Wika, Wika ng Politika. Daluyan 7 (1–2), 19–28. De Quiros, C. (1996) Ang Kapangyarihan ng Wika, Ang Wika ng Kapangyarihan. Daluyan 7 (1–2), 29–35. DeCicco, G. and Maring, J.M. (1983) Diglossia, Regionalism, and National Language Policy: A Comparison of Spain and the Philippines. In A.W. Miracle, Jr., R.L. Blakely and N.C. England (eds) Bilingualism: Social Issues and Policy Implications (pp. 38–53). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. Dominguez Moreno, E. (1999) El proceso de desaparicion del castellano en Filipinas. Revista Filipina: a Quarterly Journal of Hispano-Philippine Literature & Linguistics 2 (4), (no pagination). Doronila, M.L.C. (1997) A Research and Development Approach to the Delivery of Comprehensive Functional Education and Literacy in the Philippines. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED418217. Dosio Rodriguez, M. (2003) The language policy of Spain in America and the Philippines [Sixteenth – Nineteenth Centuries]. Moenia 9, 522–4. Dyen, I. (1972) The Philippine national language problem. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–12). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Elkins, R.E. (1990) Some comments on language enrichment. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 21 (1), 98–9.

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Fernandez, M. (2001) Why Chabacano?; Por que el chabacano? Estudios de Sociolinguistica 2 (2), i–xii. Florentino, A.S. (1986) What price Filipino writing in English. English Today 2 (2), 36–8. Gaerlan, B.S. (1998) The politics and pedagogy of language use at the University of Philippines: The history of English as the medium of instruction and the challenge mounted by Filipino. Dissertation Abstracts International, A (Humanities and Social Sciences) 59 (2), 399. Garcia, R.L. (1987) Global Perspectives on Language Policy and Education. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED288357. Gonzales, A. (1972) The future of English in Asia. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–15). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Gonzalez, A.B. (1974) The 1973 constitution and the bilingual education policy of the Department of Education and Culture. Philippine Studies 22 (3–4), 325–37. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1980) Becoming bilingual in English in a Philippine setting: A partial report of a Manila sample. In L.K. Boey (ed.) Bilingual Education (pp. 177–206). Singapore: Singapore University Press. Gonzalez, A. (1983) Evaluating the Philippine bilingual education policy. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 14–15 (2–1), 46–65. Gonzalez, A. (1985) Language use surveys in the Philippines (1968–1983). International Journal of the Sociology of Language 55, 57–77. Gonzalez, A. (1988a) The intellectualization of Filipino-Agenda for the twenty-first century. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 3–6. Gonzalez, A. B. (1988b) Philippine language policy today. New Language Planning Newsletter 2 (3), 1–3. Gonzalez, A. (1988c) The 1987 policy on bilingual education. New Language Planning Newsletter 2 (3), 3–5. Gonzalez, A. (1988d) English language teaching and the new constitution: Problems and prospects. Philippine Studies 36, 485–93. Gonzalez, A. (1989a) Sociolinguistics in the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 20 (1), 57–8. Gonzalez, A. (1989b) Language and nationalism in the Philippines: An update. New Language Planning Newsletter 4 (2), 1–3. Gonzalez, A. (1990a) Evaluation bilingual education in the Philippines: Towards a multidimensional model of evaluation in language planning. In R.B. Baldauf, Jr. and A. Luke (eds) Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific (pp. 319–34). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Gonzalez, A. (1990b) Evaluating bilingual education in the Philippines: Towards a multidimensional model of evaluation in language planning. In M. Halliday, J. Gibbons and H. Nicholas (eds) Learning, Keeping, and Using Language: Selected Papers from the 8th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Sydney, 16–21 August 1987, I & II (pp. 153–161). Amsterdam: Benjamins. Gonzalez, A. (1991) Studies on language and society in the Philippines: State of the art. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 88, 5–17. Gonzalez, A. (1993) An overview of language and development. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 14 (1–2), 5–23. Gonzalez, A. (1994) Language standards and standardization. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 25 (1–2), 43–51. Gonzalez, A. (2002) Language planning and intellectualisation. Current Issues in Language Planning 3 (1), 5–27. Gonzalez, A. and Alberca, W.L. (1991) Language and politics in the Philippines: A bibliographical survey. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 22 (1–2), 61–70. Gonzalez, A. and Bajunid, I.A. (1996) Using two/three languages in Philippine classrooms: Implications for policies, strategies, and practices [and] A Response. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 17 (2–4), 210–24. Gonzalez, A. and Bautista, M.L.S. Language Surveys in the Philippines (1966–1984). Manilla: De La Salle University Press.

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Gonzalez, A. and Cruz, I.R. (1988) The intellectualization of Filipino: A theoretical base for teaching training. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 113–14. Gonzalez, A. and McHanghan, H.P. (1983) Panagani: Language planning, implementation and evaluation: Essays in honor of Bonifacio P. Sibayan on his sixty-seventh birthday. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 14–15 (2–1). Gonzalez, A. and Postrado, L. (1976) The dissemination of Pilipino. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 7 (1–2), 60–84. Goulet, R.M. (1985) Language policies in the Philippines. Social Education 49 (2), 113–14. Gupta, A.F. (1985) Language status planning in the ASEAN countries. In D. Bradley (ed.) Papers in South-East Asian Linguistics No. 9: Language Policy, Language Planning and Sociolinguistics in South-East Asia (pp. 1–14). Canberra: Australian National University. Hidalgo, C.A. (1970) Responsible nationalism through linguistics. The Diliman Review 18, 232–47. Hidalgo, C.A. (1998) Language choice in a multilingual society: The case of the Philippines. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 130, 23–33. Kapili, L.V. (1988) Requiem for English? English Today 4 (4), 30–35. Kaplan, R.B. (1982) The language situation in the Philippines. Linguistic Reporter 24 (5), 1–4. Kaplan, R.B. (1987) English in the language policy of the Pacific rim. World Englishes 6 (2), 137–48. Kaplan, R.B. and Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (2003) Language planning in the Philippines. In Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin (pp. 63–82). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Kelz, H.P. (1981) Sprachplanung auf den Philippinen und die Entwicklung einer philippinischen Nationalsprache [Language planning in the Philippines and the development of a Philippine national language]. Language Problems & Language Planning 5 (2), 115–136. Lansang, A.P. (1978) The problem met in the use of Pilipino in Northern Luzon. Saint Louis University Research Journal 9, 611–22. Lent, J.A. (1990) The development of multicultural stability in ASEAN: The role of mass media. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 1, 45–59. Lingan, A.H. (1985) The threshold level in Pilipino as a second language: A Region II sample. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 16–17 (2–1), 71–9. Llamzon, T.A., S.J. (1972) The writing of the grammar of the national language. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–19). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Llamzon, T.A., S.J. (1973) The integrative function of language: Do we need a national language to unite us? Philippine Studies 21, 259–67. Llamzon, T.A., S.J. (1979) English in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. English Around the World 21(Nov), 4,6. Llamzon, T.A., S.J. (1983) The status of English in Metro Manila today. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 14–15 (2–1), 106–21. Luzares, C. E. (1982) Languages-in-education in the Philippines. In R.B. Kaplan et al. (eds) Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 2 (pp. 122–8). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Martin, D. (1968) Language, education, and literacy. Silliman Journal 15, 414–26. Miller, J.R. (1981) The politics of Philippine national language policy. Language Problems & Language Planning 5 (2), 137–52. Nical, I., Smolicz, J.J. and Secombe, M.J. (2004) Rural students and the Philippine bilingual education program on the island of Leyte. In J.W. Tollefson and A.B.M. Tsui (eds) Medium of Instruction Policies: Which Agenda? Whose Agenda? (pp. 153–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Ortiz Armengol, P. (1988) La lengua espanola en las filipinas [The Spanish language in the Philippines]. Boletin de la Academia Hondurena de la Lengua 28 (30), 119–22. Otanes, F.T. and Sibayan, B.P. (1968) Language Policy Survey of the Philippines: Initial Report. Manila: Philippine Normal College Language Study Center.

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Pascasio, E.M. (1990) Dynamics of language and identity: Some Philippine data. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 21 (1), 55–61. Paterno, A. (1977) Toward the standardization of Pilipino orthography: Standardizing the spelling of Spanish loans assimilated into Tagalog. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 8 (1–2), 52–69. Pauwels, A. and Winter, J. (2004) Generic pronouns and gender-inclusive language reform in the English of Singapore and the Philippines. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 27 (2), 50–62. Pineda, P.B.P. (1972) The national language policy of the Philippines. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–9). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Pineda, P.B.P. (1973) Don Jaime C. De Veyra: Exponent of national language. Leyte-Samar Studies 7 (2), 26–31. Pineda, P.B.P. (1988) Batas Pilipino sa wikang Filipino [Philippine Law in the Filipino Language]. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 71–4. Pineda, P.B.P. (1990) Filipino in the constitution: A case for language planning. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 21(2), 31–7. Randall, R.A. (1983) Ten languages or two? Southern Philippine multilingualism and inadequacies in the Philippines’ policy on bilingual education. In A. W. Miracle, Jr., R. L. Blakely and N. C. England (eds) Bilingualism: Social Issues and Policy Implications (pp. 57–69). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. Samonte, A.L. (1981) Teaching English for international and intranational purposes: Philippine context. In L.E. Smith, B.B. Kachru and R. Quirk (eds) English for Cross-Cultural Communication (pp. 74–82). New York: St Martin’s Press. Sibayan, B.P. (1966) Should we teach Filipinos to speak like Americans? Philippine Journal of Education 44 (10), 736–90. Sibayan, B.P. (1967) The implementation of language policy. In M. Ramos, J.V. Aguilar and B.P. Sibayan (eds) The Determination and Implementation of Language Policy (pp. 126–89). Quezon City: Alemar-Phoenic Publishing House. Sibayan, B.P. (1970) Some studies in language acquisition and on varieties of English pronunciation: Their relevance in English language programs. RELC Journal 1 (1), 57–65. Sibayan, B.P. (1971) Language planning processes and the language-policy survey in the Philippines. In J. Rubin and B.H. Jernudd (eds) Can Language Be Planned? Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice for Developing Nations (pp. 123–40). Honolulu: East West Center. Sibayan, B.P. (1971) Language policy, language engineering, and literacy: The Philippines. In T.A. Sebeok, J. Bowen, Donald, I. Dyen, G.W. Grace, S.A. Wurm and G.N. O’Grady (eds) Current Trends in Linguistics Vol. II (pp. 1038–62). Mouton: The Hague. Sibayan, B.P. (1972) The national language of the Philippines: The role of sociolinguistic studies in its development. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–20). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Sibayan, B.P. (1974) Language policy, language engineering and literacy in the Philippines. In J.A. Fishman (ed.) Advances in Language Planning (pp. 221–54). The Hague: Mouton. Sibayan, B.P. (1975) Survey of language use and attitudes towards language in the Philippines. In S. Ohannessian, C.A. Ferguson and E.C. Polome (eds) Language Surveys in Developing Nations: Papers and Reports on Sociolinguistic Surveys (pp. 115–43). Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics. Sibayan, B.P. (1978) The influence of nationalism on Philippine language planning. In S. Udin (ed.) Essays Presented to Sultan Takddir Alisjahbana on his Seventieth Birthday (pp. 486–98). Jakarta: Diyan Rakyat. Sibayan, B.P. (1981) Teaching of sociolinguistics: A report on plans and activities for the updating of English teaching in the Philippines. Sociolinguistics Newsletter 12 (1), 30–33. Sibayan, B.P. (1984) Some Philippine sociolinguistic concerns: 1967–1992. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 45, 127–37.

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Sibayan, B.P. (1985) Some thoughts on sociolinguistic research and language planning in the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 16–17 (2–1), 61–3. Sibayan, B.P. (1986) Linguistic minorities and bilingual communities in the Philippines. In R.B. Kaplan et al. (eds) Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 6 (pp. 152–68). New York: Cambridge University Press. Sibayan, B.P. (1988) Terms and points of reference in intellectualization with particular reference to Filipino. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 19 (2), 7–12. Sibayan, B.P. (1991) The intellectualization of Filipino. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 88, 69–82. Sibayan, B.P. (1994) The role and status of English vis-à-vis Filipino and other languages in the Philippines. In John T.K.-T. Kandiah (ed.) English and Language Planning: A Southeast Asian Contribution (pp. 218–41). Singapore: Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore/Times Academic Press. Sibayan, B.P. (1994) Philippine language problems. In J.E. Acuña (ed.) The Language Issue in Education (pp. 47–86). Manila and Quezon City: Congressional Oversight Committee, Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. (1997) Beginnings of sociolinguistics in the Philippines. In C.B. Paulson and G.R. Tucker (eds) The Early Days of Sociolinguistics: Memories and Reflections (pp. 217–24). Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Sibayan, B.P. (1998) Reflections on some dilemmas posed by literacy in English, Filipino and the Philippine vernaculars. In M.L.S. Bautista (ed.) Pagtanaw: Essays in Honor of Teodoro A. Llamzon (pp. 149–57). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. (1999a) Language planning in the Philippines: A historical perspective with English in Focus. Journal of Asian English Studies 2 (1–2), 1–16. Sibayan, B.P. (1999b) The Intellectualization of Filipino and Other Essays on Education and Sociolinguistics. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. (1999c) A suggested one hundred year timetable for the intellectualization of Filipino. The Intellectualization of Filipino and other Essays on Education and Sociolinguistics (pp. 229–40). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. (2000) Resulting patterns of sociolinguistic, socioeconomic and cultural practice and behavior after more that four hundred years of language policy and practice in the Philippines. In M.L.S. Bautista, T.A. Llamzon and B.P. Sibayan (eds) Parangalcang Brother Andrew: Festschrift for Andrew Gonzales on his Sixtieth Birthday (pp. 247–261). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. and Gonzalez, A.B. (1988) Policy implications and recommendations. In A. Gonzalez and B.P. Sibayan (eds) Evaluating Bilingual Education in the Philippines (1974– 1985) (pp. 143–8). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. and Gonzalez, A.B. (1995) The Komisyon Ng Wikang Filipino and the intellectualization of Filipino. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 26 (1–2), 107–26. Sibayan, B.P. and Gonzalez, A.B. (1996) Post-imperial English in the Philippines. In J.A. Fishman et al. (eds) Post-Imperial English: Status Change in former British and American colonies, 1940–1990 (pp. 139–72). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Sibayan, B.P., Gonzalez, A.B., Otanes, F., Arong, J. and Moortgat, L. (1987) Bilingual education policy study: Other factors, not bilingual education policy, to blame for decline of achievement scores. New Language Planning Newsletter 1 (4), 1–2. Sibayan, B.P., Gonzalez, A.B., Arong, J., Otanes, F. and Moortgat, L. (1988) Measuring achievement and its factors after eleven years of bilingual schooling. In A. Gonzalez and B.P. Sibayan (eds) Evaluating Bilingual Education in the Philippines (1974–1985) (pp. 5–61). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Silliman, R.G. (1976) The Visayans and Pilipino: A study of regional elite attitudes, nationalism, and language planning in the Phillipines. Dissertation Abstracts International 37, 270A. Smolicz, J.J. (1984) National language policy in the Philippines: A comparative study of the educational status of colonial and indigenous languages with special reference to minority tongues. South East Asian Journal of Social Science 12 (2), 51–67. Smolicz, J.J. (1984) Is the monolingual nation-state out-of-date? A comparative study

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of language policies in Australia and the Philippines. Comparative Education 20 (2), 265–85. Smolicz, J.J. (1986) National language policy in the Philippines: A comparative study of the educational status of ‘colonial’ and indigenous languages with special reference to minority tongues. In B. Spolsky (ed.) Language and Education in Multilingual Settings (pp. 96–116). San Diego: College Hill. Smolicz, J. (1996) Language policies and minority rights: Australia and the Philippines. Curriculum and Teaching 11 (2), 77–94. Tinio, R. (1990) A matter of language: Where English fails. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. Tollefson, J.W. (1986) Language policy and the radical left in the Philippines: The New People’s Army and its antecedents. Language Problems & Language Planning 10 (2), 177–89. Tucker, G.R., Taylor, D.M. and Reyes, E. (1971) Ethnic group interaction in a multiethnic society. International Journal of Psychology 6 (3), 217–22. Tucker, G.R. (1988) Educational language policy in the Philippines: A case study. In P.H. Lowenberg (ed.) Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1987 (pp. 331–41). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Tupas, T.R.F. (2003) History, language planners, and strategies of forgetting: The problem of consciousness in the Philippines. Language Problems & Language Planning 27(1), 1–25. Tupas, T.R.F. (2004) The politics of Philippine English: Neocolonialism, global politics, and the problem of post-colonialism. World Englishes 23 (1), 47–58. Villacorta, W.V. (1991) The politics of language in the third world: Toward theory building. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 88, 33–44. Wolfenden, E.P. (1972) Developing cultural minority language skills. In A.Q. Perez and A.O. Santiago (eds) Proceedings of the Conference on Language Policy and Language Development of Asian Countries (pp. 1–5). Manila: Pambansang Samahan Sa Linggwistikang Pilipino. Yabes, L.Y. (1970) Developing a national language for Philippines. In S.T. Alisjahbana (ed.) The Modernization of Languages in Asia (pp. 120–33). Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Society of Asian Studies. Yabes, L.Y. (1973) Let’s study the new constitution: The language provision. Philippine Social Sciences & Humanities Review 38 (i/ii), 1–173. Yabes, L. (1977) History of Pilipino as the common national language. In B.P. Sibayan and A.B. Gonzalez (eds) Language Planning and the Building of a National Language. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Yabes, L.Y. (1981) Language policy and equality of opportunity for advancement. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 12 (1), 1–10.

Vanuatu Beevers, R. (1984) Vanuatu. In R.M. Thomas and T.N. Postlethwaite (eds) Schooling in the Pacific Islands: Colonies in Transition (pp. 145–64). Oxford: Pergamon. Benton, R. A. (1981) The Flight of the Amokura: Oceanic Languages and Formal Education in the South Pacific. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Centre, P.C.R. (1981) Report of the Vanuatu Language Planning Conference. Port Vila: University of South Pacific Centre. Crowley, T. (1990) The position of Melanesian Pidgin in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. In J.W.M. Verhaar (ed.) Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin: Proceedings of the First International Conference of Pidgins and Creoles in Melanesia. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Crowley, T. (1999) The socially responsible lexicographer in Oceania. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 20 (1), 1–12. Kaplan, R.B. and Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (2003) Language planning in Melanisa (pp. 185–200). In Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Lindstrom, L. (1983) Say what? Language and political boundries on Tanna (Vanuatu). Anthropological Linguistics 25, 387–403.

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Lotherington, H. (1996) A consideration of the portability and supportability of immersion education: A critical look at English immersion in Melanesia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 17 (5), 349–59. Lynch, J. and Mugler, F. (2002) Pacific languages of the University of the South Pacific. Current Issues in Language Planning 3 (1), 76–81. Mangubhai, F. (1987) Literacy in the South Pacific: Some multilingual and multiethnic issues. In D.A. Wagner (ed.) The Future of Literacy in a Changing World (pp. 186–206). Oxford: Pergamon. Siegel, J. (1987) Language at the University of the South Pacific. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (1), 53–63. Topping, D.M. (1982) Language planning issues in Vanuatu. Language Planning Newsletter 8 (2), 1–2, 6. Trann Ngoc, A. (1996) Situation et appui a l’enseignement des langues maternelles au Vuanatu, a Wallis et Futuna et en Nouvelle-Caledonie dans le Pacifique-Sud francophone [The Situation and Support for Native-Language Instruction in Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and New Caledonia in French-speaking South Pacific]. Etudes de Linguistique Appliquee 103 (July–Sept), 323–8. Tyron, D.T. and Charpentier, J.-M. (1989) Linguistic problems in Vanuatu. Ethnies: Droits de l’homme et Peuples Autochtones 8/9/10, 13–17.

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The Language Situation in Fiji* Francis Mangubhai The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia

France Mugler The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji After Papua New Guinea (PNG), Fiji is the second largest island nation in the Southwest Pacific and the hub of the region. Nearly all Fiji Islanders have either Fijian or Fiji Hindi as their first language, in roughly equal numbers, while the former colonial language, English, with very few native speakers, has retained an important role, particularly as medium of instruction and lingua franca. Although the Constitution nominally gives these three languages equal status, the vernaculars, including some minority languages, remain the main media of communication, while English dominates in most official spheres. In spite of frequent pronouncements about the importance of vernaculars, little planning takes place, and there is little recognition of non-standard dialects.

Keywords: Fiji, language planning, education, Hindi, Fijian Introduction Fiji is an independent nation located in the middle of the Southwestern Pacific, about 2500 km northeast of the nearest point in Australia, on the Queensland coast (about 3100 km from Sydney and 2000 km north of New Zealand. Fiji’s closest island neighbours, clockwise from the southwest, are Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, and Tonga (see Figure 1). While Fiji is a microstate in terms of population and land size, the archipelago of over 300 islands covers 18,376 square km (7078 sq. mi.), and its size and location make it the hub of the region, with an important economic and political role in the South Pacific. The ancestors of the indigenous Fijians are believed to have started moving out of their southeast Asian homeland about 3500 years ago, sweeping across Melanesia then east to their present location, at the crossroads of Melanesia and Polynesia. First contact with European explorers was followed by the arrival of marooned or runaway sailors, beachcombers, traders in sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (sea slug), then missionaries (Derrick, 1950). Fiji became a British colony in 1874, and between 1879 and 1915 the Colonial Government brought in about 60,000 labourers from India under the indenture system to work on plantations, particularly of sugarcane (Lal, 1983). Fiji became independent in 1970, and suffered coups d’état in 1987 and 2000. In the aftermath of the two coups in 1987, Fiji became a republic, and since the promulgation of the 1997 Constitution, it has been officially known as the Republic of the Fiji Islands. According to the latest census (1996) the population of Fiji is slightly under 800,000 people (currently estimated to be just above 800,000), of whom nearly 51% are indigenous Fijians and almost 44% Indo-Fijians (or ‘Fiji Indians’1), the vast majority of whom are descendants of indentured labourers. The remaining 22 The Language Situation in Fiji

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Figure 1 The South Pacific. Source: Digital Chart of the World, 2000. Projection: Transverse Mercator GIS Unit, USP, 2003

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Figure 2 The Fiji Islands. Source: Department of Lands and Surveys, Fiji. Projection Transverse Mercator. GIS Unit USP, 2003

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Table 1 Population of Fiji by ethnic group – 1996 census Numbers

%

Fijians

393,575

50.8

Indians

338,818

43.7

Part-Europeans

11,685

1.5

Other Pacific Islanders

10,463

1.3

Rotumans

9,727

1.3

Chinese

4,939

0.6

Europeans

3,103

0.4

All Others

2,767

0.4

Total

775,077

100

Compiled from: Fiji Islands Statistics Bureau of Statistics < http://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/ > Note: The ‘racial’ labels are those used by the Bureau.

5% or so of the population comprise Rotumans, other Pacific Islanders, Chinese, ‘Europeans’ (as Caucasians or ‘Whites’ are known locally), ‘part-Europeans’, and other people of mixed ancestry (see Table 1). About a third of Fiji’s 320 or so islands are inhabited, with the bulk of the population living on the two largest islands, Vitilevu (4109 sq. mi.; 10,642 sq. km) and Vanualevu (2242 sq. mi.; 5807 sq. km). The next largest islands are Taveuni and Kadavu, and important small island groups include Lau, Lomaiviti, and the Yasawas (Figure 2). While indigenous Fijians are found in all parts of the country, the vast majority of Indo-Fijians live either in the cities and towns or in the ‘sugarcane belt’, on or near the coasts of the Western Side of Vitilevu (approximately between Sigatoka and Rakiraki) and in the north of Vanualevu (particularly in and around Labasa). The main population centres are Suva, the capital, Lautoka, the only other city (known as the ‘Sugar City’), and other towns on Vitilevu (Nadi, Ba, Tavua, Sigatoka, Rakiraki, Vatukoula) and Vanualevu (Labasa, Savusavu), and Levuka, the capital in colonial days (‘the Old Capital’), on the small but historically important island of Ovalau. While there are concentrations of population on some of the smaller islands, the rest of the country can be characterised as rural. Suva is home to nearly one third of the country’s population and over half of all urban dwellers, a fairly high degree of urbanisation for a developing country that markets its image to tourists as an island paradise. As in many other Pacific Island countries, there is a constant drift towards the urban areas. The transport and communications system is fairly well developed, with bus services covering most districts on the major islands, and taxis available even in some rural areas. Inter-island sea and air transport links are also extensive. Nearly all islands can be reached by regular phone or radiotelephone, and the last few years have seen a boom in mobile phones. Nearly half of all households have television and/or video. Newspapers are available practically everywhere, but radio is by far the most important communication medium, with several government and private FM channels.

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Tourism has recently passed sugar as the main revenue earner. Indeed, the future of the sugar industry is in doubt, as preferential prices come to an end and many leases on land owned by indigenous Fijians, but farmed mostly by Indo-Fijians, expire and are not being renewed. Other sources of revenue include exports of garments, gold, timber and wood chips, fish, and tropical agricultural products such as copra, coconut oil, and ginger. Fiji is home to the seats of many international and regional organisations, such as the European Commission and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Pacific Forum and the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation (SPEC). It also hosts regional educational and training institutions, such as the Pacific Regional Seminary (PRS), the Pacific Theological College (PTC) and the University of the South Pacific (USP). The Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), the Fiji School of Nursing (FSN), and the Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT) also welcome students from other Pacific Island nations.

Language Profile of Fiji Fiji is characterised by the predominance of two languages, Fijian and Fiji Hindi, a local, non-standard variety of Hindi, which together are the native languages of about 95% of the population. Although English is spoken natively by probably no more than 1% to 3% of Fiji Islanders, it retains an important role, mostly inherited from its past as the colonial language and reinforced by its current status as the main regional and international lingua franca. At the same time Fiji has a remarkable degree of linguistic diversity for a country of less than a million people, with a number of minority languages, contact languages, substantial dialectal variation, and different patterns of multilingualism. National/official languages Fiji has had three constitutions since Independence (1970, 1990, 1997) and the provisions related to language were identical in the first two. Fiji’s Constitution at Independence (1970) made few references to language. No language was declared the national language and the only mention of an official language dealt with use in Parliament: ‘The official language of Parliament shall be English, but any member of either House may address the Chair in the House of which he is a member in Fijian or Hindustani’ (Constitution, 1970, Section 56).2 The only other language-related provisions appear in the context of the protection of fundamental rights of persons arrested, detained, or charged to be informed in a language they understand, and for the assistance of interpreters in court (Sections 5.2 and 10.2). The rights of a person detained under emergency laws are specified in Section 17: he shall, as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case not more than seven days after the commencement of his detention, be furnished with a statement in writing, in a language that he understands, specifying in detail the grounds upon which he is detained. (1a)

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While the few provisions relating to language in the two earlier constitutions were scattered in the text, the 1997 Constitution (Constitution (Amendment) Act 1997 of the Republic of the Fiji Islands, 1997) gives far more prominence to language. Indeed a section entitled ‘Languages’ appears on the first page of Chapter 1 (‘The State’). While there is still no mention of a national language, Section 4.1 declares: ‘The English, Fijian, and Hindustani languages have equal status in the State’. No details are given on what ‘equal status’ means or how the provision is to be applied or enforced. The statement regarding the use of language in Parliament, phrased slightly differently from that in the previous constitutions, nonetheless maintains the status quo: ‘The official language of the Parliament is English but a member of either House may address the person presiding in Fijian or Hindustani’ (Section 74.1). The predominance of English therefore remains, notwithstanding the new affirmation of equal status of the three major languages. For the first time, mention is made of translations of the Constitution – the absence of which was widely seen in the aftermath of the 1987 coups as contributing to ignorance among the population of their rights and responsibilities: ‘This Constitution is to be adopted in English but translations in Fijian and Hindustani are to be available’ (Section 4.2). The possibility of conflict between the different versions is anticipated: If, in the interpretation of a provision of this Constitution, there is an apparent difference between the meaning of the English version of the provision and its meaning in Fijian or Hindustani, the English version prevails. (Section 4.3) The precedence of the English version is common to many constitutions in the Pacific, e.g. Kiribati, Cook Islands, Samoa, and even Vanuatu, where Bislama, in spite of its unique status as a pidgin/creole serving as the official national language, has a lower constitutional status than the co-official English and French (Crowley, 2000). To date, although information booklets with summary information about the Constitution have been published in Fijian and Standard Hindi, there is no full translation of the Constitution in either language, mainly due to the lack of qualified translators. The provisions dealing with language and the law are very slightly expanded in the 1997 Constitution in a chapter entitled ‘Bill of Rights’ (Ch. 4). The spirit remains the same, however, protecting the right of persons detained, arrested or charged with an offence to communication in a language they understand: If a person (detainee) is detained pursuant to a measure authorised under a state of emergency: the detainee must, as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any event within 7 days, after the start of the detention, be given a statement in writing, in a language that the detainee understands, specifying the grounds of the detention; (Section 23. 3a) Every person who is arrested or detained has the right: to be informed promptly in a language that he or she understands of the

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reason for his or her arrest or detention and of the nature of any charge that may be brought; (Section 27.1a) Every person who is arrested for a suspected offence has the right: to be informed promptly in a language that he or she understands that he or she has the right to refrain from making a statement (Section 27.3a) Every person charged with an offence has the right: to be given details in legible writing, in a language that he or she understands, of the nature of and reason for the charge; (Section 28.1b) 6. Every person charged with an offence, every party to civil proceedings and every witness in criminal or civil proceedings has the right to give evidence and to be questioned in a language that he or she understands. 7. Every person charged with an offence and every party to civil proceedings has the right to follow the proceedings in a language that he or she understands. 8. To give effect to the rights referred to in subsections (6) and (7), the court or tribunal concerned must, when the interests of justice so require, provide, without costs to the person concerned, the services of an interpreter or of a person competent in sign language. (Section 29) Sign language is included for the first time. In addition, a section entitled ‘Equality’ in the same chapter states: A person must not be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, on the ground of his or her [ . . . ] primary language (Section 38.2a) A law, or an administrative action taken under a law, is not inconsistent with the right to freedom from discrimination on the ground of [ . . . ] language. (6a) Note that all provisions dealing with the law, including those on freedom from discrimination, go beyond the three main languages. In contrast, a new clause which is given prominence in the early section on ‘Languages’ mentioned above, states: Every person who transacts business with: (a) a department; (b) an office in a state service; or (c) a local authority; has the right to do so in English, Fijian or Hindustani, either directly or through a competent interpreter. (Section 4.4). While this and other sections imply an important role for interpreters and translators, there is currently no governmental translation unit and no formal training or certification for interpreters or translators (Geraghty, in press). Are there consistent principles of language policy underlying the provisions of the Constitution? These provisions fall into two categories: those that specify

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the three main languages, English, Fijian and Hindustani (use in Parliament, access to services), and the legal sections, which refer more broadly to ‘a language that [the individual] understands’. In theory, this phrasing could be interpreted as encompassing any language, whether it is spoken by a section of the community or not. Thus, a foreigner who speaks a language not used in Fiji and who comes to the attention of the authorities is, in principle, protected by the law. The original intent may not have been quite so broad. In fact the legal provisions predate all others related to language and have been in place since before Independence (see e.g. Laws of Fiji, 1955). It is likely that they were meant to protect those in the colony who had little or no proficiency in English, that is, mainly native speakers of Fijian or Fiji Hindi, as opposed to ‘Europeans’. Nonetheless, the effect of the provisions is that speakers of minority (or foreign) languages are also protected, and in practice interpretation is provided in court when need be, even though it is not normally by trained or professional interpreters.3 The naming of English as the main language in Parliament reflects a continuation of practice in colonial times, and English still dominates in both Houses. Some members of Parliament, however, do occasionally exercise their right to speak in Fijian or Hindi, a practice which seems to have started when Parliament resumed after the 1987 coup, in 1992, and has become increasingly frequent. The late Fijian nationalist leader Sakiusa Butadroka, for instance, regularly addressed Parliament in Fijian after the coup, whereas he had used English before. Indigenous Fijians are not the only ones to use Fijian, and once in a while an Indo-Fijian MP will address the House in Fijian. In these two instances the same language is used metaphorically to assert identity, although the identities expressed by the speakers are at odds. Moreover, the use of Fijian, whether by Fijians or Indo-Fijians, is not limited to the standard variety but includes regional dialects (e.g. the Indo-Fijian MP Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi asking the Chair for permission to speak in the Nadroga dialect, see Mugler, 1996: 285). The general labels ‘Fijian’ and ‘Hindustani’ indeed lend themselves to an inclusive interpretation. Hindi seems to be used slightly less often than Fijian, but more than in the past. It is worth noting that the term used in the Constitution is ‘Hindustani’, a usage inherited from colonial times. Traditionally the term referred to the lingua franca spoken in North India and large cities throughout the country, based on the regional dialect (Khariboli) spoken in the northeast of Delhi, and which originated and spread under the Moghul Empire (Grierson, 1916: 44). The literary form of Hindustani, called ‘Urdu’ and written in the Perso-Arabic script, became the language of local administration in British India. Urdu was, however, rejected by many Hindus because of its association with Islam, and another literary variety, Standard Hindi, also based on Hindustani, was developed, written in the Devanagari script and with words of Perso-Arabic origin replaced by borrowings from Sanskrit (Siegel, 1987: 139). Linguists generally consider Hindi-Urdu to be a single language, with minor differences in pronunciation and vocabulary in spoken colloquial styles but different formal styles and written standards (see e.g. Singh, 1995: 83–9). One could argue that ‘Fiji Hindustani’ might be a more accurate label for the first language of most Indo-Fijians than ‘Fiji Hindi’. However, as Siegel notes, ‘in Fiji the terms “Hindi” and “Hindu-

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stani” are used more or less interchangeably’ (1987: 140). While speakers in Parliament usually strive to use Standard Hindi, the result is often a hybrid code that includes features of Fiji Hindi. If speeches in Fijian and Hindi seem to have become more frequent over the years, the use of common borrowings from the two languages into English as well as a certain amount of code-mixing also predate Independence, although they also appear to have increased since then. The most common instances of switching to Fijian and Hindi are exclamations of approval or disapproval, quotations, proverbs, the occasional term of abuse, and for joking purposes (cf. Siegel, 1995). While translations of speeches are provided at the back of each Hansard volume, impromptu remarks and exchanges normally are not. As for the issue of the translation of the Constitution, although it is seldom discussed in public, a prominent individual occasionally raises it, and then usually with great passion. For instance, in August 2003, MP Samisoni Tikoinasau was quoted as saying that ‘the biggest challenge facing the country is that Fijians do not understand the Constitution’. He adds: In my visit through the villages in my constituency you will be surprised to note that close to 100% of our people have never read the Constitution, let alone seen one . . . We have never seen a version of the Constitution in the Fijian language. It is the most important law of the land. (Fiji Times, 8 August 2003: 5) Mr Tikoinasau (in the same report in Fiji Times) sees this state of affairs as an indictment of MPs themselves: ‘We are agents for our people. Their ignorance is a reflection of our commitment to duty or otherwise.’ Translation and interpretation, whether in Parliament or in the courts, is hampered by several factors: the ad hoc nature of recruiting, the small numbers of people involved and their lack of training. In Parliament, there are only two interpreters (one each to translate from Fijian and Hindi into English), with an extra person pulled out of other duties when extra translation work is required. Like the court interpreters, they are untrained. The issue may have to be tackled in the near future, however, as there is an increasing demand, from members of Parliament and also advocates for the general public, for all important documents to be translated. When a new Family Law Bill was presented in 2003, there were immediate calls to have it translated into Fijian and Hindi and this was done by Parliamentary staff, although the translation of legal documents is normally the province of the Office of the Attorney-General. Senators, who have traditionally tended to use the vernaculars – especially Fijian – more than members of the Lower House, now require translations of all the Fact Sheets given to them. The current state of affairs, which typically involves notoriously difficult work at short notice, is not conducive to the high quality required of work so crucial to the well-being of the nation.4 Fiji’s national anthem is in English (God Bless Fiji), although there is also a Fijian hymn sung to the same tune, so that before an International Sevens rugby game some players, who are invariably indigenous Fijians, may be heard singing in English and others in Fijian.5 There is, however, no official Fijian or Hindi version of the anthem. On the other hand, the coat of arms still features the Fijian

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motto of the colonial government, ‘Rerevaki na kalou ka doka na tui’ (‘Fear God and honour the King’).6 The currency is the Fiji dollar and the words on bills are in English only. The same is true of coinage, with the exception of the dollar coin, one side of which bears a picture of a traditional ceramic water jug with its name in Fijian, saqamoli. Although the other coins feature important traditional Fijian artefacts whose Fijian names have also been borrowed into Fiji English – e.g. a tabua (whale tooth), a lali (drum), or a tanoa (kava bowl) – these words do not appear on the coins. A 50-cent coin, specially minted in 1979 to celebrate the centenary of the beginning of Indenture, bears the Fiji Hindi word girmit (derived from English ‘agreement’ and referring to the period and experience of indenture).

Fijian Fijian is a member of the Austronesian language family, one of the largest families of languages in the world in terms of number of languages and of speakers. The Austronesian family is also the most extensive, stretching from Taiwan to Madagascar and including nearly all the languages of the Pacific islands, as well as languages in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Fijian belongs to the Oceanic group, which ranges from Hawai´i in the north, Rapanui (Easter Island) in the east, New Zealand (Aotearoa) in the south, and Irian Jaya (West Papua) in the west. Along with Rotuman and the Polynesian languages, Fijian makes up the Central Pacific subgroup, whose closest relatives are some of the languages of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands (see Lynch, 1998: 50). There is a great deal of dialect diversity in Fijian (see below). Besides this regional variation, there are four non-regional varieties: Meke Fijian, the traditional language of poetry and song; Standard Fijian, which evolved out of the language of diplomacy and trade; Colloquial Fijian, the informal everyday language used mostly in towns and probably derived from Standard Fijian; and the ‘Old High Fijian’ developed by the European missionaries (Geraghty, 1984: 33, 49). All or nearly all indigenous Fijians – over half the population of the country – speak Fijian. (See Figure 3a for the distribution of Fijians.) Some of the first European visitors to Fiji made observations about the language and compiled wordlists (Schütz, 1985: 6–17, 563–616), but it was the missionaries who undertook to codify Fijian, in preparation for translating the Bible. In the few years after his arrival in 1835 the missionary David Cargill, a talented linguist trained in classical languages and fluent in Tongan, developed the orthography still used today. This orthography was based as much as possible on a one-to-one correspondence between symbol and phoneme and included the use of ‘c’ for the voiced interdental fricative (e.g. ciwa ‘nine’), ‘g’ for the velar nasal (e.g. sega ‘no’), and the use of single letters to represent prenasalised voiced consonantal phonemes, ‘b’ for /mb/, ‘d’ for /nd/, ‘q’ for /ng/, as in naba ‘number’, mada ‘please’, oqo ‘this’ (Geraghty, 1984: 35, 1989: 381–2; Schütz, 1985: 18–26). Cargill soon started to translate the New Testament into Fijian and also worked on a grammar of Lauan and a dictionary (Schütz, 1985: 55; Schütz & Geraghty, 1980). After a printing press arrived in 1838, many religious works were printed in the different varieties of Fijian spoken where the missionaries were stationed (Lakeba, Somosomo, Rewa, Viwa, and Nadi in Bua), before the economics of

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printing forced the choice of a single literary standard (Geraghty, 1984: 35; Schütz, 1985: 65–6). Other important grammars of Fijian include Hale (1846), Hazlewood (1872), Churchward (1941), Milner (1956), and Schütz (1985). The first major dictionary to be published was Hazelwood’s (1850), eventually revised by Capell (1941). A monolingual dictionary is currently in progress (see below). Noteworthy among teaching materials are an intensive audio-lingual course (Schütz & Komaitai, 1971) and, more recently, a phrasebook (Geraghty, 1994). 7

English The first words of English were probably introduced to Fiji – and into Fijian – by Tongans, who had a long history of travelling to Fiji for trade and had already had contact with Europeans, including speakers of English (Geraghty, 1978). Early in the 19th century, other borrowings came through beachcombers and traders, who often learned Fijian fluently. A number of religious terms were introduced into Fijian by missionaries in the 1830s and 1840s (Geraghty, 1984). When Fiji was ceded to Britain in 1874, English became the working language of the Colonial Government. Catholic schools were the first to use English as a language of instruction in some schools for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that the teaching orders had English speakers. It was less easy for the Wesleyan Church to follow suit, and the schools that the Indians had set up themselves were even less well resourced to teach English let alone to use it for the purposes of instruction. Events in the first half of the 20th century were to change this, and the role of the English language grew in the educational system. Independence saw little change in either policy or practice; English continues to dominate in the government sphere, the education system, the media and business, while also playing a role as a lingua franca among groups with different native languages. However, very few people speak it as a first language. Hindi Soon after Fiji was ceded to Britain in 1874, the Government decided that the new colony was going to have to pay for itself, and between 1879 and 1916, over 60,000 labourers were brought from India under the indenture system (or girmit) to work on plantations, mainly of sugarcane (Lal, 1983). About 60% stayed on after indenture. Three-quarters of these indentured labourers (girmitiya) were recruited in North India, through the port of Calcutta, while the remaining 25% came from the Madras Presidency in South India, starting in 1903 (see Lal, 1983). Most of the labourers who arrived first were from the Hindi belt in North India and spoke various dialects of Hindi. The contact between these different varieties of Hindi led to the formation of a koine, a variety of language whose structure is characterised by a mixture of features from related dialects (Siegel, 1987: 185). This koine is now known as Fiji Hindi or ‘Fiji Baat’ (‘Fiji Talk’). According to Siegel, the major contributors to Fiji Hindi are several dialects of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, mainly Avadhi and Western Bhojpuri. Other contributors include Hindustani, the lingua franca of North India – particularly in its simplified form, Bazaar Hindustani – and Khariboli, the dialect of Western Hindi that is the basis of Hindustani. Other dialects involved include Bihari sub-dialects such as Magahi and Maithili, and a few other Western Hindi dialects such as Braj. Fiji Hindi also has been influenced by a Pidgin Hindustani which developed on

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plantations after 1903 between Hindi speakers and the South Indians, who spoke Dravidian languages, unrelated to Hindi (Siegel, 1987: 181–3). With morphological features from various dialects of Hindi and borrowings from Fijian and English, Fiji Hindi is a distinct, indeed unique language variety. Fiji Hindi is spoken by nearly all Indo-Fijians, even the few who have another first language (see Figure 3b for the distribution of Indo-Fijians). Fiji Hindi cannot be said to be codified since it is not normally used for formal functions, including writing. But linguists who have studied Fiji Hindi – nearly all writing in English – have adopted a Romanisation system to represent it in their work. Major descriptions of Fiji Hindi include Siegel (1972, 1975, 1977, 1987), Pillai (1975), and Moag (1977). The only dictionary of Fiji Hindi to date is Hobbs (1985), a bilingual English-Fiji Hindi/Fiji Hindi-English dictionary intended primarily for fellow Peace Corps volunteers needing a working knowledge of everyday verbal communication. Hobbs also uses the Roman script, but some of the conventions she follows are different from those used by most previous authors (double letters for long vowels, rather than a macron over the vowel; capital letters for retroflexes, rather than a subscript dot under the consonant). Pillai, who has written a play (Pillai, 2001) and, more recently, some short stories in Romanised Fiji Hindi, is still debating which alternatives to choose to represent certain sounds (personal communication), as is the team working on a translation of the Bible (David Arms, personal communication). Teaching materials on Fiji Hindi include a basic course and reference grammar (Moag, 1977) and a phrase book (Siegel, 1977). Also useful are unpublished materials developed by the Peace Corps. An interesting forerunner is the work of McMillan, a civil servant who had spent two decades in India before coming to Fiji. McMillan’s Handbook of Hindustani (1931) and especially its abridged version, Guide to Hindustani (1947), both ‘specially prepared for use in Fiji’, contain observations about differences between the Hindustani he knew from his years in India and the Fiji variety, including Pidgin Fiji Hindustani (McMillan, 1947: 39–40; Siegel, 1987: 175–7).

Minority Languages With only about 5% of the population having a language other than Fijian or Fiji Hindi as their first language, it makes little sense to speak of major versus lesser minority languages in Fiji. Nonetheless, the degree of language diversity is greater than one might expect for a country of less than a million people, with languages from several language families: Austronesian, Indo-European, Dravidian, and Sino-Tibetan. No minority language is spoken by more than a few thousand speakers, while some are spoken by only a few hundred. There have been no comprehensive language surveys, and censuses in Fiji traditionally have not contained questions on language, so that estimates of the number of speakers of a language often must be deduced from the population figures for the ethnic group to which respondents indicate they belong (see Figure 3). The largest of these groups are the Rotumans. The island of Rotuma, nearly 400 km north of Vanualevu, has been administratively part of Fiji since 1881 but it has a separate culture and language (see Figure 3c). Rotuman is a distinct member of the Central Pacific subgroup of Oceanic languages, most closely

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Figure 3 Distribution of Fijian, Indian, and Pacific Islander population. Note: The term ‘Pacific Islanders’ on Rotuma refers to Rotumans, on Rabe to Banabans, and on Kioa to Tuvaluans. Source: Department of Lands and Surveys, Bureau of Statistics. Projection: Transverse Mercator. GIS Unit, USP, 2003

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related to Fijian and the Polynesian languages (Lynch, 1998: 50). Only a little over 25% of Rotumans live on the island (2580 in 1996, according to the latest census). While they speak Rotuman at home, Rotumans who live elsewhere in Fiji are overwhelmingly urban dwellers and some have shifted over to English, as Geraghty noted nearly two decades ago (1984: 53) or to Fijian. Many off-island Rotumans in fact have never been to Rotuma and an increasing number have only a passive knowledge of the language (Schmidt, 1999: 13). While not all 9000 or so people who identify themselves as Rotumans speak the language, the number of speakers of Rotuman is still in the thousands. Among other Pacific Islanders are two small linguistically homogeneous groups. The largest is the Banabans, who were resettled on the island of Rabe,8 near Vanualevu, in 1945 after their home island of Banaba (also known as Ocean Island) was exhausted by phosphate mining (Maude & Maude, 1994). Their language is a variety of Kiribati, a Micronesian language. In 1996 there were about 3000 people living on Rabe, nearly all Banabans (see Figure 3c). The Kiribati language seems to be spoken by nearly all Banabans, although among the growing numbers who have migrated to the Suva area, some may be shifting to English or Fijian. Kioa, another island close to Vanualevu, was purchased in 1946 by people from Vaitupu, in Tuvalu, and settled between 1947 and 1962 by a little over 200 people (Koch, 1978: 96). According to the 1996 census, 487 of the 532 inhabitants of Kioa were ‘Other Pacific Islanders’, and it is likely that all, or nearly all, were ethnic Tuvaluans (see Figure 3c). The language of the community is a dialect of Tuvaluan (a Polynesian language) closely related to that of Vaitupu. Ties with the original homeland have weakened, and Besnier (2000: xx) has predicted that Tuvaluan would eventually be replaced by Fijian. Young people in particular do tend to know Fijian also, yet Tuvaluan seems to remain strong on the island. Half of all Kioans, however, have now moved to urban centres, and many of the young are not entirely comfortable in Tuvaluan. Those on Vitilevu (especially in the Suva area and Lautoka) often have English as their dominant language, while those on Vanualevu (Labasa and Savusavu) may be more at ease in Fijian (Geoff Jackson, personal communication). The other minority ethnic groups identified in the census are not linguistically homogeneous. Part-Europeans, mostly the descendants of European men and Fijian women, traditionally were Fijian speakers, but increasingly in urban areas some have shifted over to English as their home language. English is also the home language of nearly all the so-called Europeans, another very small group. Indeed, in terms of number of native speakers, English is very much a minority language in Fiji. The Chinese started coming to Fiji in the 1870s, but most immigrated after World War I. Nearly all came from the Pearl River delta area of southern Guandong Province and spoke dialects of Cantonese (see Yee, 1974: 16). Many among that pioneer generation mixed with Fijians and knew – and some still know – Fijian as a second language and often some Fiji Hindi also. The first generation of Fiji-born Chinese have tended to speak English among themselves while often retaining at least a passive knowledge of their parent’s language. Some have married outside their dialect or language group, and their children have grown up with English – a typical pattern of language shift over three

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generations. Cantonese has nonetheless been kept alive by fresh waves of migration, but the general picture has changed significantly in the past 10 to 15 years, with Chinese coming from different areas, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the north of China. The new migrants from northern China are typically Mandarin speakers and many who come from elsewhere have been educated in Mandarin and speak it as a second language (Willmott, 1999). Although ‘Indians’ are all lumped together in the census, Indo-Fijian society is quite diverse. While nearly all Indo-Fijians speak Fiji Hindi, it is not everyone’s first language. Nearly a quarter of all Indian labourers who came to Fiji were recruited in South India during the last 13 years of indenture (1903–1916). Most were speakers of Tamil, Telugu, or Malayalam, languages still spoken by a few of them and their descendants. These languages are not related to Hindi but belong to the Dravidian family. South Indians started coming to Fiji 25 years after the first North Indians arrived, and from the start they have been a minority among the girmitiya. Fiji Hindi was already well established on the plantations by the time South Indians arrived, and the shift to Fiji Hindi is likely to have started then and there, with the Dravidian languages becoming restricted to the home domain (Pillai, 1975). The three languages have continued to lose speakers with each generation (Mugler, 1998; Mugler & Tent, 1998) in spite of some maintenance efforts (see below, Language Maintenance). Only small percentages of descendants of South Indians speak their ancestral languages – no more than a few thousand for Tamil, and perhaps only hundreds for Telugu and Malayalam. Two other groups among Indo-Fijians are the Gujaratis and the Punjabis, who started coming to Fiji as free migrants, mostly after World War I. They spoke Gujarati and Panjabi respectively, two languages of North India related to Hindi. Each group is quite small but cohesive. The Gujaratis, who have been estimated at about 3% of Indo-Fijians (Gillion, 1962: 130–5) are a close-knit community. In India the Gujaratis have a centuries-long history of trading overseas, and in Fiji they have maintained both kinship ties and business networks not only with Gujarat but also with a worldwide Diaspora. These strong links contribute to the maintenance of the language, which nearly all Gujaratis in Fiji seem to speak (Mugler & Mamtora, in preparation). The Punjabis, the first of whom arrived from Noumea in 1904, were traditionally dairy farmers and craftsmen (Gillion, 1962: 131). They are mostly Sikhs, and their religion, with many of its sacred texts in Panjabi and its distinctive Gurmukhi script, is a powerful contributor to the continued strength of the language (see Singh, 1976). Sikhs were numbered at nearly 3000 in the latest census (Bureau of Statistics, 2000: 25), or less than 1% of the Indo-Fijian population. Dialectal variation Fijian demonstrates a great deal of dialectal diversity, while the other languages, all brought to Fiji relatively recently, have evolved varieties distinct from those spoken in their original homelands. The basic sociolinguistic unit of Fijian is the communalect (Pawley & Sayaba, 1971: 407), which can be defined as ‘a variety spoken by people who claim they use the same speech’ (Geraghty, 1983: 18). A communalect has little or no internal variation, and extends over one to ten villages, most commonly three. There are probably about 300 communalects of Fijian (Geraghty, 1984: 33), which can be

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classified into two major dialect groups, Eastern and Western (Geraghty, 1983: 278; Pawley & Sayaba, 1971), and to some extent into subgroups of each division (Geraghty, 1983; Geraghty & Pawley, 1981: 161–3).9 Dialectal variation was probably even greater before European contact (Geraghty, 1978; Schütz, 1963). Rotuman, on the other hand, is often said to have little or no internal variation. Although a few words were identified by Churchward (1940) as used only in the extreme Western or Eastern districts, Schmidt (1999: 51) claims that these have now disappeared. Nonetheless, a few may remain (Kafoa Pene, personal communication). While Fiji Hindi is itself a distinctive variety, its internal dialectal diversity is limited. A complete study of the dialects of Fiji Hindi remains to be done, but it is clear that there is some lexical and morphological variation, particularly between Vitilevu and elsewhere. According to Siegel (1987: 208–9), the dialects of Vanualevu and Taveuni tend to be more conservative, are seen by other speakers as rustic and are therefore often used for joking (as in Pillai’s play (Pillai, 2001), and the comedy of John Mohammed). This is particularly true of the Labasa area on the northern coast of Vanualevu (Arms, 1998), with which native speakers stereotypically associate certain words (e.g. bakeRâ ‘crab’, rather than kekRâ), and tense and aspect verbal suffixes (e.g. -wâ for the perfective, rather than –yâ, as in âwâ ‘[I] came’). There seem also to be at least some lexical items which are specific to some parts of the country, such as the Nadi area on the western side of Vitilevu, and the town of Rakiraki in the north of the island. In addition, the Fiji Hindi spoken by Muslims has some distinctive features, particularly in the lexicon (words of Perso-Arabic origin related to religion, kinship, food), as does the Fiji Hindi used by some descendants of South Indians, whose accent is typified by a lack of aspirated consonants. Like Fiji Hindi, the other Indian languages spoken in Fiji have developed distinctive features. The South Indian languages, for example, have borrowed from Fijian, Fiji Hindi, and English, while retaining some characteristics of the dialectal areas in India where the original migrants came from (see Mugler & Mohan Lal, 1995 on Tamil; Mugler & Nair, 1997 on Malayalam; and Mugler & Vijayasarathi, 1997 on Telegu). In the case of Fiji Tamil, some changes seem to have been induced by exposure to the standard variety (including its distinct script), which is taught in some schools (Mugler & Mohan Lal, 1999: 29–32). Similarly, Gujarati speakers recognise a distinct variety of ‘Fiji Gujarati’ within which there are some dialectal differences brought from the home country, e.g. the language used by Sonars (the jewellery caste) and the Khatris (clothing merchants). Panjabi in Fiji can also be recognised as a distinctively local variety. Before the new migrations of the 1980s, nearly all Chinese in Fiji were speakers of the three major dialects of Cantonese brought by the original settlers: Sze Yap (Siyi in the Pinyin system), Zhong Shan (Zhongshan), and Tung Kuan (Dongguan), in that order of numerical importance. Each is associated with the district of the same name in southern Guandong and, in Fiji, with a different occupation (restaurant workers, shop keepers, market garden workers). Each group has a number of sub-dialects, for example, Kaiping, named after one of the four Sze Yap counties. However, some of the migrants from Zhong Shan district spoke Long Do (Fong, 1974: 12), a dialect of Fukienese, not of Cantonese (Egerod, 1956). Tung Kuan, still associated with farming, has now become the largest of

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the three Cantonese dialect groups, having been reinforced by new arrivals. An unpublished survey of 144 Yat Sen Secondary School students in 2001 (Ali, 2002: 148) revealed that 87% spoke Cantonese, 10% Mandarin, and 3% both. Nearly half (46%) of the Cantonese speakers were Dongguan, 29% were Siyi, and the rest (24%) were from other parts of Guandong Province. Other recent migrants have brought with them Mandarin, which only shares with Cantonese (and other Chinese varieties) a common script. Thus the Chinese community in Fiji has become far more linguistically diverse in the past two decades.10 In countries such as Taiwan and Singapore, the trends have been, largely through language policies, for Mandarin Chinese to become the dominant language at the expense of other Chinese languages and dialects. (See, for example, Minglang Zhou (2000) for China, Rubdy (2001) for Singapore, Tsao (1999) for Taiwan.) Some of the other minority languages have also developed distinctive features. The Tuvaluan on Kioa, for instance, is different from the Vaitupu dialect on which it is based. It tends to be conservative and in particular has retained many of the Samoan words that have disappeared from the varieties spoken in Tuvalu. It has also been less influenced by standard Tuvaluan than has the Vaitupu dialect (Geoff Jackson, personal communication). The language spoken by the Banabans, which belongs to the Southern Kiribati dialect group, is reportedly different from that spoken in Kiribati both lexically, having retained a handful of distinctive words (Maude & Maude, 1994: 112) and with borrowings from Fijian and English, and phonologically, with some transfer from Fijian (Siegel, 1987: 217). Some community elders claim that the Banabans have a distinct identity that predates contact with Kiribati, and believe that their ancestral language, entirely different from Kiribati, was lost when European missionaries introduced the Kiribati Bible (Sigrah & King, 2001: 199–211). The evidence presented seems scant and the controversy merits a full investigation. Contact languages There are three contact languages: Pidgin Fijian, Pidgin Hindustani, and Fiji English.

Pidgin Fijian A pidginised form of Fijian is sometimes used as a lingua franca, particularly between Fijians and Indo-Fijians or Chinese. The origin of Pidgin Fijian lies in the foreigner talk that Fijians traditionally spoke to non-Fijians before European contact, and which was extended to Europeans thereafter (Geraghty, 1978: 52). In the early 1860s, this foreigner talk (or ‘Jargon Fijian’) was used on the cotton plantations run by European settlers with Fijian labourers. After cotton collapsed and settlers turned to other cash crops in the early 1870s, Fijians labourers were joined by several thousand Pacific Islanders recruited mostly from what are now Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati. These new labourers came from dozens of different language groups and a modified variety of ‘Jargon Fijian’ became the lingua franca on the plantations, evolving into a stable pidgin (Siegel, 1982, 1987: 98–127). In 1874 Fiji became a colony and in 1879 indentured labourers from India started arriving. At first, they worked on the small plantations alongside Fijians and other Pacific Islanders and learned Pidgin Fijian from them. Eventually

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Pacific Islanders left Fiji after finishing their contracts, and by 1914 nearly all had gone. By then Pidgin Fijian, modified through its use by Indians, had become a language of intercultural communication between Fijians and Indians, most of whom, unlike Pacific Islanders, stayed on in Fiji (Siegel, 1987: 148–50; Siegel, 1992). The use of Pidgin Fijian was not limited to Indians, however, and many Chinese and part-Chinese also came to use it. It is still used today, particularly in rural areas and around town markets, although perhaps it is slowly being displaced by English (Siegel, 1987: 239–49; Siegel, 1996; Tent, 2000: 179–82).

Pidgin Hindustani Pidgin Hindustani, like Pidgin Fijian, developed during the plantation era (Siegel, 1987: 161–83; Siegel, 1990a, 1996). While in the 1860s and 1870s the plantations were small and scattered, from 1882 bigger plantations were established by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR), with the recently recruited indentured Indians as labourers. Since the girmitiyas initially brought to Fiji were from the Hindi belt in India, policy and practice on the plantations was to use Hindustani, the lingua franca of North India. The language, however, was often imperfectly learned by the European overseers, who spoke a pidginised version of it. From 1903 to 1916, over 42% of the indentured labourers were recruited in South India. They spoke Dravidian languages, unrelated to Hindi, and in spite of the presence of some interpreters, the tacit policy was to continue to use Hindustani and let the South Indians learn it as best they could. Thus Pidgin Hindustani developed in a multilingual situation, typical of the development of pidgins, among North Indians, European overseers and South Indians. When the plantation era came to an end, it was learned by Fijians from nearby Indian sugarcane farmers and became an intergroup language. As is true of Pidgin Fijian, Pidgin Hindustani was also acquired by Chinese and part-Chinese, and continues to be spoken in rural areas, particularly in the cane belt and around markets in towns and cities, although it may also be fated to be displaced by English (Siegel, 1987: 294–51; Siegel, 1996; Tent, 2000: 179–82).11 Fiji English Whereas the English used in official domains is a modified version of an external standard historically superimposed through the colonial government and the education system, the variety spoken colloquially, often called ‘Fiji English’, is quite different. Fiji English probably has its origins in the part-European community. While the first Europeans became fluent in Fijian and the first generations of part-Europeans grew up speaking Fijian as their first language, many part-Europeans later on spoke English at home (see e.g. Simpson, 1974). Geraghty (1984) speculates that Fiji English may have originated in the attempts of part-Europeans to speak English, after the churches and the Colonial Government decided to groom them as future leaders and allowed them to join schools and other institutions hitherto restricted to Europeans. Fiji English probably remains the predominant home language of urban part-Europeans, but it is also now used for informal intergroup communication. Many urban Fiji Islanders are in fact bidialectal in Fiji English and Standard English, particularly among those whose white-collar jobs presuppose a relatively high level of education and require at least some use of Standard English. Fiji English is characterised at the lexical level by a number of borrowings

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from the other languages spoken in Fiji, especially Fijian and Fiji Hindi. Words denoting concepts or objects that are distinctive of Fiji (particularly Fijian terms for flora and fauna, and for items of special cultural significance), are prominent (e.g. yaqona ‘kava’, saqa ‘a kind of fish’, lolo ‘coconut milk’, mataqali ‘kinship group, ‘clan’‘, from Fijian; roti ‘flat unleavened bread’, âji ‘paternal grandmother’, sirdar ‘sugarcane gang leader’, from Hindi). The vocabulary also includes terms inherited from Colonial English (e.g. compound), archaisms (thrice), and words which have undergone semantic shift (grog ‘kava’) (Tent, 2000, 2001). The morphosyntax includes some features which are common to other varieties of English, either as a first or as a second language, or to English-based pidgins and creoles, and some which can be attributed to the influence of Fiji Hindi and, to a greater extent, Fijian (Mugler & Tent, in press; Tent, 2000). Fiji English itself varies, depending on the speaker’s first language. The most noticeable differences are in pronunciation, with the speech of the two major groups being influenced by their first language, i.e. either Fijian or Fiji Hindi (Mugler & Tent, in press; Tent, 2000; Tent & Mugler, in press). Variation is not, however, limited to the first language influence and may depend on other social, situational, or individual factors (Siegel, 1991).12 Fiji English and standard English can be considered to be on a continuum, and some features typical of Fiji English are often found in what is clearly intended to be standard (such as the variety used in the newspapers). Multilingualism and linguistic repertoires Multilingualism in Fiji exists both at the societal and at individual levels. While by far most speakers typically speak Fijian or Fiji Hindi as their first language and have some knowledge of English as a second language, many have much richer linguistic repertoires, particularly among the minority groups. Fijian is the first language not only of indigenous Fijians but also of many part-Europeans, some part-Chinese, and other Pacific Islanders, particularly in rural areas. Among those who have switched over to Fijian as a first language are the descendants of Solomon Island labourers (Siegel, 1987: 213–15) and a small group of Indo-Fijians on Vanuabalavu who no longer know any Fiji Hindi (Singh, 1984: 106). Fijian is also spoken as a second language by many Rotumans (and as a first by some), particularly those off-island (that is, settled in the main islands of Fiji), and many other Fiji Islanders have a working knowledge of it, including some Indo-Fijians, particularly in the cane belt and on small outer islands and in isolated rural areas with a predominantly indigenous Fijian population. Many of the Gujarati shopkeepers, for instance, used Fijian with Fijian customers until about the 1970s, but these transactions are now more often conducted in English. Knowledge of Fijian among non-Fijians ranges from Pidgin Fijian to native-like proficiency in the local communalect and/or Colloquial or Standard Fijian. Conversely, some Fijians know Fiji Hindi, particularly in sugarcane areas, such as the province of Nadroga (Chandra, 1980: 45; Geraghty, 2002a: 833) while others know Pidgin Fiji Hindi (Siegel, 1987, 1990a, 1996). Fijians sometimes also use Hindi among themselves, usually in the form of Pidgin Hindustani, for joking purposes (Siegel, 1995). The use of Fijian and Fiji Hindi for interethnic communication is significant,

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although it is often overlooked because of the perception that English in Fiji is the lingua franca. ‘Vernacular bilingualism’, as it is sometimes called, has been reported by White (1971), who thought it was an urban phenomenon, and Siegel (1973) who showed that it also occurred in rural areas. Geraghty (1997: 6) lists a number of authors who have commented over the decades on the knowledge of Fijian among Fiji Indians and adds that even in the sugarcane belt ‘where knowledge of Hindi among Fijians is highest, knowledge of Fijian by Indians is still greater’. In Mugler and Tent’s survey of over 500 Suva residents, half Fijians and half Indo-Fijians (1998: 133), as much as 20% of informants reported using Fijian or Fiji Hindi for this kind of interethnic communication with some interlocutors (typically their peers) and about some topics, with slightly more Indo-Fijians reporting speaking Fijian than Fijians reporting speaking Fiji Hindi. Nonetheless, the sugarcane belt on both major islands is probably the area of greatest ‘vernacular’ bilingualism between Fijians and Indo-Fijians. The more urbanised small groups tend to have English as their dominant language while those in the rural areas of Vitilevu and Vanualevu or on smaller islands typically become fluent in the majority language – usually Fijian – in addition to their native language, for example, the Chinese in the old capital of Levuka, on Ovalau (People of Levuka, 2001: 49). On the third largest island, Taveuni, where the population is predominantly Fijian, nearly all Indo-Fijians seem to speak Fijian. Of the 100 Indo-Fijians surveyed by Naidu (1979: 190–4) around the main centre of Somosomo, all but one reported that they could speak Fijian – far more than the 65% who claimed that they could also speak English. Naidu, who was raised in Taveuni, observed that most conversations between Fijians and Indo-Fijians took place in Fijian, some in the local Cakaudrove dialect, which Indo-Fijians had learned in daily interaction with Fijians. Of the Fijians he surveyed, 20% said they could speak Fiji Hindi. Among Indo-Fijians, those with a minority Indian language as their first language typically have also acquired Fiji Hindi. Among the descendants of South Indians, Fiji Hindi has in fact become the first language of most, and they no longer speak the Dravidian language of their ancestors. The few who still do speak Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam, also know Fiji Hindi, which functions as the lingua franca among Indo-Fijians with different first language backgrounds. Some of the old generation may know Fiji Hindi imperfectly and there is still a stereotype attached to the way South Indians speak it (Siegel, 1987: 183). Both Gujarati and Panjabi speakers typically are also fluent in Fiji Hindi. In a small survey of Gujaratis in Suva, all 57 informants reported some proficiency in Fiji Hindi. Indeed they evaluated their competence in speaking and understanding spoken Fiji Hindi at the same level as their competence in Gujarati and in English (Mugler & Mamtora, in preparation). In addition, a dozen – mostly men – reported some knowledge of Fijian. In the Chinese community, many among the older generations knew Fijian or Pidgin Fijian and some knew Pidgin Hindustani as well. When talking with someone from another dialect group, they normally used Cantonese (Yee & Fong, 1979: 52–3), although Fong (1974: 10) mentions that the Sze Yap of Nausori in the 1970s used the area’s majority dialect, Zhong Shan, as a lingua franca in the town. The younger generations are much more likely to use English, either Fiji English or the local variety of the standard, or both. The new,

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mostly Mandarin-speaking migrants, who are unlikely to speak Cantonese, do not seem to mix much with speakers of Cantonese. Kiribati is also used as a lingua franca, although to the limited extent of communication between the Banabans of Rabe and the Tuvaluan speaking Kioans (Geraghty, 1984: 56). Before Tuvalu became independent, Tuvaluans were educated through the medium of Kiribati, so that ‘[m]ostTuvaluans of the colonial and postcolonial generations either speak or understand’ Kiribati (Teaiwa, 1997: 131). The use of Kiribati has continued since there is a great deal of interaction, including some intermarriage, between the two communities who live on neighbouring islands (Teaiwa, 1997: 131). The main languages of administration are Kiribati on Rabe and Tuvaluan on Kioa, while Fijian is used in dealing with churches and the government at the provincial level, and English at the national level (Teaiwa, 1997: 133). Older Kioans also have retained some knowledge of Samoan, since until about 20 years ago Tuvaluans learned to read and write in Samoan, the Samoan Bible was used, and pastors were brought from Samoa (see Koch, 1978: 3–4). The New Testament in Tuvaluan was published in 1977 and the whole Bible in 1984 (Jackson & Jackson, 1999: 3). The linguistic repertoires of various groups of Fiji Islanders describes the general pattern of language use, but marriage across linguistic lines, although it is not widespread and is more common in some communities than others, results in some interesting individual repertoires (e.g. Fiji Hindi, Rotuman, and English). At the level of dialects, the picture is also complex. Fijians are normally acquainted with neighbouring communalects and have also been exposed to Standard Fijian, which is used in education, the church and the media (essentially radio), even if their native communalect and Standard Fijian are not mutually intelligible (e.g. Nadroga, see Geraghty, 2002a: 833). Speakers of Standard or Colloquial Fijian and other Eastern varieties of Fijian are far less likely to have any knowledge of Western communalects. Similarly, a speaker of, say, Labasa Fiji Hindi, will often also know the dominant variety of Fiji Hindi used on most of Vitilevu, while a speaker from the main island is likely to know only a few words stereotypically associated with the Labasa dialect.

Major Religious Languages in Fiji Fiji is unique among the countries in the South Pacific in that it is the home of three major world religions: Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Associated with these religions are distinct languages, some commonly used and understood, others less so precisely because their use is limited to religious ceremonies, prayers or readings. Of the three major religions only Christianity has had a major impact on Fijian and hence on wider literacy among Fijians. Fijian The first missionaries of the London Missionary Society arrived in Fiji in 1835. Their mission was to convert Fijians to Christianity and one of their major tools was literacy. They were specifically charged to . . . draw up a comprehensive statement respecting the character of the language, and the difference between it and other Polynesian dialects, the principles on which you have settled its grammatical form, and the rules by

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which you have been guided in translating into it the word of God. (Cargill letters, 18 June 1839, quoted in Schütz, 1972: 2) The first missionaries, Cross and Cargill, landed at Lakeba (one of the Lau Islands), in the east of Fiji, close to Tonga. Cargill developed an orthography based on that developed for Tongan, which had itself been based upon that developed in Tahiti (Geraghty, 1989: 381). The first translations by the missionaries were therefore in the Lauan dialect. Translations were also produced in Somosomo, Rewa and Bau dialects. As the missionaries moved to other major islands, the economics of printing forced a choice of one of the Fijian languages as the main literary medium (Geraghty, 1984: 35). The seat of the most powerful ‘state’ at that time was the small island of Bau, so the Bauan dialect was chosen. It was similar to the Fijian spoken around the southeast coast of Vitilevu, on Bau and on Rewa, and also to the ‘standard Fijian’, which was the existing language of diplomacy. Hence the Bauan language was ‘objectified’; the written form became the standard against which language could be judged correct or incorrect and a yardstick for literary Fijian. However, Geraghty (1989: 383–5) argues that by relying on the Cargill grammar and dictionary developed in Lau, and their own imperfect knowledge of the language, his successors Hunt and Hazlewood introduced a slight Lauan language influence and their own idiosyncrasies into the translation of the Bible and its subsequent printing. Indeed, Geraghty goes further and claims that the language this band of well-intentioned amateur language-planners [Hunt and Hazlewood] thus forged was far from native, it even verged on the pidgin in some respects, yet the Bible was written in it, and, wholly or partially, most Fijian literature since. (Geraghty, 1989: 385) It seems that the very act of introducing literacy bestowed a special prestige and authority upon the language of the Bible. That, combined with the fact that the dialect chosen was very similar to that spoken on the chiefly island of Bau, was to ensure that it came to be regarded as standard Fijian. The Catholics, who arrived a decade after the Methodists, also found it convenient to use the same variety in their publications. Literary Fijian thus became inextricably associated with the domain of religion, and its influence continues to be evident to this day. In an area where the local dialect is different from that variety, the Bible reading during Church services is in literary Fijian. The sermon might be in the local dialect, but the religious terminology is taken from standard Fijian, the result being a hybrid – which can be regarded as typical of the register of religious sermons. Another source of variation derives from the differences in terminology used by Methodists and Catholics, such as Methodist papitaiso, from English ‘baptise’, alongside Catholic papitema, from French ‘baptême’ (Geraghty, 1984: 37). Many of these differences are related to names, so that among Methodists, someone may be called Atama or Pita while Catholics use Adama or Peterô. Sanskrit Unlike Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Hinduism is not a book-based religion. Prayers are individual and private and can be conducted in any language

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with which one is familiar. On special occasions, however, as for marriage or death, the pandit (priest) carries out the prayers in Sanskrit. There has never been any institution in Fiji to teach the Sanskrit necessary to be designated a pandit. The pandits in Fiji have either come from India or been trained there. Some pandits, in the days when the first author was growing up (1950s and 1960s), specialised within certain Indo-Fijian communities, the Gujaratis, for instance, who tended to observe many of the religious festivals and ceremonies from their home state of Gujarat, had an appropriate pandit to carry out the rituals in their homes. The presence of pandits in Fiji is not a recent phenomenon. The few Brahmins among the indentured labourers were usually literate and tended to be better speakers of standard Hindi. They brought holy books with them and were knowledgeable about Hinduism and its rituals, which are regarded as unchanging and thus have to be conducted with meticulous accuracy. Many Brahmins were thus able to establish themselves as pandits and perform such saintly and hereditary functions as kathas and puraans (reading of holy scriptures), conduct the celebration of the religious festivals like Deepawali, Holi, Janmastmi, Shiu Ratri, Ram Naumi and Ram Leela, and advise the immigrants on such matters as the naming of children, suitable times for mooran (hair shaving of the child), marriage and burial (Prasad, 1974: 34). Standard Hindi Standard Hindi also functions as one of the languages of religion in Fiji. It is used in the reading of the translation of the Ramayan (a Sanskrit epic poem, composed c. 300 BCE, recounting feats of Ramachandra, and the Bhagavad Gita (another Sanskrit epic poem), the Mahabharata (dealing with the saga of wars between two close families, with Lord Krishna’s advice to Arjuna forming a central thesis on life and action) either as private readings or during special festivals and ceremonies. Where Sanskrit has been used in a ceremony, a pandit might use (generally) Standard Hindi to explain the meaning and significance of the prayers or incantations, as in wedding ceremonies. Standard Hindi is also used among Christian Indo-Fijians: in the Methodist Church when the congregation is predominantly Indo-Fijian, and in the mass of the Catholic Church – post-Vatican II – Standard Hindi has been used, where a suitable priest was available. A more recent development has been the publication of a trial edition of four books of the Bible in Fiji Hindi. This has been a breakthrough on two counts: that a portion of the Bible should be translated into Fiji Hindi, alongside one in simplified Standard Hindi, and the use of Roman script rather than Devanagari. Arms (personal communication) reports that it has been well received by most parishioners, but not by all of the hierarchy, some of whom consider it to be an insult to the scriptures (Fiji Times, 13 July 2002: 7). Some difficulties in transliteration have not been resolved, and greater consistency is desirable. Gujarati Most of the Gujaratis in Fiji are Hindus, and they brought with them a particularly strong tradition of bhakti or set prayers. The prayers are recited daily in Gujarati, often read out of books imported from India. The ritual is quite

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invariant: prayers, or puja, occur straight after a shower or bath and before breakfast. This presupposes literacy in Gujarati, which has its own script, derived from Devanagari, and there is evidence that literacy in the language is declining. This is perhaps partly why the daily puja is now more commonly found among women and the old. Among the Gujaratis surveyed by Mugler and Mamtora (in preparation), about 40% said that they could not read or write Gujarati. About the same percentage reported using a language other than Gujarati when talking to a priest at the temple (Fiji Hindi in nearly all cases). Only a little over 30% said that they read religious literature in Gujarati. Nearly all the rest reported reading religious literature in English. Urdu and Arabic Among Fiji’s Muslims, Arabic is the major language of religion, used primarily to be able to read the Koran aloud in the original Classical Arabic, as Muslims are expected to do. Prayers are always in Arabic, although in some of the rituals (e.g. hakika when a child is received into Islam, marriage or nikka, funeral), some of the formulae may be in Urdu, the formal variety of Hindustani traditionally associated among many Indians with Islam. On other formal occasions associated with religion, in which speeches tend to be in Urdu also, they are typically preceded by a short opening prayer or recitation of a verse from the Koran in Arabic (Quran tilawat).13 During the indenture period, while the use of Arabic in religious settings would have been ideal, the reality was that Urdu had to be used, as was put succinctly by a person who provided evidence at the 1926 Commission on Education: ‘The Urdu student cannot read the Koran, therefore all Mohamet’s sacred books are in Urdu . . . ’ (p. 49). Hence the consistent refrain in the evidence provided by Muslim Indians that it was important that their children became literate in Urdu. A Muslim priest who gave evidence put it even more plainly: ‘ . . . if we do not learn Urdu we will not be able to understand our religious ideas’ (p. 51). The use of Urdu for religious purposes has grown since the 1920s. In contrast to the other Indian languages in Fiji, which tend to be used overwhelmingly for oral communication, knowledge of Urdu is essentially limited to reading and to a far lesser extent, writing, for almost all those with any knowledge of the language. (Indeed, Muslims who are literate in an Indian language are far more likely to know the Perso-Arabic script of Urdu than the Devanagari script of Standard Hindi.) Currently it seems that the more devout Muslims have some knowledge of Urdu; they have learned to read and write it, and they can speak it when formal occasions require. Others tend to have a passive knowledge of the spoken language and many cannot read or write it. If they are called upon to speak in a formal situation, they simply use their most formal register of Fiji Hindi (or Standard Hindi if they know it), and incorporate as many words of Perso-Arabic origin as they can muster. As for Classical Arabic, most of those who know it have only a passive knowledge of the script and how to read it aloud. For many Muslims, perhaps the majority, acquaintance with Arabic is limited to the reciting of prayers and a passive knowledge of ritual formulae.

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Panjabi Nearly all Punjabi free migrants were Sikhs, and with increased prosperity, they were able to start building temples or Gurdwaras (Gillion, 1962: 130–3) where they could worship according to the tenets laid down by Guru Nanak, the 16th century founder of Sikhism. Many of the sacred texts and rituals are in Panjabi, and the language was taught to the new generations to ensure that they could participate actively in ceremonies. The sacred Sikh texts are written in the distinctive Gurmukhi script, and, as in the case of younger Gujaratis, literacy in that script is limited among younger Punjabis. However, some locally produced books include transliterations of certain prayers in the Roman script in order to reach those who do not know the Gurmukhi script. English In the urban areas, in the first 70 years of the 20th century at least, services (including sermons) in Christian churches where congregations consisted either primarily of Europeans, or of worshippers of European, part-European, Fijian and Indian backgrounds, were in English. During the service, hymns were sung in English by both Methodists and Catholics, the latter also using Latin, albeit rarely. The multiethnic and multilingual composition of the congregation favoured the use of a ‘neutral’ language. When the parishioners were of a single language background, the service would be in Fijian (for Fijians) or, much less frequently, in Standard Hindi (for Indo-Fijians). Before Independence, the Catholic Cathedral in Suva had at least one mass a week (on Sundays) in Fijian. The bias towards English was also reinforced by the inadequate knowledge of the local languages among the mainly foreign priests (Arms, 1984). Although there are many more local priests at the present time and many of the foreign priests have a solid knowledge of Fijian and/or Hindi, the problem remains in urban parishes (Pio Manoa, personal communication). The new American-based evangelical sects, such as the Potters House Christian Church and the Assemblies of God Church and its offshoots (e.g. the United Pentecostal Church International) use almost exclusively English (Paul Geraghty, personal communication).

Languages of Literacy: Changes over Time As elsewhere in the Pacific, literacy arrived in Fiji with the Christian missionaries. One of the ways of achieving their aim of converting Fijians was to introduce literacy and thus to make the stories of the Bible available to them. The choice of the language used to translate the Bible gave it the status of a ‘standard’. The establishment of village schools by the Methodist Church succeeded in teaching Fijians to read and write, as was noted by Mann (1935). The materials available for reading in Fijian were limited largely to the Bible and other religious stories. After cession to Britain in 1874, parts of the official Fiji Government Gazette were published in Fijian, if a particular issue affected Fijians. Another official monthly, Na Mata, begun in 1874, was the source of ‘official’ information for Fijians (Clammer, 1976). A further source of reading material was the Methodist Missionary Society’s quarterly/monthly periodical, Ai

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Tukutuku Vakalotu, which began in 1887 as a quarterly and became a monthly in 1896 (Wood, 1978: 250). Apart from providing church and local information, the publication included news of the wider world and helped to keep scattered circuits in closer touch. The extent to which these publications penetrated to the level of villages is difficult to tell, though it can be expected that the existing church structures, including the village schools, would have been the conduit for the dissemination of the Ai Tukutuku Vakalotu. Clammer (1976) reported that even in 1970–1, when he conducted his fieldwork in Fiji, most newspaper readers were concentrated in urban or peri-urban areas, and people in remote villages or islands only saw these publications occasionally when someone brought old copies with them. Another issue related to access to literacy has to do with the kind of Fijian language in which literacy was taught, specifically, the extent to which this language, as used and ‘codified’ in the Fijian Bible and other religious publications, reflects the current vernacular. Geraghty has argued that this literary language is far removed from the contemporary spoken language and has, in fact, become an impediment to the development of a more dynamic variety of literary Fijian. Until the current literate language catches up with the vernacular, higher forms of literacy in Fijian might not be possible (Geraghty, 1989). Literacy in Hindi was a slower process. Many, if not most, of the indentured labourers who arrived in Fiji were illiterate (Gillion, 196214). During indenture, little schooling was provided (Gillion, 1962), hence none of the Indian languages was available for widespread literate purposes. Prior to 1920, Standard Hindi literacy was mostly limited to religious reading. Afterwards, its development was closely tied to the thorny question of the medium of instruction to be used with Indian students speaking a diverse range of Indian languages as first languages. The 1926 Education Commission advocated Standard Hindi as the language in which Indian students should begin their primary education, and hence their literacy. It was the Commission’s hope, quite apart from the difficulty of providing education in many languages, that Hindi would have a unifying power among Fiji Indians. The number of Hindi speakers and the availability of books, magazines and films from India in Standard Hindi reinforced the use of that language variety for literacy (and educational) purposes rather than the local Fiji Hindi. Thus the language of Hindi literacy became Standard Hindi, which had to be learned as a second dialect for the majority of Indo-Fijians and as a second language for many others. Literacy in Standard Hindi, however, competed with literacy in English and, depending upon the school that Indo-Fijians attended in the second half of the 20th century, they became either more or less literate in Standard Hindi. The development of higher forms of literacy in Standard Hindi did not occur because schools did not provide opportunities for studying beyond Grade 10. In recent times, however, Standard Hindi has begun again to be offered at senior secondary level, as when Cambridge Examinations15 (replaced in the 1950s by New Zealand examinations) offered papers in Standard Hindi. When Standard Hindi was promulgated as the language of education in the 1920s, Muslims complained about having to learn the Devanagari script and secured an agreement from the Government to use the Perso-Arabic script and teach Urdu and also Arabic, especially in religious schools (Gillion, 1962). Thus

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Urdu and Arabic also became languages of literacy and have been largely associated with religious reading. Similar concessions were made for the use of Tamil and Telegu in schools run by South Indian organisations, such as the Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam. The predominant attitude of the government at the time towards languages to be fostered through the education system can be summed up by a 1930 memo from the Colonial Secretary, quoted in Siegel (1987: 204): ‘We should avoid a tendency towards a multiplication of languages and without actually opposing Tamil or other Indian languages to foster a general adoption of Hindustani’. Other languages of literacy in Fiji are Rotuman and Chinese. In both cases, however, their use for literacy purposes is either restricted to religious or informational texts in the case of the former or, in the case of the latter, to the reading of local and overseas newspapers. On Rotuma itself, initial literacy is developed in the Rotuman language, but there are few books to assist in the development of higher levels of literacy. For Rotumans who live in Fiji, there have been sporadic newspapers, and meetings of the seven Rotuman district associations are held in Rotuman. Minutes and official letters to members of the association are also in Rotuman (Kafoa Pene, personal communication). The definition of literacy is problematic. To say that a person is literate in a language is imprecise unless what such a person can do with this literacy is clearly stated. The 1979 Bureau of Statistics reported that 80% of Fijians were literate in Fijian. But the Bureau admitted that information on literacy levels in Fiji was not available and that levels were extrapolated from their own definition: a ‘literate person is . . . [one] who can read and write and understands what he/she reads and writes.’ The Bureau goes on to suggest that a person who has completed at least Grade 3 be regarded as literate (Fiji Bureau of Statistics, Issue No. 4, 1979: 40), but this seems patently inadequate, as argued in Mangubhai (1977a). Twenty years later the situation had not changed, and the same inadequate definition continues to be used (Bureau of Statistics, 1998: 16).

Language Spread Languages of education As discussed previously, the first Wesleyan missionaries developed an orthography for Fijian and began to translate parts of the Bible into Fijian. As part of the evangelical mission, the Wesleyan-Methodist missionaries established at each Mission Station a village school where Fijians were taught to read and write Fijian, learn some basic arithmetic, and gain knowledge of the scriptures. Those who showed promise had an opportunity to take charge of such a school or to go to the ‘Big School’ (Vuli Levu) to undertake a three-year course. Successful completion of this course rendered a student suitable to lead a mission school, and he became known as the pastor-teacher (vakavuvuli). Throughout this education at the village school or at the Vuli Levu, the emphasis was on the use of the vernacular, and not English (Mann, 1935). Admittedly, the quality of teachers was variable, but it was the use of these local teachers to teach literacy in Fijian that led the first governor to comment favourably, in 1877, upon the level of literacy among the people (Lewis-Jones, 1957: 115). After Cession, the Colonial Government was very ambivalent about the

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education of children of non-European background. It was only after 40 years that a Department of Education was established in 1916 (Mangubhai, 1984). Prior to that, the education of Fijians (and, to a more limited extent, Indians) was in the hands of the missions – Methodist, Catholic, Anglican and Seventh Day Adventist. They taught mostly in Fijian, ensuring a good literacy rate in the language. After 1916, the status quo was allowed to prevail, with English having a limited place in the education of Fijians and Indians. The 1926 Education Commission, for example, recommended that subjects of general education, such as geography and health, be taught in the vernacular ‘until such time as the children have an adequate knowledge of English’ (p. 14). At the heart of colonial thinking was that education in another language, such as English, would take people away from their perceived ‘natural’ station in life. The widespread use of Fijian in the education of Fijian children continued until the Methodist Church, in 1932, relinquished control over their village schools to the Colonial Government. By 1934 the Methodist Mission controlled only 24 schools, 12 for Fijian children and 12 for Indian children (Mann, 1935: 26). The 1930s were a watershed for the use of Fijian in schools. The rising demand for more education, especially at secondary level, by the Indian population and their equally insistent demand for more English, and also for their vernacular languages (see for example, the submissions to the 1926 Education Commission, Appendix C Notes of Evidence) began a greater trend towards the use of English in schools. The Colonial Government was locked into a particular form of thinking in the 1920s. Education in the vernacular for Fijian and Indian children would ensure that they did not move away from their normal stations in life: for the Fijian, life in the village, and for the Indian, a life as an agricultural labourer (1926 Education Commission, paragraphs 30–1, 40–6). Fijian was not considered a language suitable for education (for Fijians or Indians) because there were few curricular materials in the language16 and because it was not considered adequate as a vehicle for more advanced education. Another objection to Fijian was that it could not be the language of instruction for the Indian children because the two ethnic groups had to be kept separate in order to avoid any social problems. It can also be argued that the separation of Fijians and Indians was part of a strategy of ‘Divide and Rule’ as seems to be suggested by the description of the relationships between the three major ethnic groups in Fiji: Fijian, Indian and Europeans (Macnaught, 1982: 112–15). The language of education in the Mission schools was predominantly Fijian but few students went beyond the early grades. In the school system, there was little competition for Fijian from any other language, such as English. As the Stephens Report (1944) showed, many Fijian children did not go beyond Grade 2 and hence would not have been exposed to English. The report also declared that ‘neither an Indian nor the Fijian language should be taught or examined [beyond the primary stage]’ (p. 17). With greater emphasis on the provision of post-primary education in the 1940s, the mix of mediums of instruction tilted towards English, and more Fijian children were exposed to the language. The languages of instruction for Indian children depended upon the locality and the size of particular language groups attending a given school. For the first

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50 years (that is, until the 1920s), the education of Indian children was largely ignored by the Colonial Government and was left in the hands of the parents themselves, and to a more limited extent than for Fijians, with the Catholic and Methodist Missions. Sir Everard im Thurn, the Governor of Fiji in 1908, had suggested that some educational opportunities should be provided for Indian children but, as the 1909 Commission reported, there was little support by the European community for the setting up of schools for Indians by the Government (Whitehead, 1981a). Some of the difficulties in setting up schools also arose from other factors: lack of social cohesion among the Indian population, their relative poverty, the scattered nature of Indian settlements, and a lack of basic infrastructure that could support the development of education for Indian children (Gillion, 1977). Submissions made to the 1926 Commission show that many Muslims wanted some education in Urdu, while the South Indians wanted the use of one of their languages, where feasible. The Commission itself recommended that, in Indian primary schools, the vernacular taught should be (Standard) Hindi, and that other Indian languages could be used where appropriately qualified teachers were available and where there were sufficient number of children from the particular language background to warrant it. By the 1930s, the use of Urdu for Muslim pupils in registered schools, and of South Indian languages as additional languages in schools run by the South Indian associations, was allowed (Gillion, 1977). The predominant language of education for Indians in the early years of the formal school system was, however, standard Hindi. Mediums of instruction

English With literacy initially in the hands of missionaries who chose to use the vernacular, little English was used (officially) in the village schools. It was only with the establishment in 1879 of Levuka Public School and in 1883 of the Suva Grammar School for Europeans that English began to be used as a medium of instruction. The Catholic Church, through the Marist Brothers, started a school for European Catholics in 1888 where English was the medium of instruction. By 1897 the Marist Brothers had established a school for Indians,17 but on its roll there were also Samoans, Fijians, Solomon Islanders and other Pacific Islanders (Gallagher, 1976). Such a group of learners with diverse first languages meant that English as the medium of instruction was to be used from the very beginning. The politics among the churches also led to the opening by the Catholic Church of another school on Ovalau for the sons of chiefs and part-Europeans, where students were taught prayers in English, reading and catechism in Fijian, and writing and arithmetic in both languages (Gallagher, 1976). The school, called Queen Victoria Memorial School (later Queen Victoria School), founded by the Government in 1906 (Wood, 1978) to educate the sons of chiefs, introduced English to Fijian children and used it in the post-primary stage as the language of instruction. English was also used in the six Provincial Schools for Fijians that operated at the time of the 1926 Education Commission. At the beginning of the 20th century, therefore, there were pockets of education in English for a number

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of reasons: it was the first language of some of the learners; out of political necessity, and because of the exigencies of the composition of the class. After the 1920s, there were calls for increased teaching of English in the schools. The 1926 Commission Report was to say that they found ‘among Fijians and Indians alike, the greatest desire to include English in the work of the school; indeed the insistence of the Indians upon this was a remarkable feature of their evidence’ (p. 13). The Report also indicated that there were already attempts to use English as the medium of instruction for the general subjects, resulting in ‘a very low standard of work’ (p. 13). The Commission, after taking due consideration of the submissions by various individuals and bodies, recommended in very broad terms, and with provisos, the use of English as a medium of instruction. The full recommendations are worth reproducing because they underpin the subsequent development of languages of instruction in Fiji (p. 14): 1.

2. 3.

4.

The vernacular (Fijian or Hindi respectively) to be taught in all primary schools, so that all children may be given ability to read it and speak it fluently. A carefully planned and very simple course of reading and speaking English to be introduced as early as practicable. The medium of instruction in the subjects of general education, e.g., geography, nature study, health, etc., to be in the vernacular until such time as the children have an adequate knowledge of English. In schools where the non-European teacher is a competent teacher of English, and in Missions schools taught by European teachers, English will become the medium of instruction at an early stage.

Impetus for greater use of English as the medium of instruction was also provided by the Scheme of Co-operation, begun in 1924, with the New Zealand Government. This scheme enabled recruitment of New Zealand teachers for service in Fiji’s schools (Whitehead, 1981b). They were to become instruments, not of literacy in Fijian, as the missionaries had been, but of an increasing use of English as the medium of instruction. The opening of the Government teacher training institution in 1929 also added to the greater role of English in education. By the time of the 1944 Stephens Report, it was clear that there were calls, even from within the Government, for the teaching of English in the school system. Stephens quotes senior departmental heads, such as the Postmaster-General, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Works, as saying that a better knowledge of English would be necessary for further training and development of the workforce under them (see for example, pp. 20–1). As a result, Stephens’ recommendations for the use of English as a medium of instruction were more radical than the previous recommendations. He recommended that: [more] attention should be paid to the teaching of English and progressively the stage at which English becomes the medium of instruction should be lowered until ultimately it is medium of instruction right through the schools. (p. vii) In the formulation of this recommendation, he seems to have been influenced by his observations of schools, most of which tended to be inter-racial and conducted all their instruction in English and ‘the success which has been

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obtained’ (p. 15). It is also likely that he was influenced by the educational policies in New Zealand, where the Maori language was not encouraged in schools (see Benton, 1981). While the recommendation certainly gave an impetus to greater emphasis on English, the complete replacement of vernacular education did not occur. The Stephens’ Report became the basis for the development of a 10-year plan (Proposed Plan of Development for the Educational System in the Colony of Fiji – Council Paper 18, 1946) which also endorsed the greater use of English in the educational system: The medium of instruction should for the present be English, Fijian or Hindustani, although the teaching of English as a second language should be intensified until it eventually becomes the medium of instruction throughout the Colony. (p. 2) The greater use of English as medium of instruction was to be a gradual process: initially it would be introduced after Grade 6, then progressively moving down the grades until it was used at Grade 3. At this point, the Development Plan suggested that the situation should be reviewed. To achieve this goal of an early switch to English, it was recommended that greater emphasis on teaching English be placed at the earlier grades in primary schools. An interesting comment that highlights the changed thinking about English language teaching occurs in paragraph 171 of the Development Plan of 1946. Previously, schools had to seek permission from the Department of Education if they wished to teach English. Now, schools not wishing to teach English would have to seek an exemption from the Department. Parents’ attitudes were also in favour of English as a medium of instruction, as shown by Adam’s 1950 survey (1958). The Report on Education in Fiji (1955) begins by reviewing what had been achieved since the previous ten-year plan. That plan had suggested a progressive introduction of English as the medium of instruction downwards from Grade 6 to Grade 3, but the 1955 Report is more realistic and abandons that goal suggesting that English should be introduced as the medium of instruction in Grade 5. The Indian agitation for the use of languages other than Standard Hindi seems to have led the Director of Education to suggest that the language of instruction for the first four years should be ‘English, Fijian or an Indian Vernacular’ (p. 4, emphasis added). This was a change from the previous position where it was recommended that Standard Hindi be the medium of instruction and only in special circumstances could it be replaced by one of the other Indian languages. The year 1969 saw the release of the Report of the Fiji Education Commission, set up to examine the system of education and make recommendations for a modern education system, designed for what was obviously going to be an independent Fiji. It recommended that English be the medium of instruction from Grade 4. This was put into effect in independent Fiji and has been the policy up to the present time. The transition to English as the medium of instruction has, however, never been clear cut. Teachers are driven by the need to have their students understand the content and do not always let language come in the way. Code-switching in classrooms by the teacher (and students) is more common than might be acknowledged by the wording of an official directive (see e.g. Mugler, 1996; Tamata, 1996).

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The vernaculars As mentioned previously, the choice of the dialect in which the Bible was first translated gave it the prestige that led it to be regarded as the Fijian language. It is this Standard Fijian that is largely used as the medium of instruction, though where teachers speak the dialects of their students, they may use that variety to explain a concept. The use of Standard Fijian in classrooms has meant that many Fijian students begin their education in a dialect that is different from their own. The differences are on a cline, with some dialectal differences from Standard Fijian greater than others. Children arriving at school speaking dialects that are considerably different from Standard Fijian (particularly dialects of Western Fijian) have to acquire the standard form as a second dialect. They are, however, exposed to the standard though radio, popular song and the church. With regards to Indian languages, Standard Hindi is used as the medium of instruction even though most people in Fiji who speak Hindi speak Fiji Hindi. The effect of using Hindi as the medium of instruction is that most, if not all, Indian children who arrive in Grade 1 are taught in a language that is either a second language (for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi or Gujarati speakers, for example) or a second dialect for those who grow up with Fiji Hindi as their first language. All Indian children also have to learn an Indian script, and all the minority Indian languages have their own scripts (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Panjabi and Urdu), which are different from the Devanagari of Standard Hindi. This means that some children may have to learn two different scripts, Devanagari, and the one in which their first language is written. The learning of the Roman alphabet, for English, makes it three scripts, a considerable cognitive burden by any standard. Partly for this reason, Indian students generally do less well in vernacular than in English examinations, in those cases where such comparisons can be made (e.g. Elley & Achal, 1981). This is not a recent phenomenon, as the Stephens Report (1944: 17) also commented on the ‘lower marks in Hindustani than in English’. It must be added, however, that fewer younger people are literate in the South Indian languages (Mugler, 2001: 29–30) and in Gujarati (Mugler & Mamtora, in preparation) or Panjabi, reflecting a reluctance to learn three scripts, especially when the heritage script is not taught formally in schools. The use of other Indian vernaculars as mediums of instruction was discouraged, if not actively then passively, by the Colonial Government (Siegel, 1987: 160–2). Talking about Tamil, for example, the then Director of Education wrote, in a memorandum to the Colonial Secretary in 1927, that ‘Tamil is dying out in Fiji and should possibly be encouraged to die out’. In 1930 he comments in another memorandum that Hindustani is becoming the ‘common language of Hindu and Tamil alike’. This attitude to Indian languages other than Hindustani is echoed in the Mayhew Report on Education (Report on Education, 1936) which recommended, inter alia, the ‘encouragement of Hindi, regarded as lingua franca for the Indian community’ (p. 18). The Stephens Report of 1944 also privileges Hindi over the other Indian languages. Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam are acquired by few children and have continued to be replaced by Fiji Hindi. In effect, most children of South Indian parentage have Fiji Hindi as their first language, and at primary school, like other Indo-Fijian children, they encounter the standard variety.

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The vernacular Indian languages have continued to be used, albeit with rather smaller numbers of speakers, as mediums of early education, where the location and the density of students in schools have permitted such a policy. However, only Standard Hindi, Fijian and Urdu can be studied for the Grade 10 examination (Fiji Junior) and beyond. There are a number of other small Pacific Island languages used as mediums of instruction in primary schools. Kiribati is used as a medium of instruction on Rabe Island, as a means of preserving the Banabans’ ancestral language, and on Kioa, Tuvaluan is the official medium in the early years of the primary school (Learning Together, 2000). On Rotuma, Rotuman is used not only in the primary years, but also throughout the secondary years, along with English, in a deliberate policy that encourages code-switching whenever it is needed (Maria Fonmanu, personal communication). Workshops for teachers on code-switching are run by the Curriculum Development Unit, and the policy is believed by its architect to have led to an improvement in the students’ performance. Policy versus practice The policy about languages of education evolved, reflecting changes in politics as well as the changing needs of a developing country. Education in the early part of the 20th century was limited for both Fijians and Indians. Admittedly there was widespread education available for Fijians through the many pastor schools, albeit at a very basic level. In the case of Indians, no consideration had been given to their education because their presence in Fiji at that time was regarded simply as labour, and often as transient labour. Where schooling was available to Indian children, it was organised by the people themselves, though not necessarily successfully, until the Arya Samaj Hindu sect established schools (Gillion, 1962). The language policy was sufficiently flexible to allow schools to teach in languages other than Standard Hindi if it was feasible. After 1920, there were calls to have more English language teaching, clearly made evident in the number of submissions to the 1926 Education Commission. Lack of finance, however, and of a clear plan for the development of education for both Fijians and Indians resulted in few changes in the 1930s (Whitehead, 1981b). A contributing factor to this lack of a plan was the perceived challenge to the European establishment by the Indians after 1920 and hence, for example, the blocking of the implementation of proposed new education policy by the European members of the Legislative Council after the 1926 Commission (Whitehead, 1981a: 80; see also Macnaught, 1982, especially Chapter 8). Some fundamental language policy changes might have occurred if Governor Mitchell, who took over in 1942, had been able to win over the administration to his way of thinking. He thought that racially segregated schools should give way to more integrated schools; there should be a common language (that is, English); and opportunities for education should be equitable for all races in Fiji. He appointed Stephens, an economist from New Zealand, to look into the colonial education system. The resultant Stephens Report of 1944 and the 10-year development plan for education that followed the Report, and the subsequent languages-of-instruction policies (see Languages of education, above) indicate that Governor Mitchell’s notions about a common language (English) were likely to become a reality. The 1940s view, that English should be the medium of

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instruction throughout the school system, was not feasible for the reasons summarised in the Development Plan of 1966–1970 for Education and Health (Fiji Development Plan: 1966–1970, 1966): Although English is taught as a subject every day in every school from the time a child first goes to school, it does not normally become the medium of instruction until the fifth year. The main difficulty in implementing Government’s declared policy of making English the medium of instruction throughout the primary school lies in the average teacher’s own poor command of the language. (p. 31) While the standard of English of teachers has improved considerably since then, English is not the only medium of instruction from Grade 5 onwards – and in the 1970s from Grade 4 onwards. Recent evidence suggests there is still a considerable amount of vernacular used in the school system in order to convey ideas to students (Tamata, 1996). Language as a subject

Fijian Fijian had been taught since the missionaries began their village schools. The 1926 Commission formalised this situation by recommending: 14. That in Fijian and Indian Primary Schools, instruction in the vernacular should be given, so that every child may have a good knowledge of reading and writing in his own mother tongue. (p. 22) After World War II, educational opportunities for Fijians were expanded to provide more education, thus broadening the opportunity for the study of Fijian. When the Fiji Junior Examination, taken at the end of Grade 10, was established in 1955, Fijian was one of the languages examined. Until the early 1980s, however, examinations beyond Grade 10 were conducted by New Zealand and Britain, and hence Fijian was not examined at the School Certificate level (Grade 11) or University Entrance level (Grade 12). Since 1989, Fiji has conducted its own examination, the Fiji School Leaving Certificate, at the end of Grade 12, and the Fiji Form 7 Examination at the end of Grade 13. Since 1994, Fijian has been offered right up to Grade 13. Despite the greatly improved situation whereby Fijian can now be studied in the highest grade at school, there are limited materials for classroom use or for reference. One of the reasons for this shortage is that writers in Fijian with appropriate educational background are not readily available. (See, for example, Learning Together: 298, and Geraghty’s (1989) argument about the lack of development of Fijian creative writing.) In addition, there has never been sufficient effort made to develop a climate in which the writing of such materials is encouraged. Also no effort is made to teach the non-standard varieties.

Standard Hindi To a large extent the comments about the Fijian language as a subject of study apply also to Hindi. The offering of Standard Hindi as a subject of study has paralleled the offering of Fijian, with one exception. When students in Fiji sat for the Cambridge School Certificate Examinations, they could take a paper in

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Standard Hindi, a possibility that did not exist for Fijian. Like Fijian, Standard Hindi was offered as a subject in the Fiji Junior Certificate Examination established in 1955. When Fiji took over after 1987 the administration of the examinations at the end of Grade 12, Hindi was offered as an examinable subject. By 1996 Hindi was also offered as an examination subject at Form 7 (Grade 13), the grade from which students proceeded to university. Access to Standard Hindi materials for classroom or reference purposes has been easier because of their availability from India. As in the case of non-standard varieties of Fijian dialects, no effort has been made to teach Fiji Hindi at any level in the school system.

Urdu Proponents of Urdu teaching in the school system have had to struggle to have it used as a medium of instruction and then taught as a subject. Submissions made to the 1926 Commission by Muslim Indians invariably recommended that Urdu should be taught so that children would be able to read the Koran and grow in their religion. Presumably, they expected that the knowledge of the Urdu script, which is based on Arabic, would transfer to the ability to read – at least to sound out – the Classical Arabic of the Koran. Mahomed Ramjan, for example, read out a statement on behalf of other Mohammedans of Nadi which included statements relating to languages: ‘For Mohammedan children [the medium of instruction] should be Urdu’, and the statement went on to say that ‘Urdu is taught in all districts of Fiji at the present time’ (1926 Education Commission, p. 40). The policy of allowing teaching in Urdu, when there were enough children in a class and an appropriate teacher was available, was established by this commission in a recommendation (p. 22): 19. That in Indian Primary Schools the vernacular generally taught be Hindi. Facilities to employ a visiting teacher should however be given to those parents who desire their children to learn another Indian language. It is especially desirable that every facility should be given to the children of Mohammedan parents to learn Urdu. Putting into effect such a policy was problematic because the financial viability of using a vernacular language was dependent upon the number of students in a school, an observation still true 30 years later. The Report on Education in Fiji: Educational Development for 1956–1960 (Lewis-Jones, 1955: 4) stated that the ‘major difficulty educationally is that the numbers of children in such language groups [i.e. Urdu, Tamil and Telugu] in any particular school are so small that only very rarely indeed do they constitute a complete class’. Another problem was that teachers themselves did not have a sufficiently high level of competence in Urdu, a problem that was addressed in 1954 by teaching Urdu at the Teachers’ Training College (Lewis-Jones, 1955). Urdu has now become an established subject of study in Fiji, as can be seen by the numbers of students who study this language in primary school (see Table 2). It is offered as an examinable subject in all major national examinations, the Fiji Junior (Grade 10), the Fiji School Leaving Certificate (Grade 12) and the Form 7 Exam (Grade 13).

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Arabic Arabic is taught primarily in the ‘Muslim schools’, that is, schools run by Muslim organisations. Most Fiji Muslims are Sunni and most Muslim schools are operated by the Sunni organisation, the Fiji Muslim League. These schools are not restricted to Muslim students but are open to all, although nearly all those who study Arabic are Muslims. In most of the schools, students are taught the qaida, the basic knowledge of the script for reading aloud and writing (but not for understanding). The teaching starts in Grade 2 and by Grade 3 children begin to read the Koran aloud. Over the years there have been periodic efforts to go beyond the qaida and offer full Arabic language classes. In the late 1980s, a new textbook, based on teaching Arabic as a foreign language, was introduced in the two largest Muslim schools in Suva, and Arabic was made compulsory for Muslim students up to Grade 8. Students had one period a week of instruction (typically 45 minutes), and the language was examined internally only. However, the experiment was short-lived and stopped some time in the 1990s, mostly due to a lack of trained teachers, and the two Suva schools reverted to teaching only the qaida. Muslim students also have one period a week of religious instruction (Islamiat), but the medium of instruction is English, and the school day starts with recitation of a few verses from the Koran by students from a particular class, with classes taking turns during the week. In recent years the Muslim League has made a concerted effort to tackle the shortage of teachers by sending people to be trained in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. There are also a few teachers from India, Africa and the Middle East. In 2003 Suva Muslim School resumed Arabic classes, which are offered throughout the primary and secondary schools (up to Grade 13), all with the same textbook, and the plan is for all Muslim schools to follow suit in 2005 (Asheer Ahmad, personal communication18). The Muslim Women’s League (a branch of the Muslim League, previously known as the Zenana) also runs Arabic classes for children, as do some youth groups, as the need arises. For instance, there is a markaz (small mosque) in the Raiwaqa suburb of Suva, where Arabic is taught, and classes are reported also in Ba and elsewhere on the western side of Vitilevu. Arabic is also one of the subjects available at the Islamic Institute (a tertiary institution run by the Muslim League) that also teaches business, computer skills and other secular subjects. Another group involved in the teaching of Arabic is the Ahmadiyya. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jammat, which claims about 2000 members (mostly on Vitilevu, Vanualevu, Taveuni and Rabe), has as one of its basic goals to enable everyone to read the Koran in Arabic. Although the organisation offers no regular classes, volunteers teach the qaida to small groups of children and adults (segregated by sex) on weekends. Videotapes that allow learners to go beyond the qaida after about three months are also available. The Ahmadiyyas openly proselytise and the organisation proudly reports that some Fijian converts have a better pronunciation in Arabic than many Indo-Fijian Muslims. Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam Dravidian languages are taught as subjects in the schools run by the Then India Sanmarga Ikya (TISI) Sangam, a cultural and educational organisation established by South Indians in the 1920s. As early as the first decade of the 20th century, still

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during the period of indenture, South Indians started informal schools where Tamil and Telugu were taught. The community was spurred by the general neglect of Indian education on the part of the Colonial Government and by the tacit policy of encouraging the use of Hindustani to the detriment of Dravidian languages. The TISI Sangam was founded in 1926 (Pillai, 1971: 17) and started setting up schools managed by local committees. Most of these schools were established in the 1930s. There was a lull in the 1950s, but renewed efforts in the 1980s saw a modest increase in the number of pupils enrolled in language classes in primary schools. Over the past 15 years or so, enrolments have hovered between about 1600 and 2400 for Tamil, offered in about 20 schools, and about 550 to nearly 1000 for Telugu, offered in half a dozen schools. The last time Malayalam was taught was in 1991 in one school in Rakiraki. Dravidian languages are not taught in secondary schools and are not examined. These figures are quite small, and they are also somewhat misleading. Sangam schools are open to all and enrolments may include children of any ancestry, not only South Indian. In addition, a child whose parents speak Tamil or are descendants of Tamil speakers, for instance, may be assigned to a Telugu class. Sangam educational officials themselves identify many of the problems with the teaching of South Indian languages. Constraints include the lack of trained teachers, low wages paid to language teachers, lack of suitable materials, low levels of proficiency of both teachers and students, lack of understanding among parents and absence of support from the Government. Mugler (2001: 37) argues that an additional, and seemingly unacknowledged, problem is the gulf between the local variety of Tamil (or Telugu) which is spoken in at least some of the pupils’ homes, and the standard variety taught in the schools. This is, of course, the same problem encountered by children whose first language is Fiji Hindi and who are faced at school with Standard Hindi. However, it is well known that the diglossic gap between colloquial (‘low’) and standard (‘high’) varieties of Dravidian languages is even greater than between the two varieties of Hindi. In addition, the Fiji varieties of the Dravidian languages also have evolved in distinct ways. Thus, even the rare child who may hear his or her grandparents speak Tamil at home is suddenly faced at school with what is essentially a foreign language. Given all the constraints, it is highly unlikely that a few hours a week of teaching these ‘alien’ varieties of Dravidian languages can have an impact on the transmission of the home variety (see Language Maintenance, below), or even that the standard can be acquired, as a foreign language, at a satisfactory level of proficiency.

Rotuman On Rotuma, Rotuman as a subject is taught through primary school and in the only secondary school. The Ministry of Education plans to offer the language right through to Grade 10 where it will become an examinable subject in the Fiji Junior Examination by 2005. The materials for this programme are currently being trialled. A large number of Rotumans now live in the main islands of Fiji, mostly in urban areas. Submissions to the Fiji Islands Education Commission/Panel (2000) show a concern that this urban community may not have any opportunity to study its language in the school system. A lack of extensive curriculum materials, few trained teachers and a lack of concentration of Rotuman children in any

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particular school make the teaching of Rotuman as a subject in a school in Fiji problematic. Despite these difficulties, a few primary schools in the Lautoka and Nadi areas have a large enough Rotuman school population – and a Rotuman-speaking teacher available – to be able to offer the language as a subject. At high school level, only one school in the capital city has enough Rotuman students to make it viable to offer a Rotuman Cultural Programme, but not a language programme.

Chinese languages The teaching of Chinese started in 1936 when a primary school was set up in Suva with 24 Chinese pupils (Willmott, 1999: 295). As the Chinese population around the capital grew, the community founded the Chinese Education Society, which elects the school board. Although the language originally taught was Cantonese, around 1970 the switch was made to Mandarin, while the only other Chinese school, in Lautoka, continued to teach Cantonese until 1976. The admission of non-Chinese children to the Suva school started in 1977, and a secondary school, now called Yat Sen, was set up in 1986 (Willmott, 1999: 295). In Chinese schools Mandarin is compulsory in primary and optional in secondary levels, where it is offered all the way up to Grade 13.19 In the past few years, the School Board has arranged for students to sit the high school Chinese papers (for ‘background speaking’, i.e. the version for those who grow up with the language), through the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia. Each year, half a dozen students sit these papers, and the Board is currently trying to arrange with Fiji’s Ministry of Education to have this recognised as part of the Fiji School Leaving Certificate. One of the difficulties of teaching Mandarin – besides the fact that it is a foreign language to the mostly Cantonese-speaking students – has to do with the script. In primary, the traditional (non-simplified) script is used, along with a Chinese phonetics method (called ‘pe fe me fe’), while in the secondary, the simplified script is used. There has been some pressure to use the simplified script throughout, but the issue is in part political, since the Taiwanese Government, who give aid to the primary school, still use the traditional system. Many of the pioneer Chinese immigrants and their descendants have now left Fiji, but a new wave of migrants, among whom are many Mandarin speakers, has arrived since 1987. There may be added pressure to develop a curriculum that would be tested in one of the national examinations, beginning with the Fiji Junior Certificate Examination at the end of Grade 10. Kiribati and Tuvaluan One of the smallest minority languages, Kiribati, is taught on Rabe. The 2000 Commission/Panel (Learning Together, 2000) noted that the Kiribati language and culture are taught from kindergarten to high school, using materials obtained from Kiribati. Similarly, Tuvaluan is taught on Kioa-using materials from Tuvalu. English English as a subject is currently taught from Grade 1. The history of English education in schools has been marked by high levels of demand from very early in the 20th century. From being taught only in schools for European children, or in the special Fijian schools [Queen Victoria School and the Catholic school in Cawaci

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Table 2 Language as a subject: Enrolments in primary schools 2002 Language

No. of pupils studying

Class (Grade) levels

Number of schools

Fijian

71,911

1–8

488

Hindi

39,544

1–8

213

Urdu

6,709

1–8

248

Rotuman

647

1–8

8

Mandarin

635

1–8

1

Arabic

535

1–6

2

Kiribati

93

1–2

2

Tuvaluan Tamil

28

1–2

1

1,738

1–8

17

255

1–8

3

Telugu

Source: Unpublished data, Department of Education, Research and Development (Statistics Unit), and TISI Sangam Convention Magazine, 2003 (for Tamil and Telugu)

Table 3 Enrolments in various languages in secondary schools in 2002 No. of schools

Form 1 (Gr 7)

Form 2 (Gr 8)

Form 3 (Gr 9)

Form 4 (Gr 10)

Form 5 (Gr 11)

Form 6 (Gr 12)

Form 7 (Gr 13)

Fijian

87

900

902

3009

2921

1068

894

146

Hindi

50

579

574

1292

1251

355

344

102

Urdu

13

336

222

156

175

80

60

12

Other

2

73

70

376

353

71

106

45

Source: Unpublished data, Department of Education, Research and Development (Statistics Unit) Note: ‘Data for . . . [the] year may not be quite complete as 5–6 schools did not submit their returns.’

(Levuka)] to being taught at progressively earlier levels with the goal of making it the language of instruction, its history reflects the sociopolitical attitudes and realities of the country. Early in the 20th century there was strong opposition from the elected European members of the Legislative Council and the Colonial Sugar Refinery officials to the teaching of English to Fijians and Indians (Gillion, 1977). Even the Government was against the teaching of English because it was thought that the teaching of English would make the people discontented and encourage them leave the land for other occupations. After World War II, however, the climate changed; the Government wanted more English taught, and it became a prominent subject in the school curriculum. Tables 2 and 3 present in a summary form the current enrolments in various languages taught in Fiji schools.20 Table 2 gives the number of students enrolled in various languages taught as subjects in primary schools, which go up to Grade 8 (‘Class 8’). Table 3 presents enrolments in Fijian, Standard Hindi and Urdu for 2002 in all grades of secondary school (Grades 7–13, called in Fiji ‘Forms 1–7’).21

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Objectives of education related to language and social outcomes The use of Fijian, Hindi, and other ‘minor’ languages as mediums of instruction in the first three years is based on the understanding that literacy is best developed in the language with which the child comes to school. However, this has to be understood against the language background of children discussed earlier: for many Fijian children, the Standard Fijian they encounter in the formal school system is different from the dialect with which they have grown up. For almost all Indo-Fijian children, the Standard Hindi they encounter is different from the Fiji Hindi or the other Indian languages that are their first languages. English is officially the medium of instruction after Grade 3, and Fijian, Hindi and Urdu are offered as subjects through to Grade 13. The major objectives of these programmes are best presented in the words of the curriculum documents (‘Prescriptions’) themselves. The aims of the Fijian and Standard Hindi programmes for Grades 7 to 10 are shown in Table 4. The small differences in the two prescriptions reflect certain societal values. For example, the Fijian syllabus acknowledges the importance of the development of students’ dialects, although an examination of the materials indicates that this may be more lip-service than a genuine attempt to achieve the stated goal. The Hindi curriculum, on the other hand, places an emphasis on developing Standard Hindi and is silent about the role of Fiji Hindi in the school curriculum. The Hindi prescription has omitted the more specific aim (e) about listening skills found in the Fijian prescription as well as ‘describing things and characters’. It has also omitted the Fijian aim (i), though it would have been a good aim for intercultural development. The Fijian primary (Grades 1–6) curriculum has the aim ‘creative work such as thinking, planning, designing and drafting’, which is missing from the Hindi curriculum. On the other hand, the Hindi curriculum has ‘achieving their goals’, which is missing from the Fijian curriculum. One other critical difference is that the Fijian curriculum includes ‘and their land (vanua)’ (as in ‘Develop positive attitudes towards the value of their language relation to their culture and their land (vanua)’), an addition that is quite significant for Fijians as the term vanua means more to a Fijian than simply land in the Western sense of the word. It can also mean land, region or place, but more importantly, it denotes a common ownership of land by social units, the members of which are related through kinship, and indeed the community itself. (Similar terminology occurs in many Polynesian languages; e.g. aroha in Maori.) The actual curriculum, however, contains very little related to this stated goal. No research has been carried out, as far as we know, on vernacular language classrooms to document what occurs in them, or the extent to which the aims of the programmes are being fulfilled. Analyses of the examinations, to see how they reflect the aims and objectives of the programmes and whether student achievement indicates that they are being reached, have not been carried out. It has generally been acknowledged that the quality of teachers of vernacular languages has not been high, a point also noted by the 2000 Commission/Panel when it stated that ‘qualified teachers in Fijian are almost non-existent’ (p. 298). There are indications that some students find the kind of language used in Fijian classes problematic: for example, when they have to learn words or proverbs that have become obsolete.

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Table 4 Aims of the Fijian and Hindi programmes for Fiji Junior (Grades 7–10) Fijian curriculum

Hindi curriculum

The general aims of the Fiji Junior The general aims of the Fiji Junior Certificate Fijian Language Course are to: Certificate Hindi Language Course are to: a.

b.

c. d. e. f.

g.

h. i. j.

promote personal development of students by exploring interests through their dialects and standard Bauan thus increasing their skills in using the Fijian language promote students’ knowledge and appreciation of Fijian culture and enrich their experiences through the study of Fijian literature help students master language skills to communicate confidently in social and ceremonial situations encourage students to enjoy reading a wide range of literary works enable students to listen attentively and master listening skills enable students to develop the basic forms of writing and language features needed in presenting arguments interpreting and translating information describing things or characters, etc. recording historical and cultural information help students develop interests and insight into the life experience and attitudes of other ethnic groups and cultures develop positive attitudes towards their cultural, civic and universal values develop an awareness of their physical and social environment identify students with potential to further develop their linguistic studies and creative literacy talents in the upper forms.

a.

b.

c. d.

e.

f. g. h.

promote personal development of students by exploring their interest in the universally accepted standard Hindi language. promote students’ knowledge and appreciation of the Hindi Culture and enrich their experiences through its study. help students in mastering language skills to communicate confidently in social and ceremonial rituals. encourage students to enjoy reading a wide range of literary works of local Hindi writers and writers from abroad. enable students to develop the basic forms of writing and language features needed in: presenting ideas and arguments interpreting and translating information recording historical and cultural events. develop positive attitudes and appreciate of their cultural, civic and universal values. encourage students to learn and respect other ethnic groups and their cultures. guide students to further develop their linguistic and literary skills and creativity.

As for the English language, it has been regarded since the 1930s as the lingua franca in Fiji, providing a common language for the Fijian and the Indo-Fijian populations. That this notion had become firmly rooted in the thinking of the ruling class is evident in the statements made by the first Prime Minister of Fiji, some years after Fiji became an independent country. In an address to the newly formed Nadi-Lautoka English Teachers’ Association, the Prime Minister said that ‘[w]hen you have so many different faiths, languages and cultures living in close position as happens in Fiji, there is a place, indeed a need, for a meeting point and a buffer. This can be provided by western culture and the English

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language’ (Mara, 1978: 3). However, data gathered at about the time of independence show that while the Indo-Fijians might have thought that English might be the lingua franca, Fijians did not think of English as a national language (White, 1971). Perhaps, after the coups of 1987 there are even fewer people who believe that English can bridge the gap between the two major ethnic groups in Fiji. The basic goal of the English language programme at the early stages is the development of sufficient proficiency in the language for its effective use as a medium of instruction from Grade 4. That this was not achieved widely in the 1970s is documented in Elley and Mangubhai (1979) who showed that the achievement of rural schools was considerably less than that of urban schools, and that as many as 25% of the school population at Grade 4 level were not able to read simple English texts with some understanding. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that 25 years later the situation has not changed substantially. The goals of the English language programme at junior and senior secondary have expanded to include the development of writing abilities in a variety of genres, including expository essays, and the development of an appreciation of literature written in English. In fact, at the higher levels in secondary schools, the curriculum begins to look quite similar to English language curricula in Australia and New Zealand. While the objectives of language education might have been to use a third language as a neutral medium between two major groups, events since 1987 have shown that the two communities are still very far apart in terms of their social goals. In this context, it is important to note that young people’s views22 might be at variance with those of people in authority, as shown by these words from young people, reproduced from the 2000 Commission/Panel Report (p. 208): the adults have messed things up for us. We would like to learn about each other but have not been given the opportunity. We want to be accepted socially without being forced to clearly identify with just one cultural background. We would like to speak Fijian and Hindi fluently. We want to and can handle both cultures. Clearly, there is a need to consider the role of languages in social outcomes that contribute to a more multicultural society. The 2000 Commission/Panel suggested a greater role for vernacular languages in the educational system, and at least one of the members of the Commission/Panel advocated in particular a stronger role for Fijian. This member argued that Fijian should be made compulsory for all students until Grade 10 so that it would cultivate ‘a sense of national identity and create a cohesive society’ (p. 207).23 Another member argued that conversational Fijian and Hindi should be made compulsory until Grade 11. While on the surface these two recommendations promote a more prominent role for vernacular languages, the first suggestion does not consider compulsory learning of Hindi by Fijian students. The reasons that underpin these suggestions are many and varied. Fijian is spoken by only about 500,000 people in the world, and there is a legitimate concern that other metropolitan languages could erode these numbers over time. As Fijians are the original inhabitants of the Fiji Islands, it is argued that their language should be the national language among the three major languages and should be learned by all. A much more interesting and more data-driven case for Fijian as a national language is presented by Geraghty

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(1997) who argued that a process of indigenisation of the Indo-Fijian population is already taking place. He further argued that the study and use of Fijian would contribute to nation building and could create a national feeling, a point also made in the 1969 Education Commission (see p. 24). However, current thinking in language policy and planning has questioned the 1960s beliefs that nationhood – especially where there are a number of different languages within a country – can be best developed through having one national language. In reviewing the literature on language policy and planning Ricento (2000: 11) claims that the 1960s ‘formula, roughly, for successful nationhood entailed cultural/ethnic unity within a defined geographical boundary (state), and a common linguistic identity among the citizens of a polity’. Thinking and planning language within this paradigm did not produce the expected results, and many writers have been critical of this approach (see also Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997). In Fiji therefore, the future social goals as they relate to languages will be predicated not on the relative roles of the two major vernaculars but, more significantly, on the role that Fijian will play. Fijian may have a greater role in the life of the country as the proportion of Indo-Fijian population declines. Such a changed role will be in stark contrast to the goals of language education during the Colonial period, which saw English progressively taking over as the medium of instruction, to the exclusion of the vernaculars. Languages in the media Print was the first medium used to provide information (in the Western sense) in the late 1860s. When Fiji was ceded to Britain, a Fijian newspaper was established to provide information about Government activities as they affected the Fijian people. It was, however, radio that was to be the most effective medium for reaching a wide audience, especially village and home bound listeners. More recently, television has started to compete with radio. If experience in other countries can be used to extrapolate, television will become more dominant, and English more prominent.

Newspapers/Magazines The first newspaper to be published was in English and appeared in 1868, six years before Cession. The Fijian Weekly News and Planters’ Journal was printed in Levuka, which later became the first capital of Fiji. However, the paper was short-lived: barely four months (Clammer, 1976; Derrick, 1950). In 1869 another English newspaper was established, the Fiji Times, which began as a weekly, then appeared bi-weekly (Derrick, 1950: 196), and later daily. Shortly after Cession, the Fiji Government Gazette was published. It contained notices of ‘appointments, government notices and published Ordinances, mostly in English, but with some sections that had a direct bearing on natives affairs in Fijian’ (Clammer, 1976: 147). The Fiji Times offered, apart from a variety of notices and advertisements, some local and overseas news, an editorial section and Municipal Council News (Clammer, 1976). The major part of the newspaper, however, was devoted to business notices and local news, which was really news as it affected the European community and was as seen largely, if not solely, from their perspective. The Government also published a monthly in Fijian, called Na Mata, which continued to be published under that name for almost 100 years. This initially

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provided Fijians with government information that was considered to affect them but quickly turned from a gazette to a periodical of general interest – for a long time the only one in Standard Fijian. The Ministry of Information, over the years, published occasionally in Fijian and in Hindi. In 1980, it started Davui, a Fijian monthly publication, as well as a Hindi counterpart, Shankh, but both died out in the late 1990s. Currently (2003), the Ministry of Information does not publish anything in Fijian or Hindi. It publishes only a quarterly newsletter, Infonet, and the annual Fiji Today, both in English. The Methodist Missionary Society began publishing a monthly periodical in Fijian, Ai Tukutuku Vakalotu, in 1894, which, according to Clammer (1976: 147), ‘attained quite a high standard of journalism, providing local and church information, and news about the wider world’. However, as with many newspapers, the information it carried probably interested those in the area where the newspaper originated more than those in remote locations. It is difficult to say what impact this, or the other newspapers, written in standard Fijian, had on the Fijian people. By the beginning of the 20th century, when the Western Pacific Herald began publication in 1901, there were two English language newspapers. By 1918, the Fiji Times had been bought out by the Herald and the two merged into a single newspaper, the Fiji Times and Western Herald, that title later shortened to Fiji Times and Herald. In the 1950s, it was taken over by a Sydney-based company, Pacific Publications, whose owner went back to the original name, The Fiji Times (Usher, 1962). The Fiji Times has continued to be the dominant newspaper in the country. The editor, at the time of Independence, was a strong Alliance Party24 supporter, but after Independence the Times was felt to be too pro-Government (i.e. proAlliance) and another voice was needed. In 1974 The Sun first appeared as an afternoon newspaper. In order to differentiate itself from the Fiji Times, it carried many pictures, the front page frequently displaying a large photo with an eye-catching caption. It also cleverly provided more sporting news with many pictures so that it appealed to Fijian readers, who are avid followers of sports. This, among other reasons, may have been why it quickly became a daily that appeared in the morning rather than in the afternoon – just like its rival. The Sun closed shortly after the first coup and was eventually replaced by the Daily Post, a tabloid newspaper begun by a group of Fijian businessmen, now Government-owned. A new Fiji Sun, partly owned by Fijian Holdings, was re-launched by a group of Indo-Fijian businessmen in 1999. The Fiji Sun has less coverage of politics tending to concentrate on human interest stories. As mentioned previously, during the Colonial period the English newspaper carried items that were ‘newsworthy’ and served the interests of the Europeans rather than those of all sectors of society. After Independence, the tenor of the newspapers began to change. A new, local, elite was emerging, whose interests did not necessarily coincide with those members of the European population who stayed on after Independence. As local civil servants rose in the ranks, they needed to keep in touch with news and information, and they turned to the newspaper. A rapidly expanding population, educated at higher levels, with many graduates among the Indo-Fijian and Fijian communities, was emerging. Government Ministers made public statements that were reported in the newspaper

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which were of interest to people trying to gauge the thinking of the government of the day on a variety of issues. The early 1980s saw an increase in the use of one form of writing, letters to the editor. Geraghty (1984) reports very lively letters-to-the-editor columns in both Fijian and English newspapers. Mangubhai (1995), in a randomly chosen copy of The Daily Post (24 December 1994), showed that this type of literate behaviour was becoming more established reflecting changes in the society. The first letter in that issue complained that soldiers who had been on peace-keeping duties had still not been paid and questioned the good faith of the Government and its agencies. The second letter complained about recent actions of the Trade Minister. Such letters would not have been written by ‘ordinary’ people in the previous 30 years. The English language newspapers continue to provide an outlet for the expression of people’s viewpoints, with local Fiji Islanders now the main writers. The first non-government Fijian newspaper was established as a weekly, called Duisiga, but it lasted only a few years, from 1951 to 1954. A printing firm, Oceania Printery, took it over in 1953 changing its name to Volagauna. When the company that published the Fiji Times decided to publish a weekly in Fijian, Nai Lalakai, it signalled the demise of Volagauna because it could not compete with the superior resources of the Australian company. The owners of the (first) Fiji Sun also decided to run a weekly in Fijian. Siga Rarama started in 1980 but closed when the Fiji Sun ceased publication after the 1987 coups. Nai Lalakai, founded in 1962, has now become the major Fijian weekly, but Volasiga, published by the Daily Post, is also popular. The history of Hindi newspapers and broadsheets is a chequered one, with new newspapers arising as others failed. Many of these short-lived newspapers and broadsheets were published by religious groups, which ‘indulged in pettiness and mudslinging and attacked religious ceremonies practised by other groups [of Indians]’ (Kanwal, 1979b: 107). One of the early newspapers, Fiji Samachar, first published in 1923, survived until the mid-1970s.25 In 1935, the Fiji Times and Herald began publishing a Hindi weekly, Shanti Dut, which has been continuously published to date. It had an advantage that some of the other Hindi newspapers lacked: it could draw upon the journalism involved in the gathering of news for the English daily. Jagriti, which championed the cause of the Indo-Fijian sugar cane farmers and was popular in the sugarcane belt, began in 1950 and ceased publication in the 1970s. By the middle 1970s, the sugar cane and land use issue had been settled – at least for the time being – and the paper lost some of its appeal. It also had numerous financial problems that eventually forced its closure. Another popular Hindi weekly, Jai Fiji, published in Lautoka, began in late 1950s. While its first editor was at the helm it was successful, but it ceased publication shortly after his retirement in 1980, partly also because its constituency had changed. The printing press was bought by a Suva businessman, who started Fiji Sandesh, which had lively social commentary, but it too was short-lived. The births and deaths of various Hindi newspapers were tied up with the special interests that initiated them. With some, it seemed that the editor was the driving force, and once the editor changed, the publication ceased. The longevity of Shanti Dut can be attributed to the fact that it is published by a company that is

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Table 5 Average circulation of publications 1984–2003 Publication

Frequency

1984

1995

2003

Newspapers Fiji Times

daily

Sunday Times

weekly

Daily Post

daily

Sun

daily

Nai Lalakai (Fijian)

weekly

Volasiga (Fijian)

weekly

Shanti Dut (Std Hindi)

weekly

Chinese Daily Mail (Chinese)

3 times a week

25,000

35,000

30,223 21,140

17–18,000

9,000 28–32,000

17,000 7,000

8–9,000

5,000*

14,000

5,000

8,500

7,500* 700/day 2,100/week

Magazines Islands Business Magazine

monthly

2,000

The Review

fortnightly

Fiji Magic (free tourism publication)

monthly

7,500

Chinese National News Magazine (Chinese)

monthly

not known

11,000 –12,000 (then monthly)

7,500

Sources: Figures for 1984 are from Geraghty (1984: 60); for 1995 (at March), from Tent and Mugler (1996: 253); for 2003 (at 1 July), provided by the publishers. Unless otherwise indicated, publications are in English. * indicates print run. Notes: The Review and excerpts from the Daily Post are also available online at www.fijilive.com. Subscriptions and off the shelf sales for the Review are around 4500. The rest (3000) is distributed free of charge to schools, business managers, and various professionals. The related website Fijilive, as of April-May 2003, recorded about 10 million hits a month. With the South Pacific Games staged in Fiji in June-July 2003, they had already broken their record by the end of May and expected 15–17 million hits for July. Excerpts from the Fiji Times are available online at www.fijivillage.com. There are also periodicals in Fijian published by religious organisations, for example Domo ni Ekelesia, published monthly by the Catholic Church, with a reported circulation of 9000, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ bimonthly, Na Vale ni Vakatawa (circ. 5462) and quarterly, Yadra (3189).

in the business of newspaper publishing and has been for over 125 years. It was also fortunate to have the founding editor continue with it for 45 years. Other vernacular publications that have come and gone include the Fijian Nai Tukuni, Na Tui, and the Hindi Shank, Sartaj, Nav Jyoti, Ramneek Post, and Hindustan. In 2000, the publisher of the Daily Post started a Rotuman newspaper, Noa’ia Rotuma, but the paper ceased publication when the publisher was removed from the Post (Fiji Times, 16 May 2003, letter to the editor, Thakur Ranjit Singh26). The other minority languages of Fiji are essentially absent from the print media, with the exception of Chinese. Besides newspapers, Fiji has had magazines, though only in English, for many

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years. The best known for much of the 20th century was the Pacific Islands Monthly (better known as PIM). It began publishing in 1930 continuing until 2000 when it merged with the Honolulu-based Pacific Magazine. Since 2001 the magazine has been published under the name Pacific, with the South Pacific edition being published in Fiji and the North Pacific edition in Honolulu. Other magazines in English began in the 1980s and 1990s. The present Islands Business started in 1972 as the Hotel and Catering News having gone through several name changes before settling on its current name in the early 1980s. The Review, which concentrates on business and politics, started in 1992. Table 5 shows the average circulation of newspapers and magazines in Fiji over the past two decades. Many of these figures have not been audited by an independent body; indeed, in some cases the only information provided by the publishers has consisted of print runs rather than average circulation. Thus, the estimates might be inflated. At the same time, one single issue of a newspaper in Fiji is likely to be read by a half dozen to a dozen people, especially in rural areas. The available figures should therefore be considered more as an indication of levels of readership than as an accurate measure of it.

Radio Radio reaches nearly everyone in Fiji, and has always been the medium most open to the use of local languages. Radio broadcasting started in 1935, in English, but early on the Fijian Affairs Office was given a slot for a weekly hour-long programme in Fijian. This programme was an immediate success, and Fijians flocked to villages that had radio receivers (Usher & Leonard, 1979: 5). The usefulness of radio became even more obvious during World War II. As a result, in 1943, a regular local news service began in each of the three official languages. In 1954 the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited (FBCL, better known as FBC) was set up, and over the next decades airtime for Fijian and (Standard) Hindi increased, as did local production in all three languages. In 1972 two networks were set up, Radio Fiji One, carrying Fijian and English, and Radio Fiji Two, carrying Hindi and English. Special broadcasts in Rotuman, South Indian languages, Chinese and Gujarati were also introduced. By then, Usher and Leonard (1979: 27) were able to say that ‘Radio Fiji speaks regularly and frequently to all the people of Fiji in their mother tongues’. FBC is currently divided into a public service broadcast (PBS) and a commercial arm, the Bula Network. PBS, partially funded by a Government grant, operates Radio Fiji One and Two. The two stations are under contractual obligation to the Government to provide a set percentage of service programmes, being the only stations offering an extensive message service. ‘It is intended that FBCL’s public service stations will reproduce the national or ethnic cultures of the audience so that the audience can always keep in touch with their history, language, arts, religion and other cultural values and tradition’ (Fiji Today, 2000: 58). Some of the minority languages traditionally were given a weekly slot. The Bula Network, entirely funded through advertising, includes three FM radio stations, one in each of the three major languages. The last two decades have seen a substantial increase in broadcasting activities, with a number of FM commercial stations being set up. Another radio broadcasting company, Communications Fiji Limited, runs three independent

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commercial FM stations, one in each of the three major languages: the English FM 96 (since 1985), the Hindi Radio Navtarang (since 1989), and the Fijian Viti FM Nai Matai (since 1996). A fourth station, Legend, aimed at the urban-based Westernised audience aged over 30, has recently been added by the company, and two Christian organisations have also acquired licences (Fiji Today, 2003: 81). In 1996 the University of the South Pacific (USP) was granted a licence for an FM station, called Radio Pasifik, with reception limited to the main USP campus area. The programmes ‘should promote the advancement of education and culture’ (Fiji Today, 2000: 58). USP is a regional university and programmes on Radio Pasifik include features in some of the languages of the students, who come from 12 different island nations where about 200 different languages are spoken. Currently there are broadcasts not only in English, Fijian and Hindi but also in Tongan, Samoan, Cook Island Maori, Tuvaluan, Solomons’ Pijin, Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu), Kiribati, and French (one of the three official languages in Vanuatu and the language of education for many ni-Vanuatu). Airtime for other languages spoken by the students is available if they show an interest. The audience, restricted by the reception area, is small. In Fijian broadcasts, official news reading is in standard Fijian, while interviews and phone-ins are sometimes in other dialects. The Hindi broadcast is mostly in Standard Hindi, and songs from Indian films dominate the programmes, except for Sunday morning programmes, which feature local singers and idiomatic expressions reflecting Fiji Hindi. The weekly morning programmes in both vernacular languages are aimed at housewives and have much valuable information for listeners about education, hygiene, food recipes and preparation, and bringing up children. Formats such as interviews, phone-ins and chat shows are utilised for these purposes. In many ways radio has performed a more valuable social service than the newspapers.

Television Television was introduced in October 1991, when Television New Zealand was granted a temporary licence to telecast live World Cup rugby matches. A licence for a permanent national television service was approved in 1993, and Fiji Television established new studio facilities in 1994. Fiji One’s local news service went on air in March 1995, with a 30 minute English language bulletin replacing the news bulletin produced by the Government’s National Video Centre. According to the Ministry of Information, transmission coverage includes most of the population of Fiji, with the ‘viewing area’ comprising the greater Suva area, Navua, Sigatoka, Lautoka, Ba, Labasa, Savusavu and ‘a defined number of rural and other urban tikinas [districts] in all of the provinces of Fiji’ (Fiji Today, 2003: 77), although it does not extend to Lau or Kadavu as far as we know. There are plans to cover the Coral Coast, the interior of Ba, and Northern Lau. It is claimed that the service reaches 40 to 50% of the potential audience. The Nadi area has two local channels, Community Television, and for tourists, Visitor Information Network Limited. In Suva, a Christian channel, Trinity TV, was launched in 2002 (Fiji Today, 2003: 77–8). A pay-TV service, Sky Fiji, was introduced in 1996, providing sports, Standard Hindi and English language movies and other programmes. With a satellite dish, nearly anything is accessible, and some Gujarati households, for instance, watch a Sky Gujarati channel. 27

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Fiji One is still overwhelmingly dominated by English, with a tiny share of airtime for the two major local languages – in their standard forms. Currently there are two daily two-minute summaries of the main news on weekday evenings, one in Fijian and one in Hindi, and two half hour programmes each in Fijian and Standard Hindi on Sunday afternoon. Commercial advertisements and public service announcements are nearly all in English, with an occasional one in Fijian or Hindi. On the main news bulletin, interviewees speaking in Fijian (including, occasionally, non-standard varieties) or Fiji Hindi used to be upstaged by a voice-over English translation, but this is increasingly being replaced with English sub-titles, and occasionally no translation at all. Interviewees have included Fijians speaking Fiji Hindi to Indo-Fijian reporters and Indo-Fijians interviewees speaking Fijian – another example of ‘vernacular bilingualism’. The minority languages have so far been absent from television.28 The share of locally produced programmes is also minuscule, as is typical in a cash-strapped developing country with a population of less than a million. Currently, a typical weekday schedule during prime time – from 6pm to 11pm – features a half hour local news bulletin (played twice per evening) with three brief news summaries (in each of the three major languages). The rest is in English: a half hour BBC World News bulletin, a half hour episode of the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street, and three or four other shows (situation comedies, drama, etc.), all of which originate in the United States except for a weekly Australian drama. Local programmes account for less than 25% of airtime. The vast majority of ‘English’ movies (i.e. in the English language) originate of course in the United States. The other major film industry thrives in the Fiji Islands too. Hindi movies are widely available both in theatres and on video, and although the language is significantly different from Fiji Hindi, it is understood well enough, thanks in part to the fairly predictable plot lines. While Indo-Fijians tend to divide their viewing between Hindi and English language TV and movies, Fijians do not have a similar choice since there is no production in Fijian.29 In a small survey of television watching, Mugler (2003) found that 10% of a sample of 116 university students from Fiji reported not watching any television. She discovered that the mean TV viewing among those who watched was 9.6 hours a week. As has happened elsewhere, the influence of television is expected to increase, and will influence the kind of English spoken by the young. There is likely to be increasing pressure to produce more Fijian programmes, though in the short term this will probably not include dramas.

Internet Fiji-based websites are all in English, with only an occasional paragraph in Fijian. Alternatively, one must go to the website of the Pacific Languages Unit of the University of the South Pacific to find extended text in Fijian. The Fijilive website with its news about Fiji is very popular with Fiji Islanders who are overseas and want to keep informed about what is happening in Fiji. During the 2000 political crisis, this site provided information about the events which were unfolding in Fiji. Coverage was also provided by the training website for journalism students at the University of the South Pacific (Wansolwara), whose work

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earned them wide recognition, including some journalism awards. It seems too early to tell what the effect of the internet will be, whether it will have a positive effect upon the main vernaculars or whether it will be yet another source of English language input into the country, as seems to be the case now. The more informal medium of email lends itself to the use of languages other than English, however, and at least Fijian and Fiji Hindi (in Roman script) are used by those with access, probably to a greater extent than they are in informal letter writing. The same seems to be true of text messaging. Languages of creative writing While literacy is a relatively new phenomenon in Fiji – less than 200 years old – Fijian society had a rich oral tradition that captured significant events in the life of communities and included a number of creative genres. The introduction of literacy began a process of de-emphasising of the oral traditions. Fijian society did not incorporate the new technology to serve its ‘literary’ or ‘dance’ traditions. Instead, a foreign literacy tradition was gradually promulgated through the school systems, and values that were wittingly or unwittingly foreign to the social functioning of the people were introduced. Some of the new developments, however, such as radio, which was new to everyone, found a resonance with Fijians and became a means of extending traditional patterns of social interaction through a new medium. For Indians there was a displacement and a discontinuity between the physical and social past and the new realities of working and living on sugarcane plantations. While there existed a literary tradition, and a more marked religious literary tradition in particular, it did not survive the transplantation because of the multiplicity of Indian languages spoken within a very limited physical range, the initial limited literacy, and the lack of educational opportunities for the indentured labourers and their children. After the end of indenture in 1920, Standard Hindi became the literary norm even though it was substantially removed from the Fiji Hindi that had developed in the 50 years of indenture and has continued to develop since.

English There was little creative writing in English by the non-European population until the 1970s. Expatriates in Fiji wrote novels set in the country, such as Marama: a Novel of 19th Century Fiji by June Knox-Mawer (1972). One of the few ‘local’ (she was born in New Zealand) Europeans who wrote an autobiographical piece was Lema Low (1962). Her memoir, A Family in Fiji, was set on Vanualevu. The sensibilities embodied in these writings were European, and it was the Fijian setting that gave them a distinctive flavour. Stuart Inder, in an editorial in the Pacific Islands Monthly (PIM) in April 1976, stated that for a ‘number of years after World War II, PIM’s pages included a regular smattering of Island-flavoured poetry and fiction, almost all of it submitted by expatriate Islands residents with a literary bent’ (cited in Mana, 1980: 69). With the establishment in Suva of the regional University of the South Pacific (USP) in 1969 and the employment of Fijian, Indo-Fijian and regional academic staff, an impetus was provided for an outlet for local and regional creative writing. The South Pacific Creative Arts Society, formed in 1972, consisted of writers

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and artists from the South Pacific, including Papua New Guinea. At first, writings were published in the Pacific Islands Monthly, in a newly established section called Mana. This was an astute move because the Monthly was widely read around the Pacific and by those interested in the Pacific in Australia and New Zealand. From 1973 to 1975, the Monthly carried stories and poems written in English and Pacific Islands languages. In a report on the Society published in Mana (1980) it was acknowledged that the focus of the Society’s activities had been on literature, and that it had helped in the development of both national and regional literatures. After three years of publication in the Pacific Islands Monthly, the Society confidently launched its own publication, initially called Mana Review and later Mana. This journal provided an outlet for Fijian and Indo-Fijian authors writing in English (as well as other regional writers). Mana, and more specially the South Pacific Creative Arts Society, provided an avenue for a number of writers who expressed themselves in English. Among the first wave of writers were Raymond Pillai (short stories), Pio Manoa (poetry), Jo Nacola (drama), Vanessa Griffen (short stories) and Satendra Nandan (short stories and poetry), followed quickly by Subramani (short stories) and Vilisoni Tausie Hereniko (drama), and much later by Joseph Veramu (short stories), Larry Thomas (plays), Mohit Prasad (poetry) and by a more accomplished writer of poetry, Sudesh Mishra. All these writers injected a local sensibility into their writing which often reflected the concerns, past or present, of the ethnic group to which each belonged. There is yet to emerge a national vision and a national psyche that can be a source of inspiration for writers. As Mana became established as a journal of language and literature for the South Pacific, a local publication was established, in which Francis Mangubhai had a leading hand. Sinnet ambitiously tried to establish itself as a quarterly. An introduction to the first issue in October, 1980, stated that the . . . principal aim of the Journal is to promote creative writing in Fiji by providing an outlet for Fiji writers, and potential writers. Sinnet will, therefore, cater for a wide range of writers – those who are already established as well as those who are just starting off . . . While the initial issues are likely to contain material written only in English, it is planned to incorporate into the Journal creative writing in Fijian and Hindi also. The Journal will then become trilingual. By 1984 it had become obvious that there was insufficient writing in English generated by new writers to continue quarterly publication, and after the departure of Mangubhai overseas, Sinnet gradually ceased publication. The more established writers such as Subramani, Nandan, Pillai, Tausie, Manoa, Sudesh Mishra and Veramu continued to be published in various other journals, including Mana. According to Griffen (2001), many of the writers had also become involved in other pursuits. She claims, however, that there is a new wave beginning, with writing encouraged by a group called the Niu Waves Writers’ Collective, which grew out of the Pacific Young Writers’ Forum organised during the annual Pacific Week at USP in 1995. The Collective has attracted younger writers and seems to be an effort to capture some of the enthusiasm generated when the South Pacific Creative Arts Society was established over 30 years ago. Vilisoni Tausie Hereniko, one of the more successful writers specialising in

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drama, was able to get one of his plays, A Child for Iva, published by Longmans in New Zealand and subsequently put on the school English language and literature curriculum for study for the School Leaving Certificate. This has exposed many generations of Fiji students to his writings. Prior to this publication, a collection of short stories and poems from around the South Pacific (Mangubhai, 1977b) included a number of writers from Fiji, such as Pillai, Nandan, Griffen, and Tausie. This collection marked the first introduction of South Pacific literature for study for a national examination at the end of Grade 10. Twenty-five years later, the collection continues to be used, and is currently being revised. In the late 1980s, as a result of the work on reading and language development carried out through the Institute of Education at the University of South Pacific, a marked effort was made to develop more local children’s writing in English and in Pacific languages. This effort, and the establishment of a Literacy Centre in the Institute, encouraged the production of a number of children’s stories that were published by the Institute with funds from UNESCO. The 1999 Annual Report of the Institute of Education lists 88 titles in English, 33 in Fijian, six in Hindi and two in Urdu. English has been the chief vehicle for writings in literary criticism (e.g. Subramani, Vijay Mishra, Sudesh Mishra), social and cultural studies (Asesela Ravuvu), history (e.g. Brij Lal, Vijay Mishra) and writings on financial matters (e.g. Savenaca Siwatibau, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, now Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Pacific30). English is the main medium of instruction at the University of the South Pacific and has been the main vehicle for academic writing in a range of disciplines. It is notable that a doctoral student in linguistics is currently writing her PhD thesis in (and on) Fijian.31

Fijian Publication of literature in Fijian began with translations by missionaries of the Bible and, in the 1860s, of Pilgrim’s Progress.32 Fijians themselves were writing in their own language by then, and their work started appearing regularly in Na Mata in the 1880s. At the beginning of the 20th century, additional outlets for Fijian writing included a number of publications by the youth organisation Viti Cauravou (Viti) and especially by churches – the Methodist Tukutuku Vakalotu, the Catholic Talanoa, and the Seventh Day Adventist Church’s Rarama, The first books to be published were translations of English classics, such as King Solomon’s Mines, Robinson Crusoe, The Jungle Book, and Aladdin. Although the first translations were by non-Fijians, Fijians soon followed (Ravuama Vunivalu, Joji Qalilawa, George Brown Toganivalu). These translations were extremely popular, and their serialisation could nearly double the circulation of the newspapers in which they appeared. They have become part and parcel of Fijian language and culture, just as Aladdin, originally written in Arabic, became part and parcel of children’s literature in English and other European languages. More recent authors include Veramu Dikidikilati, Aminiasi Radrodro, Viliame Komaidreke, and Solomone Bulicokocoko, also a noted poet. In the 1970s the late Ratu Mosese Tuisawau published translations of Phantom Comics and war comics that sold well (Geraghty, personal communication). In 1995 a major book was published, by Tevita Nawadra, about Fijian soldiers who fought alongside the British against guerrillas during the Malayan Emergency from

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1952 to 1956. Over 500 pages, it is the largest work of literature in Fijian since the Bible. Geraghty describes it as having an ‘evocative and lively style’ which makes it ‘undeniably a work of literature’. Support for writers has generally been scant, indeed sometimes in the face of opposition; most of the authors mentioned above worked on their own, for the love of writing rather than in expectation of financial windfalls. Short story writing competitions have been conducted by the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, in conjunction with the Pacific Council of Churches’ publisher Lotu Pasifika, and more recently with sponsorship of the Hot Bread Kitchen, a Fijian-run chain of bakeries. These competitions are popular and attract hundreds of entries. The quality of the stories is uneven, but the enthusiasm is clearly there. There has also been a growth in the literature for children. Besides the publications of the USP’s Institute of Education mentioned previously, some authors publish their work themselves. (Tevita Nawadra’s Yaga Publications is one example.) In 1996 Vika Maloni published a couple of dozen children’s stories. Sales of such books are often dependent upon their adoption in the school system, and the criteria for endorsement are far from transparent. The quality of the local children’s literature in Fijian (and indeed in English) has sometimes been criticised for an often mechanical approach to the text and a pedestrian imagination (Manoa, personal communication). Manoa (1995: 19) suggests that these shortcomings are inherited from impoverished models of literacy ill-suited to the representation of the richness of oral tradition, and argues that ‘[o]ur literacy must be configured by a creative orality’. The establishment of the School Journal and Sinnet did provide an outlet for Fijian writing. Issues in Volumes 2 and 3 of Sinnet had a few poems and stories. However, the journal was not able to attract many Fijian writers for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that the publication was too firmly associated with writings in English. More recently, the Pacific Writing Forum, the publishing arm of USP’s Department of Literature and Language, has organised writing workshops for Fijian (and Hindi) writers, but no publication has emerged yet. Creative production is not limited to writing, and Fijian oral tradition continues through, in particular, the composition of meke, a performance art that combines song and dance. Old meke are performed, others are revamped, and new ones are composed for special occasions. The quality of these compositions may be uneven but there are, nevertheless, some very successful compositions, suggesting that the genre is still undeniably alive among the Fijian people. Popular song is another very dynamic genre, with such local styles as vude (a kind of Fijian rock) and bands, like Black Rose, that create compositions combining traditional forms like meke with contemporary instruments and rhythms. They have gained an audience not only in Fiji but also throughout the Pacific.

Standard Hindi Taking into account that many of the indentured labourers were not well educated and that they came from a variety of language backgrounds, it is not surprising that there was little written in Standard Hindi (hereafter ‘Hindi’ in this section) in the early part of the 20th century. Thereafter much of the writing in Hindi occurred in newspapers. One of Fiji’s foremost poets has been Pandit Kamla Prasad Mishra (Kanwal,

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1979b). His poems appeared in his newspaper, Jai Fiji, and ranged over many topics, including poems on Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna and Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau, two prominent Fijian chiefs, upon their deaths. Kanwal discusses a number of other writers in Hindi. The writing ranges widely: from life and death to fascination with Fiji. Inevitably, many of the poems have a religious theme and reflect the deep religiosity that runs through the Indo-Indian population. Mishra, who initially edited the Hindi newspaper Jagriti, used the paper to encourage creative writing. In the 1950s, he collected some of the better stories submitted for a competition he had organised, and published them under the title Bhooli Hui Kahanian (Forgotten Stories) (Kanwal, 1979b). Another well-known writer published in Jagriti was L.B. Master, with over 100 short stories to his name, many of them conveying social messages. The newspapers encouraged the submission of short stories or poetry in Hindi for publication, providing an avenue for writers who became well known to readers. The editors also found the submission of poems useful for filling in small gaps in the newspapers (Vimal Sharma, personal communication), but they were mostly driven by the desire to get more creative writing from among their readers. The entries seemed popular and helped sell papers. There have been some writers of short stories since Independence. Among them is Pandit Vivekanand Sharma, who studied Hindi in India and who, for a short time, was a cabinet minister in the Ratu Mara government. A book of his short stories has been published under the title Prahant Ki Lehren (Waves of the Pacific) (Kanwal, 1979b). Another well-known writer is J.S. Kanwal, whose novels include Dharti Meri Mata (Mother Earth) (1975) about a young man set against land problems, Savera (1976), set during indenture, and Karvat (1979a), based on the 1920 strike by Fiji Indians. These writers have arisen not through any structural encouragement but rather through their own personal interest and ability in the language. The sentiment that there is no organised support for writers was expressed by a young novelist, Bharat Morris, in an introduction to his novel, Hai Ray Zindigi (Oh, this Life) (c. 1975): ‘It is a matter of regret that in our country local writers – short story writers and poets – are not receiving any encouragement in right proportion nor is there any good guide for them’ (cited in Kanwal, 1979b: 96).

Fiji Hindi Fiji Hindi has continued to suffer from the stigma that it is not proper Hindi and therefore not an appropriate language for use in literature. During indenture, however, this was the language in which people conveyed their ideas and feelings. Hence, many of the songs that were created during indenture, and immediately after its end in 1920, used Fiji Hindi (Kanwal, 1979b). After the end of indenture, the huge push for education placed Standard Hindi as the literary language and writing in Fiji Hindi was not encouraged. One of the first writers to use Fiji Hindi deliberately in writing was Raymond Pillai, who had already established a reputation as a short story writer in English. His play, Adhuuraa Sapnaa (Shattered Dreams), is written entirely in Fiji Hindi, using Roman script. Started in 1977, the play was completed in 1990 and finally published in its entirety in 2001 (Pillai, 2001), after being revised following the 1993 production in Wellington. A more recent and more substantial piece of writing has been

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produced by Subramani (2001), who also established his reputation as a short story writer in English and as a literary critic. Dauka Puraan (A Subaltern’s Tale), a massive novel (521 pages) published in New Delhi (2001), is written entirely in Fiji Hindi. Subramani (personal communication) describes the novel as picaresque in form. The action starts in the 1930s and ends after the 1987 coup, and the language reflects dialectal differences in the voices of the narrator and his sidekick, both from Labasa, and of the various characters they encounter in their travels to Suva and around the western side of Vitilevu. This publication could prove to be a milestone in a greater acceptability of Fiji Hindi as a language not only for creative writing but also for use in the educational system. It is, however, written using the Devanagari script and therefore could be inaccessible to many Indo-Fijians who have not studied Standard Hindi beyond the compulsory levels. At the Seventh World Hindi Congress in 2003, the novel won the Government of India Award for contributions to Hindi language and literature. Perhaps the prestige of the award might prod opponents of Fiji Hindi into reconsidering their stance. There is a whole area of creative production which has often been ignored and where Fiji Hindi thrives. It includes various forms of oral performance, sometimes dismissed as ‘folklore’. There are, in particular, a number of different song genres: challenge songs (Brenneis, 1983), qawali (Brenneis & Padarath, 1979), the kind of lament called bidesia, common during indenture,33 as well as comedy, such as that by the trilingual entertainer and poet John Mohammed, whose performances and cassettes ‘sell like hotcakes’ (see Prasad, 1997).

Language Policy and Planning: A Historical/Developmental Perspective Language policies in Fiji have been debated largely in the educational arena. The missionaries had limited goals, which were more likely to be achieved if Fijian was used. In terms of literacy, a further decision had to be made: the choice of a dialect, a choice driven not only by linguistic but also by political considerations. With education in the early years restricted to primary level, there was considerably less pressure to learn English or use English to advance Fijian education. The other major language, Hindi, did not arrive in Fiji until 1879, and then, because of the mix of dialects and languages of the Indian indentured labourers, evolved into Fiji Hindi, which was morphologically and lexically different from Standard Hindi. After the end of indenture, however, Indians agitated to have more education provided for their children, more English taught in schools, and greater opportunities to learn their own languages. This continual pressure, in conjunction with a growing conviction in official circles that the route to education laid through the English language, resulted in a more prominent place accorded to the language in both Fijian and Indian schools, a situation that has continued to this day. Policies and social realities in a multiethnic and multicultural Fiji The 1970 Constitution, by declaring that English, Fijian and Hindustani could be used in Parliament, made the three languages official. Earlier events and decisions made in the Colony all contributed to this outcome. The arrival of

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the Indians, and more especially, the decision to allow settlement after the end of indenture, inevitably injected another ethnic and cultural group into the polity of Fiji. This, in turn, encouraged free Indian migrants who spoke other languages, such as Gujarati and Panjabi, and their own varied cultural practices. Developments prior to independence also led to a mind-set that saw the English language as a buffer between the Fijian and Indo-Fijian populations and as a lingua franca, a term that echoes the McMillan submission in the 1926 Education Commission – ‘It [English] must inevitably become the unifying lingua franca of the Colony’ (p. 76). The chance to make Fijian the national language was not taken up when Fiji became independent. In this regard, it is interesting to note what the Fiji Education Commission of 1969 had to say: The suggestion that Fijian should be compulsory for all children has been made from surprisingly diverse quarters. The main arguments are: a) that to create a national feeling, a national language other than English is needed, and that this should naturally be the indigenous language of the Islands; b) that since Fijian is already to some extent a lingua franca (especially in mixed rural areas), it is desirable that this should be good Fijian; and c)

that this would extend the reading market for Fijian. (Education for Modern Fiji: Report of the Fiji Education Commission, 1969: 24, emphasis in bold original)

This suggestion, however, was not taken any further. The 2000 Fiji Islands Education Commission/Panel grappled with this issue again and several writers recommended that Fijian should be learned by all (Subramani, 2000; Williams, 2000), with Williams suggesting that it ought to be compulsory for all non-Fijians up to Grade 10. In the late 1970s there were attempts to introduce spoken Fijian to Grade 6 Indo-Fijian students, and spoken Hindi to Grade 6 Fijian students, but the attempt was half-hearted and neither resources nor trained teachers were provided, or indeed, were available, to ensure success. To counter the difficulties of obtaining trained teachers, the Government decided to introduce this initiative through the Ministry of Education’s Schools’ Broadcast Unit. The Fijian opinion in some quarters, as reported to Mangubhai, was that Fijian students already had to cope with the current curriculum and do well in examinations, at least as well as the Indo-Fijian students, and therefore to put effort into learning Hindi was not going to help achieve these goals. It seems that policies that make teaching a second language optional are not likely to succeed. The three coups that have occurred in Fiji since 1987 have focused the mind of the populace on the urgent need to learn much more about each other. The early colonial policy wanted a separation of the two groups for a number of reasons, among which were that the very different cultural practices of the two major ethnic groups were likely to create friction and problems. With hindsight, it is clear that this solution was only likely to defer the moment when issues related to power, position, politics and social development would have to be addressed head-on.

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Policies related to language-in-education The first schools set up in Fiji were the pastor schools (Vuli-ni-lotu) at each Mission Station. The Wesleyan Mission policy was ‘to set up, in each circuit, village schools at which the children could learn to read and write their own language, and at the same time gain proficiency in arithmetic’ (Mann, 1935: 23). The effectiveness of such schooling, however, as Mann admits, depended very much on the efficiency of the teachers, who were Tongans. By any standard it was poor education, but that was all there was available. In 1867, a resolution was passed stating ‘that the time had come for the teaching of English in all our [Methodist Mission] schools where practicable’ (quoted in Legislative Council Paper, 1970: 1). In fact, this would have been ‘practicable’ only if the Mission had been able to bring in a large number of English-speaking teachers and to consolidate the many small village schools into a few bigger ones. By contrast, the Catholic Mission, which also started off in Lakeba, by 1844 tended to gather students in ‘central schools under the charge of the European missionary’ (Legislative Council Paper, 1970: 1). In 1887, Bishop Vidal, First Vicar Apostolic of Fiji, introduced various teaching orders into the country – the Marist Brothers, the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, and the Marist Sisters – in order to provide education. In the space of the next two decades, these teaching orders established schools for Europeans, Fijians and Indians (Mann, 1935). The establishment of schools in urban areas, or more populated areas, and run by religious sisters and brothers from overseas, necessarily meant that more prominence was given to English in the Catholic schools than in the Methodist schools. The policy was, however, born out of the practicalities of the curriculum and materials, as these were more easily available in English. A more overt shaping of language-in-education policies began with the establishment of a Board of Education through the Educational Ordinance of 1916. This act placed the control of education in Fiji in this Board. It was chaired by the Governor and included members of the Executive Council. The chief superintendent of the schools served as the chief administrative officer of the newly created Department of Education. The Board established a system of grants-in-aid to schools (Mangubhai, 1984). To receive these grants, schools had to show that they had teachers capable of teaching in English (Legislative Council Paper, No. 19, 1970), a condition that disadvantaged most Methodist Mission schools, which had emphasised instruction in the vernacular. The patent unfairness of this ruling resulted in its revocation in 1917 (Whitehead, 1981b). It was the recommendations of the 1926 Commission that really gave shape to a nascent language-in-education policy. The Commission commented upon the great desire expressed by both Fijians and Indians to include English in the school curriculum. They reasoned that, as English was the language of Government, every citizen would benefit from being able to use the language in which Government business was conducted; they reasoned further that it would help ‘the diverse elements in the population [to] be consolidated’ (p. 13). The Commission recommended that the vernacular should be used in primary schools, and once students had adequate knowledge of English, the medium should become English. (See p. 24 for the full recommendation.) While these recommendations left the use of English as a medium of

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instruction somewhat open, they did establish that Fijian and Standard Hindi were to be the primary languages of instruction for Fijian and Indian students respectively. Over the next 20 years, these policies would be amended as political, social and educational imperatives influenced the development of the education system in Fiji. By 1944, the Stephens Report (1944: vii), had the following to say: At the present time the vernacular is the medium of instruction, that is Fijian for the Fijians and generally Hindustani for the Indians, although where there is a demand from more than 15 Indian children provision can be made for teaching another Indian language. English will become the lingua franca of Fiji. Practically all the Fiji-born Indians desire that English should be the medium of instruction. A few of the older people and of the people not born in Fiji desire to continue Hindustani. More attention should be paid to the teaching of English and progressively the stage at which English becomes the medium of instruction should be lowered until ultimately it is the medium of instruction right through the schools. While a number of suggestions made by Stephens regarding the reorganisation of the educational system in Fiji were not implemented, or were implemented in a watered down version (see Whitehead, 1981b, especially Chapter 5), the issue of the medium of instruction seems to have been accepted, as is shown by the 1946 proposed plan of development for the educational system in the Colony of Fiji. The Stephens Report recommended that the mediums of instruction be English, Fijian and Hindi, but progressively, as the result of the intensified teaching of English as a subject, English should become the sole medium of instruction for the whole country. In a more detailed discussion, the Plan suggested a staggered introduction of English as the medium of instruction. For the then immediate future, it did not see English as the medium of instruction below Grade 6, but gradually, with better teaching of English at the lower levels of the primary education, it could progressively be used as the medium of instruction until it was eventually used at Grade 3. At this stage, the Plan recommended that a review be undertaken to determine whether there was any need to use English as the medium of instruction at Grades 1 and 2. It would seem from subsequent paragraphs in the 1946 Plan, however, that the suggestions about the medium of instruction were not to be enforced rigorously. Where appropriately qualified teachers were available in a school (that is, qualified to instruct in English), that school could, after consultation with the Department of Education, teach in English at grades below 6. The question of whether an Indian language other than Hindi might be used as the medium of instruction was also addressed in the Plan. It was possible to use a South Indian language provided special permission had been granted by the Department of Education. Permission depended upon the school having at least 15 students for whom the South Indian language was the first language as well as the presence of a teacher competent to teach in this language. In essence, this was not much different from the policies of the 1920s and the 1930s. The vernacular languages were to be retained in the curriculum as subjects of study, and once English became the medium of instruction, they would become subjects of study in intermediate and high schools. In the Director of Education’s

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Annual Report for 1946, tabled in the Legislative Council in 1947 (Legislative Council Paper, No. 31, 1947), he reports that, in a number of schools, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati are taught. The last sentence in the paragraph suggests that parents, in conjunction with schools, wanted to retain their first languages: ‘There is a movement afoot to emphasise the teaching of Indian languages other than Hindustani at the expense of general education’ (p. 10). On the surface, the suggestions in the 1946 Plan do not seem very different from those of the 1926 Commission. The 1926 Recommendations were made in the context of attempts to offer more adequate provisions for the education of Indian children, and one of the issues was the language of instruction for these children. The Commission decided on Hindi as a main vernacular but left the use of other Indian languages dependent upon the particular circumstances. On the issue of English, the 1926 Commission was less definite, partly because the prevailing thinking was that there was no need to teach all Indian or Fijian children English to higher levels, since little education was provided at higher levels. By contrast, the 1946 Plan was quite clear about languages-in-education. It also suggested a slight expansion in the provision of secondary education for Fijian and Indian children. Whitehead (1981b: 69) observed that, by 1946, ‘it was apparent that, whether the Government wished it or not, it was obliged by the pressure of circumstances to adopt a more positive attitude towards its educational responsibilities’. By the 1950s language related to manpower development was evident in educational planning. In the Educational Plan for 1956, the introductory Part I mentions the shortage of young people for the professions, government service, commerce or technical trades because of insufficient schooling. The issue of which language should be used as the medium of instruction at what level had been further refined and the ‘pressure of circumstances’ influenced the new wording for the language-in-education policies as enunciated by the then Director of Education, Lewis-Jones: The medium of instruction in primary schools for the first four years is English, Fijian or an Indian Vernacular, according to the race of the children. Thereafter in all primary schools and all forms of post-primary education, the medium is English. In Fijian and Indian primary schools oral English starts in Class I [Grade 1] and when English becomes the medium, the vernacular language is then taught as a subject. (Lewis-Jones, 1955: 4) It was evident that in the intervening 10 years, the English medium of instruction had moved downwards from Grade 6 to Grade 5. In reference to Indian vernaculars, a change had occurred, from considering Hindi as the main Indian vernacular, as stated in official documents, to the use of a less specific ‘Indian Vernacular’. Of interest also is that, in discussing which Indian language can be used as the medium of instruction, mention is made of Urdu.34 According to the report, a start had been made in 1954 to improve the Urdu ability of teachers at the Teachers’ Training College as well as at special refresher courses. The last educational commission in Colonial Fiji was completed in 1969 and published as Education for Modern Fiji (1969). It recommended that the medium of instruction should be the mother tongue for the first three years, with English compulsory as a second language from Grade 1. From Grade 4, the vernaculars were to be taught as subjects. In contrast to the Lewis-Jones Report, English was

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now to begin as the medium of instruction from Grade 4. The Fifth Developmental Plan 1966–70 (Fiji Development Plan: 1966–1970, 1966) mentions only English, not the other languages, as the medium of instruction and observes that the change in medium occurs at Grade 5. The Government admitted that the ‘declared policy of making English the medium of instruction throughout the primary school’ was not possible because of teachers’ low levels of command of the English language. To remedy this situation, the 5th Development Plan recommended that an English Language Unit in the Department of Education should be set up to prepare appropriate textbooks and readers in the English language. Since independence in 1970 the language-in-education policy has been to use the vernacular as a medium of instruction for the first three years and then officially to switch to English from Grade 4. This is not stated as a language policy as such, but statements in official documents refer to English becoming the medium of instruction from Grade 4 – a reality reflected in the materials developed by the Curriculum Development Unit of the Ministry of Education. The teaching of English as a subject begins in Grade 1. The vernacular languages programmes were developed, especially after the establishment of a Curriculum Development Unit in the Ministry of Education in the early 1970s, so that students could undertake examinations at Grade 10 (the Fiji Junior Examination) in the subjects Fijian, Hindi and Urdu. With changes occurring in the examination system, especially with Fiji taking control of its own national examinations, the study of Fijian, Hindi and Urdu has been encouraged up to Grade 13. With regard to developments about language of instruction and language teaching from the 1920s to the 1940s and the 1950s, it is instructive to make some comparisons with British Colonial policies in Africa. Whitehead (1995) claims that the British Colonial Government did not want to make the mistakes they thought they made in India where English was used as the medium of instruction from very early stages. In the 1920s, an advisory committee on Native Education in British Tropical Africa was set up to provide advice to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. This committee, among other things, suggested the importance of the first language as the medium of instruction, particularly in the early years of a child’s education. Their recommendation was that the first language should be the language of instruction in secondary as well as in primary education, with English used only in the highest classes and for subjects like science and mathematics, where it was feasible. The African Colonies considered this draft recommendation but rejected it on a number of grounds, including, in some countries, the demand for English by the indigenous people. The many varied attitudes to this proposal were taken into account, resulting in a gentler document being subsequently distributed to the colonies – a document that sought the middle way, a bit of both, so that vernaculars could be used for the earlier stages and English for the later stages of education. By the 1940s, according to Whitehead, the more radical suggestion originally made by the Advisory Committee was no longer a viable option. Indeed, both the demand for more English by the colonised and the desire to limit access to it by the colonisers are echoed in the history of language policy in various parts of the British Empire, such as India and Malaya (Powell, 2002).

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Similar forces operated in Fiji to make the use of English more prominent, accelerated by the influence of New Zealand language policies and the 1946 report by Stephens, a New Zealander. Department of Education as a de facto legislator of language-ineducation policies With the establishment of a Department of Education in 1916, the first legislation about languages was promulgated. The Government established a grant-in-aid scheme for schools intended only for subsidising salaries of teachers who taught English. This measure was not beneficial to either the church schools or the Indian schools. As a result of protests, the English language stipulation was revoked in 1917 (Whitehead, 1981b), although the system of grants-in-aid has continued to this day. In the absence of a body in charge of policy about languages and especially about language-in-education, the Department of Education has made the policies by stipulating the languages of instruction at different stages in the educational system. To a large extent it has been able to do so because it controlled the national examinations at primary and early secondary levels, examinations that were conducted in the English language. There was compliance by schools to the language policies (and other matters) because the grant-in-aid scheme had the effect of keeping schools in line with the official policies. Policies related to literacy Literacy policies reflected the educational policies in the context of Fiji. The first missionaries had decided that the work of bringing Christianity to the Fijians would best proceed if efforts were made to make the Fijians literate in their own language. At each Mission Station, therefore, church schools taught basic literacy and numeracy. Successful completion of this school led to the possibility for male students to be appointed as teachers themselves to teach other Fijians how to read and write. The other alternative was to go to a district institution, the Vuli Levu, where, after a course of three years, one could become a pastor-teacher in a school, looking after both the spiritual and educational needs of the villagers (Mann, 1935). This was the church policy that had led Arthur Gordon, the first governor of Fiji, when Fiji had been ceded to Great Britain in 1874, to comment upon their literacy: I have visited a great number of [church] schools and have been impressed by their efficiency. A very large proportion of the natives can read and write and the amount of native correspondence would greatly surprise those who are inclined to sneer at native progress. (Cited in Legislative Council Paper 19, 1970: 1) The decision of the first missionaries to Fiji to write the Bible in the ‘Bauan dialect’ established the pre-eminence of that dialect as the dialect of literacy. The Wesleyan Church’s policy of teaching basic literacy and numeracy in the language of the Fijian Bible spread this dialect more widely than during the pre-Christian era. Literacy in Fijian, as established by the Churches, continued into the 20th century. Its development arose out of the language-in-education policies that

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had introduced literacy in the vernacular languages first, rather than through any legislation. Higher forms of literacy have been hampered by the paucity of original reading material in the Fijian language, though from the 1940s onwards there were a few early translations of English classics such as King Solomon’s Mines. That there was not much writing in Fijian was an observation made to the first author by the Chief Librarian of Fiji in the early 1980s; he observed that, when the Mobile Library went into Fijian villages, the villagers invariably asked whether there was any new reading matter in Fijian. They would be disappointed to be told that there was none. According to the Chief Librarian, the Fijians in the villages were less inclined to borrow books in English. The great desire to read in Fijian was not matched by the production of such materials in sufficient quantity, though post-independence production has increased dramatically (Geraghty, 1989). The current Fijian literacy development to higher levels is hampered, it has been claimed, because there needs to be a shift from the language of the Bible, to greater use of the current vernacular. Geraghty claims that unless this happens, ‘Fijians will never achieve, or even see the value of complete literacy in their own language’ (1989: 393). In addition to the negative influence of ‘Old High Fijian’, Geraghty suggests that the lesser prestige of Fijian (officially) and the poor way it is taught in schools is hampering the development of greater use of Fijian in literary and other domains. He argues that ‘[f]or complete and effective literacy, the Fijian language will need to be developed for all domains and integrated fully into the education system’ (Geraghty, in press). With regard to Indian languages, many of the indentured labourers were not literate in their first languages or, if they were, there was little material available to them in their language. The literacy levels of the Indian population on the whole were quite low during indenture. With the development of more schooling after 1920, and the policy of using Hindi (or one of the other Indian languages when the situation warranted it) as the medium of instruction, literacy developed, though the lower number of girls at school suggests that it was greater among Indian males.35 With regard to the South Indian languages, there has been a steady decline in the number of speakers of these languages (Mugler, 1998, 2001). In her 1993 survey on language use and attitudes, Mugler found that the shift to Fiji Hindi was continuing and that, of the small numbers of persons who reported some knowledge of Tamil, an even smaller number reported using the language for reading or writing (though over a third mention that they read some literature in Tamil). Urdu, for which figures are not available, is probably used more because it is the medium of instruction in some schools and the language itself is available as a subject for study in secondary school. Analyses of data carried out during the development of standardised tests of achievement in reading in Urdu (in the late 1970s) showed quite poor achievement levels at the time (Elley, personal communication at that time). Literacy in English reflects the changing policies about language of instruction in schools and the availability of higher education beyond the elementary level to the Fijian and Indian populations since the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the Methodist Mission gave up most of its primary schools to the Government, going from 684 schools in 1925 to only 24 by 1934 (Mann, 1935). The push to teach more English and eventually to use it as the medium of instruction from upper

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primary level ensured that literacy in English was going to be more widespread. The greater availability of reading matter in urban areas, the establishment of libraries in Suva and Lautoka and their opening to non-Europeans, provided opportunities for the development of greater literacy in English. Institute of Fijian Language and Culture as an advocate of Fijian language policies The Institute began in the 1970s as ‘The Fijian Dictionary Project’, funded by the late American actor Raymond Burr, to compile a Fijian-Fijian dictionary. Its first director was Albert Schütz, who was followed by Tevita Nawadra. The project was also supported in part by UNESCO and the Fiji Times (Schütz, 1975). This became the de facto centre for the development and study of Fijian language and culture (Geraghty, 1989). In 1987, to reflect more properly the work in which it was engaged, the Fijian Dictionary Project was re-named the Institute of Fijian Language and Culture (Tabana ni vosa kei na itovo vakaviti). Its broad aim was to develop vernacular literacy to higher levels by using language that reflected spoken standard Fijian rather than the language of the Fijian Bible. It also encouraged a greater use of the communalects. The Institute was never given any statutory powers, but it was able to exert its influence through regular radio and TV programmes (the latter from 1998 to 2000) and through publications, either emanating from the Institute or through newspapers. It also tried to influence educational programmes through the Ministry of Education, including the training of Fijian language teachers through the teacher-training colleges and the University of the South Pacific. The work of compiling the Fijian-Fijian dictionary continued, and dealt with issues of spelling and word division, as lexicography frequently does. In order to accommodate the sounds of non-standard dialects and borrowings (mainly from English), new symbols based on the Roman alphabet were introduced. Thus ‘z’ was introduced for the prenasalised voiced palatal affricate in words like ziza ( = ginger). Labiovelars ‘gw’, ‘kw’, ‘qw’ and ‘xw’ were also introduced, largely for non-standard varieties of Fijian. Whether all, or some, of these innovations will be accepted, remains to be seen. The Institute was also instrumental in introducing some new vocabulary into Fijian, through extension of meaning, compounding and borrowing. Many of these words related to language itself, and these metalinguistic terms permitted discussion of Fijian in Fijian. Some of the words coined included ivolavosa (book + language = dictionary), vosanivanua (language of land = dialect), nauni ( = noun) and matanauni (group + noun = noun phrase). It is to be hoped that the Institute will further the work of developing Fijian and making it a vital language of literacy. Much of the work of the Institute was carried out under the guidance of its long-term acting Director, Dr Paul Geraghty. It remains to be seen whether the current Director will be able to navigate his way through the politics of language and corpus planning. The role of the University of South Pacific in the promotion of languages (Fijian and Hindi studies) The Department of Literature and Language of the University of the South Pacific (USP) has had programmes in Fijian and Hindi since 1994.36 Students can

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opt for an eight course diploma or, if they are enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree, for a five course minor or an eight course major (see Lynch & Mugler, 2002). Courses are open to anyone with a working knowledge of the language and, in the case of Hindi, of the Devanagari script, which presupposes knowledge of Standard Hindi. Indeed, while the programme may initially have been designed with the intention of including Fiji Hindi, currently it appears to deal solely with Standard Hindi. There are courses about the history and structure of the language, as well as the language-related literature, oral traditions, and culture. Students have included one Fijian taking Hindi and one Indo-Fijian taking Fijian. In 2003 the Fijian Affairs Board offered 30 scholarships to study Fijian at the University. Prior to that time, the lack of scholarships was an obstacle to the success of the Fijian programme, as is the continued perception that there is no demand for jobs that require a solid background in the language. If, to take one example, the need for professional translators and interpreters becomes more urgent, the programme may start to attract more students. It is clear, however, that, along with government support, a certain amount of promotion and consciousness-raising is necessary.

Language Maintenance Since European contact, the sociolinguistic situation in Fiji has changed dramatically. European settlement and the plantation era it ushered in brought many labourers, first from different parts of the Pacific, then from India, and with them came the many languages they spoke. At the height of the plantation era at the turn of the last century, perhaps 200 different first languages were represented among the multifarious population. While most of those languages did not survive in Fiji, one new language did develop and thrive – Fiji Hindi. Overall, this massive importation of languages has resulted in an increase in multilingualism rather than in the death or displacement of indigenous languages. While all languages have undergone some change, the often predicted shift to English has in fact been quite limited. Language shift has involved other languages far more, with Fiji Hindi displacing other Indian languages, in particular those of the South Indians, while some Fijian communalects have been replaced by, or lost some of their distinctiveness to, regional prestige varieties or Colloquial Fijian. Minority languages generally have been affected disproportionately by the loss of speakers, insofar as significant proportions of their populations, often larger than those remaining in the home islands, have drifted to urban areas, where their competence in their first language often declines and their preferred language tends to shift, usually to English. Yet among the core home island populations, these languages enjoy great vitality. Other minority languages survive thanks not only to geographical isolation but also to the cohesiveness of the communities that use them. The only non-indigenous language with a significant presence in Fiji before European contact was Tongan, due to long-standing trading links. The Tongan presence reached its peak in the 1860s when the Tongan chief Ma’afu controlled most of Fiji. Tongans were particularly numerous in Lau, where they often outnumbered Lauans, and in the 19th century most Lauans spoke some Tongan (Schütz, 1977: 36, 64). Tongan cultural influence was long lasting only in Lau

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(except on Matuku), where Tongan is still used in songs, both religious and secular (Geraghty, 1984: 34). In the Tongan village of Sawana on Vanuabalavu, Tongan was still used in church and spoken by older people and understood by the young in the early 1980s (Geraghty, 1984: 51). Only the very old now speak it. The main language brought into Fiji through European contact was English. The role of English increased as the occasional beachcombers and traders gradually made way, in the second half of the 19th century, to settlers, and then to the Colonial Government. Settlement required labour, and the Pacific Islanders were the first recruited to work on Fiji’s plantations; they brought with them many languages, mostly from Melanesia and Kiribati, including the Melanesian Pidgin English used on the plantations in Queensland (Australia) and elsewhere. By the end of the 19th century, recruitment had shifted to India, and the girmitiyas brought to Fiji a number of Indian languages and dialects, including many dialects of Hindi. Free migrants attracted to the new colony contributed other languages from India (such as Gujarati and Panjabi) and from China. In 1881 Rotuma was amalgamated into the colony, giving Rotuman the status of an indigenous language of Fiji. After World War II speakers of Kiribati were settled on Rabe and of Tuvaluan on Kioa. Language transmission In the two major communities, the main vernaculars, Fijian and Fiji Hindi, are overwhelmingly the home languages. In spite of the pressure of English, there is no evidence of a serious shift. Because there has been no comprehensive survey of language use in Fiji, the observations which follow are based mostly on the results of a 1993 survey of language use and attitudes among Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the greater Suva area (Mugler & Tent, 1998; Tent, 2000). Questionnaires were administered orally to a sample of about 500 people, stratified by ethnicity, sex, age and income. The vernaculars predominate at home, with nearly 94% of all informants reporting their use – 91.9% of Fijians and 95.6% of Indo-Fijians. Table 6 shows reported language use at home with different interlocutors. Not surprisingly, the vernacular is used most with relatives and English most with friends, whose first language is more likely to be different from the informant’s. The percentage of use of English overall among Fijians is lower than that reported by White (1971) for urban homes in his survey of low income households in the Raiwai area of Suva, but higher than the 1% overall estimated by Geraghty (1984: 51). Both authors point out that over-reporting is likely (Geraghty, 1984: 51; White, 1971: 376) while Geraghty adds that the practice would have declined since White’s survey thanks to the rising prestige of the vernaculars since Independence. In any case, it is clear that the vast majority of Fijians speak Fijian at home. The general pattern is that those living in rural areas speak their communalect while those in urban areas tend to speak Colloquial Fijian. Colloquial Fijian has also been for some time the home language of some villages in Tailevu, Lomaiviti and Cakaudrove (Geraghty, 1984: 49). While widespread internal migration means that some communalects are also maintained in some homes away from their speakers’ place of origin, it is likely that urbanisation, which continues to increase (41% of Fijians live in urban areas, according to the 1996 census), is

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Table 6 Reported language use in percentages at home among Fijians and Indo-Fijians in Suva With With relatives parents Fijians

Fijian English

Indo-Fijians Fiji Hindi English

With With siblings children

With spouse

With friends

98

96.6

91.6

90

89.7

85.3

2

3.4

8.4

10

10.3

14.7

98.4

97.9

94.3

97.1

98.2

87.6

1.6

2.1

5.7

2.9

1.8

12.4

Source: Mugler and Tent (1998: 118)

Table 7 Reported language use in percentages at home among Fijians in Suva: Colloquial Fijian, Communalects and English With parents

With siblings

With relatives

With spouse

With children

With friends

Communalect

57.8

53.4

51.2

32.1

31.4

13.1

Colloquial Fijian

38.8

38.3

46.8

57.6

58.6

72.2

3.4

8.4

2

10.3

10

14.7

English

Source: Mugler and Tent (1998: 119)

helping to spread the use of Colloquial Fijian (often referred to as Bauan). In 1984 Geraghty estimated that 48,000 out of 260,000 speakers of Fijian (close to 20%) spoke Colloquial Fijian. In Table 7, the 1993 survey results for Suva Fijians disaggregate the figures for Fijian into ‘communalect’ and ‘Colloquial Fijian’ (probably a more accurate label than the ‘Standard Fijian’ used in Mugler and Tent, 1998). Even in the highly urbanised environment of Suva, over half of the informants claim to use their communalect with parents, siblings and relatives, while Colloquial Fijian predominates with spouses, children and friends. The difference between the two sets of figures probably reflects some cross-communalect marriages. Note that the figures for spouse and children are nearly the same, which indicates that whatever is spoken between the parents is transmitted to the children, whether it be a communalect, Colloquial Fijian, or English. Overall, the communalects are used with members of the family by over 45%, just edged by Colloquial Fijian at 48% (excluding ‘with friends’, a category which may include speakers of different languages and for which results are therefore quite different). Thus, while Colloquial Fijian may continue to spread, communalects are still very healthy, even in the capital city. As for Fiji Hindi, it is thriving in spite of its negative image among some of its speakers. While Standard Hindi enjoys considerable prestige in some quarters, its use is very limited; English has replaced it for many formal functions, as Siegel noted 30 years ago (1973). The vast majority of Indo-Fijians speak Fiji Hindi at home – the exceptions being those who speak another Indian language and the handful on Vanuabalavu who have shifted over to Fijian. The Indo-Fijian population is slightly more urbanised than the average (49.6% versus 46.4%), yet Fiji Hindi seems to be maintained in all but a few homes. As among urban Fijians,

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code-switching between the vernacular and English is common and a mixed code may well be the norm for some. Language use in the workplace If the home is one of the most important domains of use of the vernaculars, language use in the workplace depends partly on the type of work people do, in turn determined by their level of education and, by implication, their proficiency in English. White-collar jobs, which require, at least nominally, such proficiency, are more common in urban areas; thus, increased urbanisation, as well as increased levels of education, suggest a greater proficiency in and use of English than was common in the past. Yet, while English is the language of record for most official documents and the main language of business, the vernaculars are also used, particularly in verbal transactions. In his 1993 Suva survey, Tent (2000) found that a little over half of the interactions in the workplace were reported to occur in English, nearly 30% in Fijian, and close to 20% in Fiji Hindi. While about three-quarters of the use of English overall is accounted for by interactions between Fijians and Indo-Fijians, English is also used sometimes among Fijians and, to a significantly greater extent, among Indo-Fijians (see Table 8). Conversely, although interactions in Fijian and/or Fiji Hindi are accounted for mostly by intra-community interaction, the two languages are also used to communicate across speech groups, more so by Indo-Fijians than by Fijians (see Table 9). The most important factor related to language use in the workplace is probably the level of education of the speakers, with more use of English among the educated – since education means education in English. The spread of education means that the young tend to be better educated than the old, therefore likely to use more English. Women are slightly more likely than men to use English. The status of the interlocutor is also important, with superiors receiving more English, and workmates and subordinates more Fijian and/or Fiji Hindi. As for topic, the most casual and personal topics tend to be discussed in the vernaculars to a slightly greater extent than do business or technical matters (see Tent, 2000: 183–94). Table 8 Percentage of reported interactions in English in the workplace Speech community

Intra-speech community

Inter-speech community

Fijians

14.8

85.2

Indo-Fijians

27.4

72.6

Source: Based on Tent (2000: 186)

Table 9 Percentage of reported interactions in Fijian and/or Hindi in the workplace Speech community

Intra-speech community

Fijians

91

Indo-Fijians

82.6

Source: Based on Tent (2000: 186)

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Inter-speech community 9 17.4

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Language death and language shift

Fijian communalects The number of Fijian communalects is estimated at about 300 by Geraghty (1984: 33). He thinks that this must have been roughly the same at the time of first European contact, although some changes in distribution have taken place since; some communalects may have disappeared due to population decline or replacement by prestige varieties, whose uneven pressure may have caused others to splinter. Most communalects are increasingly influenced by Standard Fijian (e.g. Wayan), while regional prestige languages associated with chiefly centres, like Cakaudrove and Nadroga, are displacing others, such as Boumaa and Vuna, and Hanahana, respectively (Geraghty, 2002a). Some communalects are losing their phonological distinctiveness; e.g. Drakaniwai in Vanualevu, Ruwailevu in Nadroga, Mauu, on the coast of Namosi, threatened by Namosi and Beqa, Dawasamu on the Tailevu coast, Wainuu in Bua, and Tamonibuca in Seaqaqa (Geraghty, 1983: 33–5 and personal communication). Among communalects which are extinct or nearly so are: • Macuataiwai, off the coast of Macuata; • Vunaqumu, in Naitasiri, Qoma, Naigani, Verata, Gau, Koro, Nairai, Nalea, Navatu Bua, Navatu Nadogoloa, Deuba ; and • many of the communalects on the ‘Skeleton Coast’ east of Savusavu, from Nukubalavu to Naweni (except for Vivili), replaced by Colloquial Fijian. (Geraghty, 1983: 33–5, 2002b and personal communication) Examples of communalects that have split include Batiwai, in Serua, and Namosi, in Namosi Province, both of which now have coastal varieties that are more influenced by Colloquial Fijian (Geraghty, 1984: 33 and personal communication). Figure 4 gives the location of extinct and endangered Fijian communalects. The languages of the Pacific Island labourers European settlement gathered speed in the middle of the 19th century, the 1860s seeing the beginning of the plantation economy, which relied on cheap and abundant non-European labour. Some Fijians were recruited to work on plantations, but the bulk of the labourers, for over a decade, were other Pacific Islanders. Between 1865 and 1911, labourers brought to work on Fiji’s plantations numbered 27,027 (Siegel, 1987: 51). They were recruited from Vanuatu (then the New Hebrides), the Solomon Islands, the New Guinea Islands region, and Kiribati (then the Gilbert Islands). More than half came from Vanuatu and over a third from the Solomon Islands, which accounted for 90% in the last dozen years (Siegel, 1987: 51). Labourers were recruited from many different islands, and in Melanesia this meant many different linguistic areas. About 180 languages are spoken in the islands from which the labourers came (Siegel, 1987: 60). In the first decade, the majority came from Tanna, in Vanuatu; Siegel estimates that some or all of the five Tanna languages may have had over 1000 speakers among the labourers (1987: 62). From 1876 onwards, over 5000 workers, or about 30% of the

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Source: Department of Lands and Surveys, Fiji. Projection Transverse Mercator. GIS Unit, USP, 2003

Figure 4 Extinct and endangered communalects of Fijian.

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total, came from Malaita in the Solomon Islands, and all but one of the dozen languages of Malaita are documented as having been spoken by labourers, the largest two are Lau, and Kwaio, respectively (Siegel, 1987: 63–4). None of the languages spoken by Melanesian labourers have survived. Descended from these labourers are a few thousand kai Solomone. With men far outnumbering women, many married Fijian women (Siegel, 1987: 213). Like most of the other Pacific Island labourers, in one way or another, they learned Fijian, the lingua franca on plantations. Fijian became their adopted language and the only one transmitted to the children in most homes, so that the children knew only Fijian (Kuva, 1974: 14). Even among those who married someone from the same linguistic area, the parents often spoke only Fijian to the children (Siegel, 1987: 215). The community almost completely assimilated into Fijian society and shifted to Fijian (Burton, 1949: 54; Kuva, 1974: 19). According to Kuva (1974: 35), the Fijian they speak is Bauan, which Geraghty interprets as meaning Colloquial Fijian (1984: 51). Over 15 years ago, Siegel reported that the only surviving dialect among descendants of North Malaitans, called Wai in Fiji, was on the verge of extinction (1987: 217). A few people were still said to be fluent in it at the time, but most knew only a few words, and only one of Siegel’s informants had learned it as his first language, at the same time as Fijian (1987: 218, 23037). Although slightly less than 9% of Pacific Island labourers came from Kiribati, unlike the Melanesians they constituted a linguistically homogeneous group. Kiribati is likely to have been the language with the largest number of speakers, and it is the only one to have survived in Fiji. This is probably due in part to demographic factors, as Siegel points out (1987: 215). The Gilbertese constituted the largest group among Pacific Island labourers, with 2398 coming to Fiji between 1868 and 1895 (Siegel, 1987: 62). They also included the largest percentage of women – 41% between 1876 and 1895 (Siegel, 1987: 53). Although this meant that there was not as much intermarriage with Fijians as among other groups, the language could still easily have become extinct. One of Siegel’s informants reports that his parents, both children of Gilbertese labourers, spoke Fijian to each other and to their children, although they knew Gilbertese. This was perhaps because Fijian was usually the lingua franca between the communities of Kiribati and Vanuatu labourers who lived in close proximity in their Nasese neighbourhood in Suva in the early 20th century (Siegel, 1987: 215). Siegel also notes that after Kiribati (with Tuvalu) became a British protectorate in 1892 – as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands – links with Fiji, by then a British colony, became important, and people from Kiribati started coming for purposes other than work, such as education. Many of these immigrants kept in touch with relatives in their homeland, and some bought land on behalf of countrymen who then came to settle as free migrants (Siegel, 1987: 215). This continued contact ensured the survival of the language, albeit probably in smaller numbers than during the plantation era. It is likely that at the present time only a small percentage of Kiribati speakers are descendants of plantation labourers; the largest group is now the Banaban community. As for Melanesian Pidgin English, whereas there is evidence of its use in Fiji, it was only marginal. Although it was used during recruitment (some Pacific Island labourers must have known it before coming to Fiji), there is no evidence that it was used on plantations before 1888 (Siegel, 1987: 48, 77–81). After that

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year, about 30% of the labourers recruited – nearly all originally from the southeastern Solomon Islands – had worked elsewhere, especially in Queensland, and they are likely to have continued to use Melanesian Pidgin English with one another and perhaps with some Europeans. However, it never became established as a lingua franca with other Pacific Island labourers, and Fijian continued to be used on the plantations (Siegel, 1987: 82–90; Siegel, 1992, 1996).

The languages of Indian labourers As European settlement rapidly mutated into colonisation in the 1870s, the need for the new colony to pay for itself entrenched a plantation economy based on sugar. In such an economy, blackbirding (i.e. obtaining labourers through kidnapping), which had come under criticism, gave way to the indenture system, with recruitment shifting from the Pacific Islands to India. The 60,571 Indians brought to Fiji as labourers between 1879 and 1911 spoke a number of languages. Among the 45,439 recruited from North India, dialects of Hindi predominated, but other languages are likely to have been present and can be deduced from the girmitiyas’ regions of origin: Nepali, Panjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Marathi, and Gujarati. These languages were spoken by very small numbers of labourers (the largest, 398, for Nepali, the smallest, 81, for Gujarati), and labourers from these linguistic areas accounted for less than 3% of all Calcutta emigrants (Siegel, 1987: 138, 141). If Panjabi and Gujarati survive today it is through the later influx of free migrants. There was a close-knit Nepali community in the Sigatoka Valley, at Kavanagasau, centred on the hamlet of Halebu, and in the neighbouring settlements of Yalasa and Yalava. In the late 1970s, Tarte (1979) estimated the community at perhaps 3000 people. He reported that, in spite of a strong sense of distinct identity, few people knew the Nepalese ‘dialects’, rather speaking the language of their Indian neighbours (i.e. Fiji Hindi). Griffin (1987: 23), after a visit in 1981, noted that ‘nearly all differentiating features of the community have disappeared, including language and dialects’. Most Nepalese by then had moved to the sugar towns on the western side of Vitilevu (Ba, Lautoka, Rakiraki), near Suva (Navua, Nausori), and on Vanualevu, in Labasa (Griffin, 1987: 16). Although the community is now scattered, Kavanagasau remains its home and spiritual centre. It is not clear whether the Dahasara religious festival reported by Griffin is still celebrated. Apparently, all that remains of the Nepali language may be a few ritual words and kinship terms. The languages of South Indian labourers A little over 15,000 indentured labourers, or nearly 25%, were recruited in South India through Madras from 1903 to the end of indenture in 1916 (Lal, 1983: 44). They included speakers of the four major Dravidian languages, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, with Tamil in the majority, and also of Marathi and Hindustani (Gillion, 1962: 51; 1977: 110). By the time the South Indians started arriving, nearly a quarter of a century after those from the North, Fiji Hindi had become established as the lingua franca on plantations (Gillion, 1962: 128; Siegel, 1987). Although some steps were taken to provide Telugu and Tamil interpreters on the plantations, the tacit policy was to favour Fiji Hindi (Siegel, 1987: 160–62). From the start, South Indians were a minority, and their languages

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Table 10 Dravidian languages reported as home languages in 1956 and 1966 (number of households) Language

1956

1966

% of change

Tamil

1498

999

–33.3

Telugu

797

301

–62.2

134

47

–64.9

2429

1347

–44.5

Malayalam Total

Source: Based on Siegel (1975: 128); see also Siegel (1987: 205)

are likely to have undergone an immediate and drastic loss of domains that quickly reduced them to ‘domestic languages’ (Pillai, 1971: 3). The continuing decline of Dravidian languages is evident from a comparison of figures for reported use at home in the 1956 and 1966 censuses – the only censuses to contain data on language, and only about Indo-Fijians (Table 10). Mayer (1973: 145) observes that the 1956 figures indicate a proportion of households where a Dravidian language is spoken at about 10% of the total Indo-Fijian households, whereas the proportion of South Indians and their descendants would presumably have remained closer to the original nearly 25%. He concludes that it is not certain whether South Indian languages were spoken in all South Indian households even then. A survey of nearly 500 descendants of South Indians was conducted in 1993 in the sugarcane belt, on the western side of Vitilevu (from Sigatoka to Rakiraki) and in and around Labasa, on Vanualevu (Mugler, 1998, 2001; Mugler & Tent, 1998). The survey was stratified by sex, age, and type of residence, with two-thirds rural and one-third urban dwellers, reflecting national proportions. The loss of speakers over the generations is clear from the percentages of informants in each age group who report knowledge of a Dravidian language (Table 11). The precipitous decline is perhaps most strikingly illustrated in Figure 5, in which four cohorts are represented – the three age groups surveyed, and the parents of the older group, since all informants were asked to report also on their parents’ knowledge. Figures for language use at home, with various interlocutors, are evidence of the extent of the shift to Fiji Hindi (Table 12). Even in this most intimate of domains, the use of languages other than Fiji Hindi is very limited. The figures from Fiji Hindi reflect several factors: some informants have no knowledge of any Dravidian language; some have limited competence or just a passive knowledge, while others may be the only members of their household who still know the language of their ancestors. Fiji Hindi has become the first language of nearly all descendants of South Indians and, even among those who have some knowledge of a Dravidian language, Fiji Hindi is nearly always the preferred language, the one used most frequently and the one in which they feel most competent. Thus the shift to Fiji Hindi among this population is nearly complete. Maintenance efforts seem trapped in a vicious cycle: the South Indian cultural organisation, the TISI Sangam, blames parents for their lack of interest and

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Table 11 Percentage of informants reporting knowledge of a Dravidian language, by age Language

50+ years old

30–45 years old

15–25 years old

Tamil

59.5

Telugu

25.2

31 7.7

11.7 1.2

Malayalam

10.4

2.6

0.6

Source: From Mugler (1998: 87)

Table 12 Percentage of reported language used when speaking with . . . Language

Parents

Spouse

Siblings Relatives

Friends

Children

A Dravidian language

15.2

10.9

7.9

5.6

2.9

2.7

Fiji Hindi

83.9

88.3

90.8

93.8

94.5

95.8

0.9

0.8

1.3

0.6

2.6

1.5

English

Source: From Mugler (2001: 29)

Figure 5 Reported knowledge of a Dravidian language by four age cohorts

understanding, while some parents blame the TISI Sangam for halting the teaching of Dravidian languages in the 1950s that led to their demise. In the 1993 survey, 95% of respondents were in favour of maintenance efforts, regardless of whether or not they spoke a Dravidian language (Mugler, 1998, 2001). This group included a significant number of people who did know Tamil or Telugu but did not speak it to their children. This datum is a useful reminder of the difference between stated belief and behaviour, but it also points to the burden of responsibility some parents place on the schools, which they seem to expect to substitute,

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with very limited means, for the natural intergenerational transmission that they themselves have abandoned. The prospect of language loss is evoked poignantly in the words of the late G.S. Naidu at the 1995 TISI Sangam convention: Let me conclude by very humbly pleading with you all at this convention to give our very serious, calm and collected thought and consideration to the facts put to you so that we can preserve like others our rich heritage and culture, and save ourselves from the stigma of being branded as those responsible for the total loss and doom of our languages and culture by the future generations as it is already being done by the present lot. (Cited in Mugler, 2001: 37) The future of some minority languages and dialects Most of the other minority languages seem relatively stable in spite of very small numbers of speakers. Among Indian languages, Gujarati and Panjabi seem fairly resilient. The historical background of the two communities as free migrants, with continued links with the homeland, accounts in large part for their maintenance, in contrast to the catastrophic break resulting from indenture for the other Indian languages. Each of the two groups is quite cohesive, in terms of occupation and religious affiliation, for instance. The Gujarati in particular have a long history of kinship and business links not only with Gujarat but also with a worldwide Diaspora. While some Fiji-born Gujarati do not speak the language or do not speak it fluently, for the majority Gujarati is their vernacular. The 1966 census shows 930 households reporting home use of the language, compared to 830 in 1956 – a gain of 12% (Siegel, 1987: 205). In their survey of Gujaratis in Suva, Mugler and Mamtora (in preparation) report that only one of the 57 individuals interviewed did not speak the language very fluently, and another did not speak it at all. The others felt they had a high level of competence in speaking and understanding spoken Gujarati, although many were not able to read or write it. As mentioned previously, the Gujarati community is highly multilingual as nearly all Gujarati also have Fiji Hindi (and English) in their repertoire. As the lingua franca among Indo-Fijians, Fiji Hindi is likely to have become the preferred Indian language of many young Fiji-born Gujarati. Indeed, some speak it at home alongside Gujarati, some in preference to Gujarati. In homes where one of the parents did not speak Gujarati, the language is often not transmitted, and Fiji Hindi or English may be acquired instead. Yet language loss overall seems limited; even if each generation loses some young speakers to Fiji Hindi, Gujarati continues to be used by most of the community. Additionally, the continued chain migration from Gujarat together with links to the Gujarati Diaspora help to maintain the vitality of the language. As for Panjabi, the only indications available come from the 1956 and 1966 censuses. Figures show a sharp decline, from 468 households reporting the use of the language at home in the first census to only 175 ten years later, a loss of 62.6% (Siegel, 1987: 205). The numbers are unreliable, however, since in the 1956 census, the language was listed as ‘Panjabi’ (Mayer, 1973: 45) but in the 1966 census as ‘Gurmukhi’, the name of the script. As is the case for the other Indian linguistic groups in Fiji, many Punjabis who speak the language are not literate in

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its distinct script, and some of the young people do not speak it well if at all (G.D. Singh,38 personal communication). Urdu is likely to continue to be maintained, albeit for restricted functions, among some of Fiji’s Muslims, precisely because of its strong identification with Islam among all those of Indian origin. The 1966 census reports 534 households naming Urdu as the home language, compared to 1223 a decade earlier (Siegel, 1987: 205). The reporting of Urdu is, however, probably better interpreted as a marker of religious affiliation than as an accurate indication of use. As for the decline (56.3% over a 10 year period), it is unclear whether it reflects a genuine shift, perhaps towards English among the educated (Siegel, 1987: 205), or a relaxation of the need to claim a distinct religious identity through reporting use of the language. Fiji’s Muslim population is currently nearly 5500 (Bureau of Statistics, 2000: 25), or about 15% of the Indian population (plus a few non-Indian converts). This percentage has remained stable since indenture (Gillion, 1977: 105) As long as stability is maintained, Urdu and Arabic are likely to retain their place. Indeed, as education spreads, a greater number of Muslim children may learn both languages in school, although the teaching of Arabic, as we have seen, continues to wax and wane. Among the languages of Pacific Island minorities, Rotuman, Kiribati, and Tuvaluan are likely to remain strong in their home islands thanks to their geographic isolation, while ever increasing urbanisation will continue to lead more young speakers to shift from their home language or preferred language, mostly, to English. As for Chinese, recent changes in the sources of immigration are altering the traditional pattern of maintenance among the older generation with a shift over to English as the preferred language of the young. Some of the Cantonese dialects, which had lost ground, are being reinforced by fresh arrivals, while Mandarin, brought by many of the new immigrants as a first or second language, is now a real community language and no longer merely an alien school subject. Shift to English has been limited overall, as we have shown, to small numbers of urban dwellers, particularly among the small Pacific Islander, Chinese and part-Chinese, and part-European groups. The question, however, is which English? Among those who have acquired English through using it as a lingua franca, it tends to be what they themselves often call ‘broken English’, that is, the variety of Fiji English that is the furthest removed from the standard, while among those who are educated (since in Fiji that means ‘educated in English’) a variety closer to Standard English is spoken. Many educated speakers are in fact bidialectal in English and can code-switch with ease as required by the situation. The Fiji Diaspora Since Independence in 1970, an average of 4000 Fiji Islanders have left Fiji every year, with peaks around 5500 in the aftermath of the 1987 military coup and of 6500 after the 2001 ‘civilian coup’.39 The countries of destination are mainly Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA – four English-speaking countries on the Pacific Rim accounting for nearly all emigration from Fiji. In 2001, for instance, of the 6537 people who left Fiji, 97.7% went to one of these four countries: 37.7% to New Zealand, 28.7% to Australia, 21% to the USA, and 10.3%

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to Canada. The vast majority of emigrants were Indo-Fijians (87.9%) – as has been the case for at least two decades – the remainder being Fijians (8.1%) and ‘Others’ (4%) (Fiji Tourism and Migration Report, 2001: 25–6). The extent to which Fiji Islanders maintain their first language once they have left their homeland is not well known and probably varies in different countries.40 Nonetheless, the situation in New Zealand may give an indication of the extent of language shift and maintenance. According to statistics (Statistics New Zealand/Te Tari Tatau, 1998: 9, 17), there were 7,695 Fijians in the country at the time of the 1996 census, 85% of whom lived in urban areas. Only 26% of those over five years old reported that they could hold a conversation in Fijian, with figures far lower for the New Zealand-born (6%) than for the Fiji-born (39%). Indo-Fijians are a far larger community in New Zealand, with over 10,000 Fiji-born Indians reported in 1991 (Statistics New Zealand/Te Tari Tatau, 1998: 47). Shameem’s survey of Indo-Fijian teenagers in Wellington (1994, 1995) shows a loss of listening and speaking proficiency in Fiji Hindi and a preference for using English in all domains but religion. Younger teenagers (13 to 15 years old), those who had left Fiji before age 10, and those who had lived in New Zealand longer (four to 10 years) reported significantly lower proficiency in Fiji Hindi. Although Indo-Fijian identity was strong – as distinct from the putative general ‘Indian’ identity that seems to be assumed by the ‘ethnic’ label used in the census – it did not hinge on the use of Fiji Hindi, as is often the case among members of a community who have shifted away from their first language (see e.g. Dorian, 1998: 20). The teenagers also did not visit the country of their birth to any great degree at the time. The situation may have changed since, with another migration surge after the 2000 coup. However, emigration is unlikely to drop significantly, and it is likely that Fiji Hindi, like Fijian, will be maintained in New Zealand mainly thanks to each new wave of immigrants – particularly older immigrants. The pattern of chain migration means that many do keep ties with Fiji, and the ever increasing ease of travel and communication may continue to help language maintenance to some extent, as will the close-knit networks of the migrants in their adopted country. Language endangerment: Fiji and the world Language endangerment has become a prominent issue since the early 1990s (Fishman, 2001; Hale et al., 1992; Phillipson, 1992; Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000) with dire predictions about the loss of thousands of languages under the onslaught of globalisation and the spread of a few languages with large numbers of speakers, particularly English. An estimate often cited is that half of today’s languages will be lost in a century’s time (see e.g. Crystal, 2002: 19). In the Pacific, one of the richest and most linguistically diverse parts of the world, some linguists have argued that hundreds of languages are threatened and most are headed for extinction (see e.g. Mühlhäusler, 1996). Dixon (1991: 230) ‘optimistically’ predicts that out of the nearly 2000 languages of Oceania, perhaps only 200 will still be spoken by the year 2200. More specifically, he argues that any language with fewer than 10,000 speakers is at risk of extinction over the medium term, and that those with fewer than 1000 severely at risk (1991: 231). The implication of this claim is that in

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Fiji, where only Fijian and Fiji Hindi have over 10,000 native speakers, all minority languages would soon disappear (with the exception of English, of course). Accurate prediction of language death is notoriously difficult, and the number of speakers alone is probably too crude an instrument, as some linguists have argued (e.g. Crowley, 1995). Inter-generational transmission and the number of domains for which a language is used are crucial, and detailed studies of demographic and sociolinguistic data are indispensable. Crowley (2000: 116) also points out that even communities which are relocated – as may occur in the Pacific if predictions about sea levels rising due to global warming come to pass – can continue to be viable if the community is relocated as a community. This is borne out in Fiji by the cases of Kioa and Rabe, where Tuvaluan and Kiribati respectively are being transmitted and maintained, in spite of very small populations of speakers. On the other hand, small communities are often less able than larger ones to resist socioeconomic forces, and their languages can disappear much faster than those with large numbers of speakers (Nettle & Romaine, 2003: 41). The difficulty for language planners is that some speakers of a minority language may want to shift to a language that opens up more opportunities for the next generation, and, Ladefoged (1992) has argued, it is their right to do so. By contrast, Maffi (2000) claims that it is incumbent upon linguists to point out alternatives to the community, so that additive bilingualism takes place and minority speakers can retain their language, while becoming able to function in a more powerful language. There also seems to be some evidence that simply supporting a minority language so that it functions in a limited range of contexts does not necessarily prevent its demise (Grenoble & Whaley, 1999). The complex ways in which languages develop suggests that language policies by themselves may not guarantee the spread of a language or the reversal of language shift. Language planning may be involved, but there is the likelihood of ‘unplanned spread as well, via Zeitgeist trends that can contribute as much or even more to spread the language’ (Fishman, 1989: 390). In Fiji as a whole, while some minority languages and dialects are clearly threatened, most are stable. In spite of the ever increasing pressure of English and the scant support for vernaculars – notwithstanding public pronouncements – most languages have considerable vitality. This observation, however, should not encourage complacency. Many factors, such as urbanisation, which favour language shift, keep getting stronger, while some of those that help reinforce inter-generational transmission and promote maintenance are at best only sporadically present, like the use of a language as a medium of instruction (see Fishman, 1991). Indeed, the lack of prominence of language issues and of awareness among speakers of the speed and mechanisms of language shift itself contributes to endangerment (Crystal, 2002). Ultimately, language diversity is part of the cultural and ecological diversity, a political issue about the kind of world future generations will inhabit (see, e.g. Nettle & Romaine, 2003). As for Fijian and Hindi, their eventual demise has often been predicted, sometimes hailed as a sign of progress, sometimes with at least some wistfulness: It is, for some of us, sad to think that so beautiful and musical a language as Fijian, and such an ancient and expressive speech as Hindi, will give place

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to our pedestrian and unromantic tongue [i.e. English], but it appears, at the moment, inevitable. (Burton & Deane, 1936: 81) Nearly three-quarters of a century later, Burton and Deane would perhaps be pleasantly surprised that the two major languages of Fiji have outlived many prophets of doom, including themselves.

The Future From what has been said so far it is clear that there is a greater amount of diversity of language and language use than appears from, for example, the school curriculum, or from a quick survey of the newspapers that are currently published on a regular basis. The Ministry of Education curriculum documents mention only five languages – Fijian, Hindi, Urdu, Rotuman and English. This ignores the great dialectal diversity of Fijian It also masks the fact that Indo-Fijians are not speakers of Hindi but of Fiji Hindi, and that some have as their first language Gujarati, Panjabi, or a Dravidian language. Overall, the language situation is more complex than one might gather from Mangubhai (2002), for example. As for predicting how language use and policy might develop, it is probably foolhardy. So far, the current Fijian-dominated government has not used language legislation as a way of empowering one particular group of people, as was done in Malaysia (Powell, 2002). A few possible developments are sketched below. Fijian The political events of the last 15 years have changed the demographic composition of Fiji, with Fijians now in the majority. This change and the ethnic nationalism aroused by the toppling of the Indo-Fijian led government in 2000 suggest that the Fijian language will play an increasing role in Fiji. The pace of change will, however, be determined by the extent to which the Fijian people accept the standardisation of Fijian. Such standardisation will need to take into account Geraghty’s (1989) argument for the development and acceptance of standard Colloquial Fijian, rather than what he calls ‘Old High Fijian’ (the language of the Bible). Contingent upon the rise and acceptance of such a standard, Fijian could become the national language, as distinct from its current status as one of three official languages. The universal acceptance of Fijian as a national language itself will be contingent upon the development of a national identity, the Fiji Islander, as distinct from the ethnic identities that so pervaded the colonial period and have continued to this day. For Fijian to play a greater role in the Fiji society, the Government will need to place much greater emphasis on the development of appropriate Fijian curricula at all levels of schooling, and on the training of Fijian language teachers in the use of both first- and second-language teaching strategies. While it is unlikely that other major dialects will become subjects of study in the school system or will be recognised officially as languages of instruction, they will continue to be used informally in education, and in the traditional formal and informal contexts where they express strong regional and local identities. Over time some of the smaller communalects will be replaced by the more prestigious standard Fijian

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or one of the other major regional dialects, partly because of the small numbers of speakers of some communalects and partly because of continuing urban drift.41 The matter of the evolution and expanded use of the standard – more specifically the issue of ‘Old High Fijian’ versus the standard colloquial variety – is likely to be resolved only if Fijian linguists are successful in making the case that the vitality of a language springs from the vernacular. In the short term, traditionalists may continue to prevail, and the standard vernacular will have a chance to develop only if renewed curricula and better teacher training emphasise the potential of the living language rather than the code inherited from the accidents of history. Standard Hindi and Fiji Hindi Fiji Hindi has been a very successful language, spreading to various groups of native speakers of other languages. It has almost completely replaced the South Indian languages Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, which are unlikely to survive as living languages in spite of maintenance efforts in some schools, and it has been added to the repertoire of speakers of other Indian languages (Mugler, 2000). The different history of settlement and the more closely knit structure of the Panjabi and Gujarati communities suggest that these two languages will continue to play an important role in those communities. However, literacy in those languages is likely to continue to decrease, partly because of the effort required to learn yet another script. An interesting possibility lies in the use of the Roman script to facilitate literacy, but evidence of the use of this script is very limited at present. Overall, the levels of literacy in Standard Hindi are likely to remain low in spite of the teaching of the language as a subject, because investment of energy in this area will continue to be regarded by speakers of Fiji Hindi as not having an economic pay-off (Grin, 2003). The political landscape itself will favour the development of literacy in an international language such as English. The status and role of Fiji Hindi in the lives of Fiji Islanders will continue to be a source of disagreement in Indo-Fijian society in the immediate future. Some recent writing in Fiji Hindi is a welcome sign, but the greater acceptability of the variety will not arise by ‘fiat’; rather, a gradual process may emerge as more writing is published and is read more widely. The issue of script choice remains. What are needed are some authors of the stature of a Charles Dickens who are able to fire the imagination of the reading public and create a demand for more text. (This remark applies equally to Fijian.) For the immediate future, Standard Hindi and Fiji Hindi may continue in a diglossic relationship, with the standard being used for a very few formal functions and by few people, while Fiji Hindi is used for less formal functions. Indeed, as formal functions continue to be taken over from Standard Hindi by English, the situation is becoming more polyglossic than diglossic. In spite of its low status in some people’s eyes, Fiji Hindi is likely to continue to be a vibrant language, at least in the short to medium term.42 It has outlasted most other varieties of Hindi in the former indenture colonies (e.g. Trinidad, South Africa, Guyana), probably in large part due to more favourable demographics, but it may well eventually share their fate (Siegel, 1990b: 113). Besides reflecting the unique history and culture of most Indo-Fijians, Fiji Hindi has made its mark

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on both Fijian and Fiji’s English, and has been added to the repertoire of a number of first language speakers of Fijian and of some of the country’s minority languages. For the most part, this ‘vernacular’ bilingualism has been the result of close contact between members of various communities having been thrown together by circumstances and the result of their desire for accommodation, rather than as the result of any language planning or policy, which, had it taken place, may not have been as successful. English English will keep its place in the educational system, especially at higher levels, as it will continue to be perceived as the path to more specialised information. It will also continue to be a language of interaction in technical domains, at least in a relationship of code switching with people’s first languages. The local variety of English will remain vital, especially in urban areas and particularly between people of different ethnic backgrounds, although grassroots bilingualism is also likely to persist. This local English, with its borrowings, calques and phonological influences from Fijian and Fiji Hindi, has made what was once a foreign language a part of the sociopsychological domain of its users, by marking their local identity and ‘ownership’ of the language, as has happened in India, Africa, Singapore and Hong Kong (see, for example, Kachru, 1997). The number of people who are bidialectal in the standard and local varieties of English may increase, as will the practice of code-switching, and for many urban dwellers a mixed code may become the norm. Currently there is insufficient evidence to suggest that English-knowing bilingualism of the type in Singapore (Pakir, 1993, 1999) is widely present in Fiji. There are bilinguals in Fiji, but the evidence that such bilinguals, in more urban areas, are using English in homes is anecdotal. Nor is there likely to be a dramatic change as occurred in Singapore because the Fiji Islands will develop in a Pacific way, with rather less emphasis on economic advancement.43 The patterns of language use in Fiji will change, not through deliberate government planning, but rather through the use of various languages in various contexts by the people. In the urban areas, Fiji English is likely to develop further, especially if schools become more multiethnic,44 and as students come to speak to each other across ethnic groups, not in Fijian or Fiji Hindi, but in Fiji English. As the percentage of Indo-Fijian population declines, a Fijian-dominated government may try to raise the status of Fijian (through, for example, its greater use as medium of instruction in the school system). The Government will, however, have to convince Fijian parents themselves that this will not disadvantage their children in any way,45 and then allocate resources to ensure that both the curricula and teaching is of high quality.

December 2005 Addendum: Recent language issues in the press While to date there have been no changes in language planning and policy since this monograph was written, various language issues have figured increasingly prominently in the news and in public debates. Most of these deal with the place of Fijian, and to a lesser extent with Hindi, in official public life and with fears about the erosion of the language among young urban ethnic Fijians.

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There have been increasingly more calls from both prominent citizens and the general public, as witnessed in the Letters to the Editor pages of newspapers, for providing vernacular, and in particular Fijian, versions of important documents, such as new bills like the Family Law Bill (Fiji Times 16/10/03, p. 10), or the main sections of the Arms and Ammunition Act (Fiji Times, 5/11/05, p. 4). The most frequent of such calls recently have been for the Constitution, only parts of which so far have been translated. There have been calls also for the translation of the recent and controversial Promotion for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill proposed by the government in the aftermath of the 2000 armed insurrection. These calls for an increased use of the vernacular are part of a general increase in demands for greater, and fairer, access to information by ordinary citizens. The language or translation of the law has been identified by Fijian mahogany landowners, for example, as one of the main problems they face in making their presentations to the Lower House of Parliament (Fiji Times, 27/9/03, p. 12), while a Senator has expressed the view that people should be able to fill out legal forms in their own vernacular (Fiji Times, 30/6/04, p.1) – a service which one would think is guaranteed by the Constitution but which in practice remains to be fully implemented. Businesses, financial institutions, non-governmental and grassroots organisations or individuals often are at the forefront of efforts to provide services in the vernacular, out of pragmatic necessity and perhaps a greater closeness to the general public and awareness of their needs. In November 2005, for instance, a voter awareness and education exercise kit was launched, which includes a booklet, complete with illustrations and cartoons, developed by an economist, Dr Wadan Narsey. The kit is available in English, Fijian and Hindi (Fiji Times, 5/ 11/05, p. 4). Other examples include the Fiji Council of Churches, which conducts HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in the vernaculars and has recommended to the Great Council of Chiefs that more workshops be held in Fijian in villages, and to the Capital Markets Development Authority, which regularly conducts seminars in vernacular languages in rural areas. Meanwhile, there are periodic statements from the government about encouraging a daily newspaper in Fijian or about plans to establish a Fijian language TV channel (Fiji Times, 16/11/05 p. 4). The issue of declaring Fijian the national language also surfaces periodically, with no apparent strong opposition from any quarter, although it seems that the meaning of the term and the implications of such a move may not be widely understood. The local television channel has recently started playing the national anthem in Fijian (in addition to the usual English version) at the beginning of its daily local programming and there have been calls for a Hindi version also to be included. Another issue of concern which remains unaddressed in spite of constitutional provisions is the lack of trained interpreters, particularly in the courts, with magistrates occasionally complaining about the poor standard of translation (Fiji Times, 6/4/05, p. 4) or about persons appearing in court not being provided the services of an interpreter (e.g., Fiji Times, 29/3/05. p. 4). Calls for making Fijian (and Hindi) compulsory and examinable subjects in the school system have also become more frequent, as well as complaints about the lack of interest among students. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Education stated that her Ministry would ask the Department of Culture and

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Heritage and the Institute of Fijian Language to develop a proposal to formulate a language-in-education policy (Fiji Times, 11/3/05, p. 2). According to the report, the policy should set out ‘clear guidelines in relation to the use of vernaculars as well as the mother tongue in society, in the workplace and in the formal education system’ (p. 2). The Minister of Education has expressed her hope that a policy would be formulated making the Fijian Language compulsory at all levels of primary and secondary schools and has suggested that other languages (e.g. Hindi, Rotuman, Urdu and Tamil) would also be considered in the school curriculum (Fiji Times, 16/05/06, p. 1). Calls for making Fijian compulsory in schools seem to have found favour with the Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam (26/05/ 05), the opposition Labour Party (Fiji Times, 17/05/05) and the Arya Pratindhi Sabha of Fiji (Fiji Times, 30/06/05, p. 12), though in each case these groups have also linked this to making Hindi compulsory. Discussions about the use of a vernacular as medium of instruction, on the other hand, are rare, probably because of persisting confusion about the difference between medium and subject. Nonetheless, in another statement, the Chief Executive Officer suggested that it would ‘take a very long time in order for us to use the vernacular languages as the mode of instructions [sic] in schools’ (Fiji Times, 27/03/05, p. 3), while a former Minister of Education, Filipe Bole, in a discussion about how to improve students’ performance and achievement, has noted the ‘old issue’ that pupils are disadvantaged by the use of English as a medium of instruction (Fiji Times, 28/4/05, p. 2). Much of the motivation behind demands for more Fijian language in schools seems fuelled by worries about Fijian children ‘not knowing their language’, particularly in urban areas. There is, however, some confusion about the ability to speak Fijian on one hand and, on the other, unsatisfactory levels of literacy in the language. These worries are understandable in the face of growing urbanisation and rapid technological and social change, and of a growing awareness worldwide of language endangerment. While the language of the young is undoubtedly different from the language of older generations in a number of respects, and a growing number of the urban young are increasingly bilingual, there is little evidence to support these fears, and the common comparisons with the fate of New Zealand Maori or of Hawaiian seem somewhat overblown. Political and social changes are driving some of the nascent agendas for change. Language policies that may arise out of the many calls for a greater use of the vernacular language in the country have to take into account the many issues that have been discussed in this monograph, not the least of which has been the question of which variety of the vernacular languages is to be advantaged. It is difficult to see whether the current ferment about the vernacular languages will lead to concrete proposals which are then operationalized or whether the discussion will remain ‘khaali baat’ (only talk). It may be that the non-governmental agencies, some of which have been mentioned previously, may lead the way in making a greater use of the vernacular in order to speak to the masses more directly, and in doing so, begin a slow process of change. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Francis Mangubhai, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank a number of people who have provided useful information in preparation of this monograph: Asheer Ahmad, Emrana Sheik Ahmad, Mosese Ratubalavu Baravilala, Mary Chapman, Maria Fonmanu, Anjani Geeta, Geoff Jackson, Veena Khan, Vasemaca Lewai, Pio Manoa, Conway Pene, Frances Pene, Kafoa Pene, Manisha Prakash, Reijeli Racule, Mohammed Sameer, Vimal Sharma, G.D. Singh, Subramani, Jan Tent, Mark Williams, and Sin Joan Yee. We want specially to thank Jeff Siegel and Paul Geraghty who provided us with valuable feedback and information related to the article. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their suggestions, and the editors, Robert Kaplan and Richard Baldauf for their many useful comments and patience. Notes 1. In this paper we use the term ‘Indo-Fijian’ in descriptions of present-day Fiji Islanders of Indian descent, and ‘Indians’ to refer to the first generations of immigrants from India to Fiji. Conventions vary in the literature: some authors prefer ‘Indo-Fijians’, a term initially coined to distinguish the Fiji-born generations of descendants of Indian immigrants, while others have continued to use ‘Fiji Indians’, or merely ‘Indians’, when the context of Fiji is clear. 2. ‘Hindustani’ here can be interpreted as ‘Hindi’. The use of these terms is discussed below. 3. See, for instance, the case of an Indonesian fisherman accused of murder, who is reported to have been told by the magistrate, ‘through an interpreter’, that he could not be released on bail (Fiji Times 5 August 2003, p. 4). 4. Much of the information in this paragraph is based on conversations with Mary Chapman, secretary to Parliament, and her staff. 5. This is a Methodist hymn, not normally known by non-Methodist Fijians (Paul Geraghty, personal communication). 6. Geraghty cites this as a ‘fine example of OHF’ [Old High Fijian, discussed later], with the conjunction ka and the ungrammatical use of rere as an imperative. 7. For an extensive bibliography on Fijian, see Schütz (1985). 8. Rabe is often misspelt ‘Rabi’. 9. The existence of dialectal differences recently became part of the evidence in a court case involving arson. The defence argued that the defendant’s statement contained words from a dialect of Fiji different from his own. Dr Paul Geraghty was summoned as an expert witness, a first for forensic linguistics in Fiji, as far as we know. (A brief article about the case appears in the Fiji Times, 3 September, 2003, p. 4, although the linguist’s appearance in court is not described.) The anecdote was related by Geraghty (personal communication). 10. On the Chinese community in Fiji, see also Ali (2002), only released in 2003. 11. According to Siegel (1996), the major areas where Pidgin Fijian and Pidgin Hindustani are spoken are: on Vitilevu, Suva and the towns of Navua and Korovou, the canebelt, from Sigatoka to Rakiraki, and along the Sigatoka and Rewa rivers; on Vanualevu, the canebelt around Labasa, and the town of Savusavu; on Taveuni, the Somosomo area and the south of the island; and the Old Capital of Levuka, on Ovalau (see especially Siegel’s Map 30, in Volume I of Wurm et al. 1996). 12. On Fiji English, see also Fox (2003), Geraghty (1975, 1977), Kelly (1975), Moag & Moag (1977), Siegel (1989), Tent & Mugler (1996). 13. Much of the information on Urdu and Arabic is based on conversations with Veena Khan and Mohammed Sameer. 14. In a footnote, Gillion cites the 1911 census. Literacy in any language for the Indians was 9.4% (cf. Fijians at 52.8%). 15. Junior Cambridge ceased being offered in 1953. 16. The Methodist Mission report to the 1926 Education Commission, while acknowledg-

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22.

23.

24. 25. 26.

27. 28.

29. 30. 31.

32.

33.

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ing that ‘comparatively little has been done in production of text-books’ (p. 66), goes on and lists books that were in preparation or completed. They included Fijian Primer I and II, Arithmetic in Infant Room, and A First Geography (p. 67). There were only five Indian students, according to Doyle (1972). Asheer Ahmad, of the Suva Muslim League, teaches Arabic. Most of the information on the current teaching of Chinese is based on conversations with Sin Joan Yee, Deputy Chair of the Chinese Education Society of Fiji. Note that Tuvaluan is taught only on Kioa, Kiribati only on Rabe, Rotuman on Rotuma plus three schools off-island. These figures show a steady decline in the number of students who study a vernacular language beyond the Fiji Junior level. There is, however, some indication that the number of students studying Fijian might be on the rise (in 2001 there were 83 and 117 students enrolled in Fijian and Standard Hindi respectively) though it is too early to say whether there are likely to be large increases in the figures in the future. Students were from urban schools and may not have been representative of the larger student population. Nevertheless, the problems of the last 15 years have focused the mind, and newer approaches to these problems are needed, not the solutions tried before and which have patently failed. Note that the 1969 Commission on Education also discussed the issue of whether Fijian should be compulsory for all children (pp. 24–5), suggesting a one-year course on basic Fijian. However, in the recommendations themselves, this was watered down to a suggestion that in ‘multiracial schools’ perhaps both Fijian and (Standard) Hindi might be taught. The Alliance Party comprised three different associations: the Fijian Association, the Indian Association and the General Electors Association, comprising Europeans, Part-Europeans, Chinese and others. Much of the information on Hindi newspapers is based on Kanwal (1979b). In his letter Mr Singh writes ‘Somebody should question why the first Rotuman paper that was given to its people by an Indo-Fijian was unceremoniously dumped, with little or no protest, from the Rotuman community. As publisher of the Daily Post, with the help of some visionary Rotumans, we started Noa’ia Rotuma, which was dumped when I was dumped from the Post . . . It is not too late for the community to demand its fair share in the promotion of language, culture and arts through their own language . . . ’ Much of the information on television is based on Mugler (in press). In the same issue of the Fiji Times in which the publisher of Noa’ia Rotuma writes about the demise of the newspaper, the Reverend Tomasi Kanailagi, a member of Senate, complains about the ‘total exclusion of Fijian, Rotuman, Banaban and Kioa Islanders from TV entertainment in our native tongue’ (Fiji Times, 16 May 2003, letter to the editor). Videos in other Indian languages, such as Tamil or Urdu, which were quite common a decade ago, seem to have become rarer. Since writing this article, the authors regret to record that Mr Siwatibau passed away after a short illness. USP is a regional institution and other media of instruction are used in some of the other member countries. For instance, French and Bislama are used on the Emalus campus in Port Vila, in Vanuatu. Two PhD students are writing their theses in French and an MA thesis in Bislama has recently been completed. The decisions to use Fijian and Bislama were made partly to try to improve the status of these Pacific languages. Little has been written, as far as we know, about the history of literature in Fijian. The information in this and the next two paragraphs is taken mostly from a Letter to the Editor written by Paul Geraghty in response to a book review in which the author stated that Fijians and other Pacific Islanders did not start writing their own literature until the 1970s (Fiji Times, 12 April 2001, p. 10). Although nothing has been published on this genre as far as we know, bidesias have been collected (and on occasion performed) by the poet and critic Sudesh Mishra. J.S.

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34.

35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40.

41.

42. 43. 44.

45.

Kanwal is also said to be working on a collection (Subramani, personal communication). This development seems to have reflected the new political reality of post-Partition India and Pakistan. Certainly, events that occurred when the first author was a young man confirm a more polarised Indo-Fijian society, the main polarisation being between Hindus and Muslims. In a Fiji Fertility Survey conducted in 1974 illiteracy among Indo-Fijian women was 39%, compared to 2% illiteracy among Fijian women (Mangubhai, 1977a). Individual courses in Fijian have been offered by the USP since 1983 (Lynch & Mugler, 2002: 78). See Siegel’s Map 31 in Wurm et al. (1996) for the location of settlements of descendants of Solomon Island labourers. G.D. Singh is the head priest of the Samabula Gurdwara in Suva. Source: Fiji Government Bureau of Statistics; Fiji Tourism and Migration Reports, 1985–2001 Note that official emigration figures which are based on outward-bound Fiji citizens’ declared intention to emigrate, are probably understated (Chandra, 1997: 57; Chetty & Prasad, 1993). For instance, according to the Australian census, there were 30,100 Fiji-born people in the country in 1991. Of those, nearly 72% reported speaking a language other than English at home: over 45% Hindi, nearly 14% Fijian, and almost 13% another language (Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, Australia, 1995: 36). On Indo-Fijian immigrants to Canada a quarter of a century ago, Buchignani (1980: 91) observed that the use of Indian languages in public was ‘very constrained’, mainly because of the reactions of suspicion it tended to trigger – a situation which it is hoped has improved significantly since. In the Solomon Islands, for example, when a couple come from two different islands with two different languages and subsequently settle on Guadacanal in Honiara, their children are more likely to grow up with Pijin as their first language rather than the language of either parent (first author’s personal experience). Primary (elementary) level students have reported high levels of oral and aural proficiency in Fiji Hindi, though the trend by Grade 6 seems to report higher confidence in English than in Fiji Hindi (Shameem, 2002). In Singapore there was a doubling, in 10 years, of people who claimed that they used predominantly English at home (Pakir, 1993: 76). There is some evidence of this already as urban Fijian parents send their children to what were originally predominantly Indo-Fijian schools, e.g. Indian College in Suva, and Rishikul High School in Nasinu. Parents see these schools as providing better education – judged in terms of examination results – than the predominant Fijian schools in the area. The first author was present at a gathering of educators in Tonga in the early 1980s when the Director of Education announced that no English would be taught until Grade 7 so that the use of Tongan can be consolidated in primary schools. This policy died at birth as parents protested at what they saw as disadvantages accruing to their children if they did not begin to learn English early enough.

References Adam, R.S. (1958) Social factors in second language learning, with special reference to the Fiji Islands. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London. Ali, B. Ng Kumlin (2002) Chinese in Fiji. Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Pacific Studies. Arms, D.G. (1984) The church and the vernacular. In G.B. Milner, D.G. Arms and P. Geraghty (eds) Duivosavosa: Fiji’s Languages: Their Use and their Future. Suva: Fiji Museum. Arms, D.G. (1998) Some tendencies in Fiji Hindi. In J. Tent and F. Mugler (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics (SICOL) (pp. 1–10). Series C-141. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

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Benton, R. (1981) The Flight of the Amokura: Oceanic Languages and Formal Education in the South Pacific. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Besnier, N. (2000) Tuvaluan: A Polynesian Language of the Central Pacific. London and New York: Routledge. Brenneis, D. (1983) The emerging soloist: Kavvaali in Bhatgaon. Asian Folklore Studies 42, 63–76. Brenneis, D and Padarath, R. (1979) You and who else? Challenge songs in Bhatgaon. In Subramani (ed.) The Indo-Fiji Experience (pp. 57–64). St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Buchignani, N. (1980) The social and self-identities of Fijian Indians in Vancouver. Urban Anthropology 9 (1), 75–97. Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research (Australia) (1996) Community Profiles, 1991 Census, Fiji Born. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government Publishing Service. Bureau of Statistics (1998) 1996 Census of Population and Housing: General Tables. Suva: Government Printer. Bureau of Statistics (2000) Fiji Social Atlas. 1996 Census of Population and Housing. Suva: Government Printer. Burton, J.W. (1949) Modern Missions in the South Pacific. Great Britain: London Missionary Society and the Methodist Overseas Missions of Australia and New Zealand. Burton, J.W. and Deane, W. (1936) A Hundred Years in Fiji. London: Epworth. Capell, A. (1941) A New Fijian Dictionary (4th edn, 1973). Sydney: Australian Medical Suva, Government Printer. Chandra, R. (1980) Maro: Rural Indians of Fiji. Suva: South Pacific Social Sciences Association and Institute of Pacific Studies at USP. Chandra, R. (1997) Fiji. In P. Browlee and C. Mitchell (compilers) Asia Pacific Migration Research Network. Working Papers Series. Working Paper No. 1. Migration Issues in the Pacific. Australia: APMRN Secretariat, Centre for Multicultural Studies, Institute for Social Change and Critical Inquiry, University of Wollongong. Chetty, N.K. and Prasad, S. (1993) Fiji’s Emigration: An Examination of Contemporary Trends and Issues. Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, School of Social and Economic Development. Population Studies Programme. Churchward, C.M. (1940) Rotuman Grammar and Dictionary. Sydney: Australasian Medical. Churchward, C.M. (1941) A New Fijian Grammar. Sydney: Australian Medical. Subsequent printings, Suva: Government Printer. Clammer, J.R. (1976) Literacy and Social Change: A Case Study of Fiji. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Constitution (1970) Fiji Independence Act of 1970. Suva: Government Printer. Constitution (Amendment) Act 1997 of the Republic of the Fiji Islands (1997) Suva: Government Printer. Crowley, T. (1995) Melanesian languages: Do they have a future? Oceanic Linguistics 34, 327–44. Crowley, T. (2000) The language situation in Vanuatu. Current Issues in Language Planning 1, 47–86. Crystal, D. (2002) Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Derrick, R.A. (1950) History of Fiji (rev. edn). Suva: Government Printer. Dixon, R.M.W. (1991) The endangered languages of Australia, Indonesia and Oceania. In R.H. Robbins and E.M. Uhlenbeck (eds) Endangered Languages (pp. 229–55). Oxford: Berg. Dorian, N. (1998) Western language ideologies and small-language prospects. In L.A. Grenoble and L.I. Whaley (eds) Endangered Languages: Current Issues and Future Prospects (pp. 3–21). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doyle, A. (1972) The Story of the Marist Brothers in Australia 1872–1972. Drummoyne, NSW, Australia: E.J. Dwyer. Education for Modern Fiji: Report of the Fiji Education Commission (1969) Suva: Government Printer.

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The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines Andrew Gonzalez FSC†, President Emeritus, De La Salle University, 2401 Taft Avenue, Manila 1004, Republic of the Philippines The article begins with the language profile of the Philippines based on census data and the sociolinguistics and historical literature of the languages (local and second, largely English) in the country. The uses of the languages in various domains, especially in the field of education, are described, and current policy on the Philippine version of bilingual education discussed and evaluated. In the third section, on language policy and planning, a historical sketch of language planning from laws enacted, revised and policies implemented is given. The prospects for the future are weighed and some guesses and estimates made on the future of the local languages and the second language, English.

Part I: The Language Profile of the Philippines National/official languages The national language of the Philippines is Filipino, a language in the process of modernisation; it is based on the Manila lingua franca which is fast spreading across the Philippines and is used in urban centres in the country. De jure, it is named in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines as a language that will be enriched with elements (largely vocabulary) from the other Philippine languages and non-local languages used in the Philippines. De facto, the structural base of Filipino is Tagalog, a language spoken in Manila and in the provinces of Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon, Camarines Norte to the south of Manila and Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and part of Tarlac to the north of Manila. The enrichment has been going on as the language spreads itself through the mass media and as a medium of instruction in schools at all levels. The vocabulary enrichment comes from the Philippine languages other than Tagalog and from second languages spoken in the archipelago, largely English and earlier, Spanish, together with Arabic and Sanskrit as remnants of an earlier political period when the islands maintained contact with Malay culture in the south (largely Borneo) and Malacca in the west. In 1959, Tagalog, which was renamed Wikang Pambansa (National Language) by President Manuel L. Quezon in 1939, was renamed by the Secretary of Education, Jose Romero, as Pilipino to give it a national rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing of the name did not, however, result in better acceptance at the conscious level among non-Tagalogs, especially Cebuano Bisayans who had not accepted the selection of Tagalog by the National Language Institute in 1937 as the basis of the national language. The opposition continued, and shortly after the renaming of Wikang Pambansa as Pilipino, a query came from Hiligaynon Bisayan Congressman Inocencio Ferrer challenging the constitutionality of the choice of Tagalog as the basis of the national language and the subsequent naming of Tagalog-based Pilipino, which was considered a subterfuge on the part of the Institute of National Language (renamed 114

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as such in 1939 the National Language Institute). In the sociolinguistic history of the Philippines, this period of the 1960s was known as the period of the ‘National Language Wars’ which ended temporarily only when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the national language agency (see Gonzalez, 1980a). In the next decade, soon after the election of members of a constitutional convention to draw up a new Constitution, in 1971, the language issue was revived once more, especially by the Cebuanos; a compromise solution was a ‘universalist’ approach to the national language, to be called Filipino (with an / f / rather than a / p /), to represent those Philippine languages with the voiceless labiodental fricativethe Northern group of languages on the island of Luzon, as well as the ‘universalist’ rather than ‘purist’ approach of accepting phonological units and other features from other Philippine languages and from second or foreign languages, in this case, Spanish and English. When another constitution was drawn up by a Constitutional Commission of 50 appointed by President Corazon C. Aquino in 1986, given the political temper of the times (the exhilaration from having expelled the Marcos dictatorship and the promise of a new order under Aquino’s ‘bloodless revolution’), regional loyalties yielded to national consensus; there was near unanimity on the issue of language, even among Cebuanos. The 1987 Constitution stated that Filipino is the national language of the Philippines. What was still supposed to be in the process of formation as an amalgamated language in the 1973 Constitution was now accepted as an existing language to be enriched further and to be developed as a language of science and scholarly discourse. Moreover, (Tagalog-based) Pilipino and English would continue as official languages until such time as Congress declared otherwise. Finally, the constitution (Article XIV Sections 6–9) permitted and implicitly encouraged the use of Filipino for science instruction (still largely in English). The teaching of other languages (Arabic and Spanish) was considered voluntary; in effect it took a Constitutional provision to supersede the then existing law on the mandatory teaching of Spanish (12 units at the collegiate or tertiary level), a development that is now being challenged by the Confederacion de Profesores de Español (Gomez de Rivera, 1997) without much success. A new law (Republic Act No. 7104) followed the provision of the Constitution of 1987 on the creation of a language agency to develop the national language and to maintain and preserve the other indigenous languages of the Philippines. This agency, known as the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language), has been in operation since 1992 and has superseded the Institute of National Language (renamed as Linangan ng mga Wika sa Pilipinas, Institute of Philippine Languages, in 1987), and earlier called (from 1936 to 1939) the National Language Institute. The work of the new Commission has been sociolinguistic in nature: to define a workable definition of Filipino as the Manila lingua franca spoken in other urban areas and in the process to enrich its vocabulary from other Philippine and second languages and to monitor the propagation of Filipino and to encourage its use in university teaching. The Commission likewise conducts research on other Philippine languages (including their literatures), publishes bilingual lexical lists of technical terms for the academic disciplines, and has published an enlarged monolingual dictionary of Filipino (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2005).

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Presently, Filipino is spoken by at least 85% of the population, at least in its informal colloquial conversational variety; English or its approximations and its local variety called Filipino English (Llamzon, 1969) or Philippine English (Gonzalez, 1972) is spoken by 56% of the population. Based on a survey by Social Weather Stations (1994), 74% of the population report that they can understand it when someone speaks to them in English. The use of Spanish is practically nonexistent now except among a few Filipino families of Spanish descent which have maintained contact with Spain. The teaching of foreign languages is relatively rare outside of embassy-sponsored language schools.1 A few languages (Japanese, French, Spanish, German) are offered as electives in universities and colleges or as requirements for area studies majors (including Mandarin for Chinese Area Studies); a few schools offer Spanish earlier at the elementary and secondary levels. Church-related language schools aim for conversational fluency in the other major Philippine languages for missionaries and expatriates who feel the need to learn the local languages. The other Philippine languages (not dialects), as of the last count, were put at 120 (see McFarland, 1993); if one adds the varieties which are mutually intelligible (hence genuine dialects), the estimate extends to over 300 (Ernesto Constantino, personal communication). Part of the confusion in the literature on the Philippines during the American period (1898 to 1946), and even now among non-linguistically trained academic researchers, is that authors still speak of the 120 Philippine languages (by linguistic definition, mutually unintelligible) as if they were ‘dialects’. There are local varieties of each of these 120 separate languages, the varieties of which are mutually intelligible among speakers of an ethnic group living usually in proximate geographical locations. For example, there are many varieties of Tagalog, largely from the specific town or province where the language is spoken: Marinduque Tagalog; Parañaque Tagalog which is disappearing because of contact with Manila Tagalog; Liliw Tagalog in the province of Laguna; Batangas Tagalog; Tayabas (now Quezon Province) Tagalog, which have distinct features in intonation and morphophonemics, lexicon and grammatical morphology; they are nonetheless intelligible to other Tagalog speakers. These constitute, properly speaking, dialects, not languages; the latter term is for mutually unintelligible codes or separate languages. Major minority languages Of McFarland’s estimated 120 languages, 5 are considered major languages based on the criterion of having at least one million speakers. These languages are Tagalog, Cebuano, Bisaya/Binisaya, Ilanun/Ilanuan, and Hiligaynon/ Ilonggo (see the 2000 census figures in Table 1). There have been attempts by various investigators of the Philippine languages to group them based on shared vocabulary and shared grammatical features (see Dyen, 1965; Fleischman, 1981; Gallman, 1977, McFarland, 1977; Zorc, 1977). On this basis, a putative genetic tree with its branches has been constructed (Gonzalez, 1996b; McFarland, 1981; Zorc, 1977, 1986) showing the hypothesised interrelationships between and among the languages. Of the 5 major languages, Tagalog, Cebuano, Bisaya/Bisayan and Hiligaynon/Ilonggo are Central Philippine languages. Ilanun language belongs to Southern Philippine languages. These languages belong to the Austronesian family of languages or the

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Table 1 Language or dialect generally spoken in the households: 2000 (Figures are estimates based on a 10% sample) Language/Dialect Total

15,278,808

Abelling

2,859

Abiyan

1,304

Aburlin

519

Aeta/Ayta

3,623

Aggay

364

Agta

506

Agutaynon/Agutayanon Akeanon/Aklanon Alangan Apayao/Yapayao Applai Atta/Ata/Ati Badjao, Sama Dilaut Bagobo-Guianga Balangao/Baliwon Bantoanon Banwaon

2,311 93,205 2,148 447 1,801 904 10,126 5,999 3,455 13,515 903

Batak/Binatak

1,483

Batangan

1,133

Bikol/Bicol

705,147

Bilaan/B’laan

37,213

Binukid/Bukidnon

15,483

Bisaya/Binisaya Boholano Bolinao

1,329,263 197,126 10,618

Bugkalot

1,262

Bontok/Binontok

4,864

Buhid

1,459

Butuanon

8,615

Capizeño

92,879

Caviteño

5,147

Caviteño-Chavacano

796

Cebuano

2,101,084

Cimaron

99

Cotabateño

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Number of Households

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Table 1 (cont.) Language or dialect generally spoken in the households: 2000 (Figures are estimates based on a 10% sample) Language/Dialect Cotabataño-Chavacano Cuyunon/Cuyunan Davao-Chavacano

980 29,714 810

Davaweño

27,866

Dibabawon

2,554

Dumagat/Dumagat (Umiray) Gaddang Gubatnon Hamtikanon

937 3,223 85 17,673

Hanunuo

2,313

Higaonon

5,250

Hiligaynon, Ilonggo

1,065,767

Ibaloi/Inibaloi

21,175

Ibanag

64,425

Ifugao

19,425

Ikalahan/Kalanguya

13,109

Ilanun/Ilanuan

373

Ilocano

1,327,211

Ilongot

2,182

Iranon

24,259

Iraya

1,841

Isamal Kanlaw

1,077

Isarog

172

Isinay

885

Isnag

5,087

Isneg

985

Itawis

15,044

Itawit

16,372

Itneg

14,668

Ivatan/Itbayat I’wak/I’wa/Owak

4,007 446

Iyapplai

79

Iyiwaks

68

Jama Mapun Kaagan Kagayanen

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Table 1 (cont.) Language or dialect generally spoken in the households: 2000 (Figures are estimates based on a 10% sample) Language/Dialect Kalagan Kalamianen

7,771 1,006

Kalinga

18,155

Kamayo

22,695

Kamigin/Kinamiging

1,489

Kankanai/Kankaney/Kankanaey

112,831

Kapampangan

413,552

Kapul

298

Karaga

71

Karao Karay-a Kasiguranin

304 147,584 1,630

Kinalinga

2,238

Kiniray-a

45,732

Kolibugan/Kalibugan

16,049

Ligbuk/Lugbok Maguindanao Malaueg Malbog Mamanwa

46 165,718 3,490 26 755

Mandaya

13,280

Mangyan

4,876

Manobo/Ata-Manobo

48,215

Mansaka

5,173

Maranao

150,151

Masbateño/Masbatenon

87,488

Matigsalog

3,815

Molbog

1,504

Negrito

209

Nilulubo

18

Palawan/Pinalawan/Palawanon Pangasinan/Panggalato Paranan

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Number of Households

12,778 237,181 2,571

Pinangal

11

Ratagnon

88

Remontado

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Table 1 (cont.) Language or dialect generally spoken in the households: 2000 (Figures are estimates based on a 10% sample) Language/Dialect

Number of Households

Romblon/Rombloanon

34,983

Sama (Samal) Abakron

44,199

Sama Bangengeh

1,247

Sama Dilaya

12,662

Sambal, Zambal

22,780

Sangil/Sangar

1,878

Subanen (Sicon, Zambo, Norte)/Sub

36,948

Sulod

30

Surigaonon

90,597

Tabangnon

89

Tadyawan

310

Tagabawa

2,170

Tagabili

32

Tagakaolo Tagalog

15,506 5,368,187

Tagbanwa

2,905

Talaandig

798

Tausug

151,277

T’boli

18,020

Teduray

7,539

Ternateño-Chavacano

495

Tigwahon/Tigwahanon

239

Tinggian

6,360

Tiruray

5,952

Tuwali

4,481

Ubo

572

Umayamnon

420

Waray

419,899

Yakan

28,101

Yogad

2,919

Zamboangeño-Chavacano

69,041

Other Local Ethnicity

18,613

Chinese

6,032

American/English

6,166

Other Foreign Ethnicity

2,770

Source: National Statistics Office, 2000 Census of Population and Housing.

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Malayo-Polynesian Group of Languages (Dempwolff, 1934, 1937, 1938; Dyen, 1965) and more particularly to the Western Indonesian Subgroup. They constitute a group of languages with features that together have been described as belonging to the ‘Philippine type’. Other Philippine-type languages are likewise found in the Celebes, in North Borneo and probably in Guam (Chamorro); although in the latter these features might be the result of borrowing between Filipinos and Chamorros during the period of Spanish colonisation, since both were under the Spanish Crown as possessions. (See Zobel, 1998, for a study differentiating Chamorro from the other Philippine languages.) The Philippinetype languages are characterised by a relatively simple phonology, an extensive verb morphology, Verb-Object-Subject word order, and a system of verb-subject agreement variously called topicalisation, focus, and, more recently, subjectivalisation (Gonzalez, 1981b; Kroeger, 1991; Pike, 1963). There was a Philippine-Hispanic pidgin found among workers and their families near Spanish forts (the shipyards in Cavite, Fort Santiago in Manila, Fort Pilar in Zamboanga City and Tamontaca in Zamboanga Province) (Riego de Dios, 1976). This pidgin has been creolised and has become the first language of Filipinos living in these areas; it is called Chabacano. Rizal referred to it in his letters as Kuchen Hispanisch ( the popular designation during the nineteenth century) and Schuchardt (1887) referred to it as el español de la cocina. However, since its creolisation and use as a mother tongue, it has acquired respectability and is considered a separate language in the Philippines. It is spoken mostly in Zamboanga City and Ternate in Cavite. There is a Philippine-American English mixture consisting of two varieties: an educated codeswitching variety used to establish rapport and informal understanding among friends which presupposes knowledge of both English and a local Philippine language, largely Filipino, and another variety which shows the beginnings of a pidgin or genuine language mixture, used among yayas (caregivers) and barmaids near military bases (Bautista, 1982, 1994) and among college girls of an exclusive school (Perez, 1993), which may become actual pidgins. Creolisation is bound to take place in bilingual households (English and Filipino) found only in Metro Manila (Gonzalez, 1989) in the verbal repertoire of culturally advantaged Filipinos who will learn the respectable standard varieties of Filipino and English eventually, especially in school. The Philippine variety of the English Language based on American English has been studied extensively (Casambre, 1985; Gonzalez, 1982, 1984, 1991; Gonzalez & Alberca, 1978; Llamzon, 1969; Marasigan, 1981). It is not a codeswitching variety, a pidgin, or a creole but rather an English variety in its own right with substratal influence from the first language. It is in the process of developing a set of standards for itself in pronunciation (the segmental and suprasegmental elements), in vocabulary (including words and collocations as well as new meanings and uses for words from the source language and idioms which consist of loan translations from the Philippine languages, called by Llamzon ‘Filipinisms’), and in specific features of syntax which indicate restructuring in Philippine English. The restructured subsystems of rules occur:

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• in selectional restrictions; • in reclassification of subcategories of nouns and verbs; • in the characteristics of the article system and the tense/aspect system of verbs; probably as a result of the influence of substratal first languages of the Philippine type (Gonzalez, 1984). For the development of this New English, standardisation must reach a point of temporary equilibrium for full legitimacy (Gonzalez, 1991). The three linguae francae of the Philippines are: • Tagalog-based Pilipino now called Filipino; • Cebuano Bisayan which has several dialects because of the migrants from Cebu who have moved to other Bisayan Islands and to different parts of Mindanao; and • Ilokano, which likewise has different dialects as a result of its spread through parts of Northern Luzon among the Northern-Philippine Language speaking ethnic groups in the Cordilleras (Kalinga, Apayao, Ifugao, Bontok, Ilongot, Ibanag). In addition, there is a language spoken in the Cagayan Valley called Bago (New) which is a mixture of Ilokano and Ibanag, related languages spoken in Northeastern Luzon. There is likewise a theory (Wolfenden, 1973:55) that Masbateño, spoken on the island of Masbate in the Bisayas, was originally a pidgin of Tagalog and Bisayan, now creolised as the first language of a Bisayan minority. There is a language of a religious sect in the Eastern Bisayas which is not a Creole but a secret language used by the sect; it is actually a Bisayan language with certain predictable insertions within words and an arcane vocabulary. Major religious languages In a study completed by Gonzalez (1996b) for an atlas of religious languages prepared by the Australian National University (see Wurm et al., 1996), religious language was defined as any language within the country which was being used for religious purposes, either in preaching and church services, in religious rituals, or in handing down the traditional faith to children in school or out of school, in the family and in the church-related structures for this purpose. The study indicates that among the Philippine languages, practically all are now religious languages as defined above because of the efforts of different religious groups to make converts of the local tribes and ethnic groups. The largest group consists of Christians (91.66%), composed of Catholics (81%), Protestants (5.43%) and other Christians (0.96%), and local Christian groups like the Iglesia ni Kristo (2.30%) and the Aglipayans (1.97%), as well as new groups such as the Mormons. The non-Christian groups consist of Muslims and local religious adherents (mostly of an animistic faith). The Muslims (Islam) (5.05%) use classical Arabic for the reading of the Qur’an during their services but few can speak any variety of Arabic; They are, however, able to decode it and read it aloud for Koranic reading. Among the Buddhists in the country, confined largely to Filipinos of Chinese extraction, the sutras are sung in Pali without actual com-

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prehension. Latin, which was extensively used by the Roman Catholic Church in church services, is now found only occasionally in a few churches for special occasions. Greek is used by one very small group of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Philippines and then only for liturgical prayer. In general, in the majority of places in the Philippines, the local language is used for preaching and for religious rituals, with English used occasionally in church services depending on the preference of the worshippers. Filipino is sometimes used instead of the local language, depending on the attitude of the community toward Filipino; in areas where acceptance of Tagalog-based Filipino is not yet complete, the local language is preferred. In the Philippines during the evangelisation period under the Spanish religious orders beginning with the arrival of Legazpi in 15652, the strategy of the Spanish religious orders (a reasonable one based on hindsight) was not for the locals to learn Spanish but for the Spanish-speaking missionaries to learn the local languages, which they did with impressive success. The most written-about language (through the grammar or Arte and the dictionary or Vocabulario – actually a bilingual Philippine Language-Spanish wordlist, usually accompanied by a much shorter Spanish-Philippine Language counterpart) was Tagalog (see Cubar, 1976; Gonzalez, 1994; Hidalgo, 1977), but practically every territory where missionaries worked had its own Arte and Vocabulario . In spite of repeated language instructions from the Crown on teaching the natives the Spanish language, there was only a little compliance. Instead the friars using common sense, kept employing the local languages, so much that in the period of intense nationalism in the nineteenth century, the failure of the Spanish friars to teach Spanish was used by some of the ilustrados (Filipinos educated in Spain) as a reason to accuse the friars of deliberately keeping Spanish away from the natives so as to prevent them from advancing themselves. This is a charge that has been espoused by even such a meticulous scholar as Majul (1967) and by Bernabe (1987), but it is still doubted by Gonzalez (1985a), who however has admitted that there were indeed friars and reactionaries in the country who were not eager to have the Filipinos learn too many things about political developments in Spain because of fear of sedition and rebellion. By and large, however, the effort made by the friars in learning the local languages was a far sounder strategy of evangelisation than the opposite, a tactic even the American missionaries adopted when they arrived after 1898. The Spanish missionaries thus promoted the local languages; the official Crown policy mandated efforts to spread Spanish, but by 1898 after more than 350 years of Spanish colonisation, counted only about 2.6% fluent speakers (Collantes, 1977). There was, however, a heavy overlay of Spanish loanwords especially for content words (Lopez, 1965) in the vocabulary of most speakers of other Philippine languages. The Americans succeeded in a far more efficient way in promoting the English language so that from almost no speakers of English in 1898, based on the 1939 census, the last one under American rule, the number of speakers of English had risen to 26.6%. This is an example of language engineering that is perhaps unprecedented in the history of the world. Alberca (1996) and Gonzalez (1996a, 2003) have formulated different hypotheses to explain the success of the first English Language Teachers from the United States, the Thomasites. Alberca attributes their success (in spite of

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what we would consider inadequate methodology and linguistic science by our standards) to the genuine caring and personal attention paid to select pupils whom they groomed for leadership, while Gonzalez puts stress on the motivation behind language learning (in spite of poor methods) as a means to social mobility among rural masses who could not go to school during the Spanish period and to whom public schools were now available. At the end of the nineteenth century there were 2000 primary schools (Bazaco, 1953) established by the Spanish government as a result of the Royal Decree of 1863, but these were literacy schools teaching reading in Spanish, religious studies and numeracy, not regular schools leading to higher degrees, the way the American system was structured. Nevertheless, in the religious sphere, Spanish was introduced; so was English in both daily prayers and worship and in the case of English, Bible reading both for Protestants and later for Catholics. In fact, language planning as a result of the religious sector encouraged religious literature in the local languages and stimulated the writing of grammars and word lists by missionaries but did not promote a national language. Similarly under the American regime, local languages were encouraged although the American educators chose the path of least resistance and made English the language of the schools, and to some extent at least among the educated elite, the language of religion. It was the Filipinos under the Americans in the second quarter of the twentieth century who started campaigning for a national language, a feature which became a mandate under the 1935 Constitution, a preoccupation of the Commonwealth from 1936 to 1946 and a continuing concern since Independence from the United States in 1946. The local languages continue to be languages of religion, with English still used though less and less and with Filipino now being used even for theological work as well as for sermons and homilies. (See Mercado, 1975, on Filipino theology.) Major languages of literacy The official policy on languages of literacy of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) of the Republic of the Philippines was announced as Department Order No. 25 in 1974. This was subsequently revised in 1987 by a Department Order (No. 54), series 1987. The current policy is to use Filipino and English as languages of literacy while allowing the use of the local vernaculars, especially the major ones other than Tagalog, as ‘auxiliary languages’. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL Philippines), since 1953, has been conducting language analysis of the minor languages (beyond the 10 major ones) to set down the languages in writing using the standard Roman alphabet after phonemicisation. Local informants are trained to write stories and essays in their own languages as well as to compose works intended for literacy use. As of this year (2005), the Summer Institute of Linguistics (personal communication from the Head of the Literacy Department) has more than 1100 literacy titles in 80 languages that are available for reproduction. The SIL also offers a programme jointly with Philippine Normal University, the premier state teacher training college, leading to an MA in Literacy Studies. The Department of Education (DepEd) itself, while allowing local initiative in the use of these materials, has not really given priority to the other languages or even to the

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major languages of the Philippines as initial languages of literacy. Rather, on the plea that DepEd is supposed to be teaching Filipino, the national language, and with the assumption that Filipino is now spoken in some variety by at least 85% of the population (NSO 2000), DepEd considers that the development of literacy in one’s native language is not deemed to be cost-effective or practical. Based on extensive experiential data collected by SIL, however, the use of the mother tongue results in better initial literacy. Unfortunately, the use of the local language for initial literacy classes seldom occurs outside of areas where SIL continues to have some influence in the community and is able to field some of its field workers. In reality, however, what happens in classrooms (Bautista, 1981a; Santos, 1984; Sibayan, 1982; Sibayan et al., 1993) is that the teacher explains in Filipino or in English depending on the subject matter (English for science and mathematics and in English Language classes and Filipino for all other subjects); then repeats the same content in the local vernacular to make sure the students understand the materials. There is thus an alternating language use for teaching (Filipino or English depending on the subject matter, and the local vernacular to explain further). The vernacular receives less and less use as the children go up the educational ladder. There are no hard data on actual use of the vernacular, but one can surmise that the continuing use of the vernacular does not go beyond the first year as afterwards an alternating variety of Filipino and English is used, with some code-mixing depending on the language competence of the teacher. By policy, this use of the local minor languages as languages of initial teaching and literacy is accepted. From 1957 to the present (the policy begun in 1974), the policy was to use the vernaculars (at least the major ones) officially as initial languages of teaching and of literacy while teaching Tagalog (later Pilipino) and English as subjects, with the shift being made to Tagalog by the second year and to English by the third year. In actual practice, because of lack of the prioritisation for literacy teaching in the budget, other than the experimental materials done with the cooperation of the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the latter’s own sponsored efforts, literacy teaching in the local vernacular was never carried out on a large scale; there was little preparation of materials and still less of training materials writers. The programme on literacy education training (then at the Teachers’ Camp in Baguio during the summer, leading to an MA in Literacy Education) had little impact on the system (see Sibayan, 1967). In 1974, a realistic practice was begun of leaving this policy undefined using the vernaculars as ‘auxiliary languages’ mostly for oral explanations in class rather than employing them for formal instruction in literacy, numeracy, and scientific content. The 1974 Bilingual Education Policy mandated the use of Tagalog (Pilipino) and English depending on the subject area. This same policy was reiterated 13 years later after a nation-wide evaluation of bilingual education (Gonzalez & Sibayan, 1988) with only a minor change: to be more flexible in the implementation of the programme since the period 1974–98 constituted insufficient time to implement the programme completely. (The programme needs a new evaluation today with the results compared with those that were done in 1985 and reported in the 1988 publication.) While in effect the language of literacy is Filipino followed by English,

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there is a washback effect on being literate in the minor vernaculars because the spelling system of all Philippine languages is similar (based on the Roman alphabet) and the skills easy to transfer insofar as decoding is concerned. By being literate in Filipino the children also become literate in the local language. However, since the local language does not have much literature available to begin with, the skills cannot be exercised fully, nor is there much development of these literacy skills for higher order cognitive activities and advanced reading. Again, however, whatever skills are acquired for Filipino may be transferred to the other vernaculars. Since these vernaculars do not have extensive literatures of their own (except for some oral literature recorded by native speakers and by anthropologists), the Filipino pupil has to rely on Filipino for the continuing skills s/he needs for reading and for educational content. English, of course, continues with the oral phase ideally mastered before reading in it, for initial teaching and subsequently for use in higher order cognitive activities for analysing, synthesising and evaluating materials in English according to higher grades of difficulty (from the lexicon and the complexity of the syntax and the rhetorical structures of the language). This is supposed to take place after acquiring skills of factual information, paraphrase, and application (to use Bloom’s 1956 taxonomy). (For some attempts to measure higher order skills in Filipino among Philippine students, see Montañano, 1996, 1993; for English language skills, see Coronel, 1990.) The linguistic profile of Filipinos The list of languages spoken at home during the last census (2000) is given in Table 1, showing the number of speakers per language at least as these language names were used by the census enumerators and respondents (who were not linguists). The census figures are based on a study of households and reflect only the language used in the household; no provision has been made since the 1990 census to enumerate speakers of Tagalog (Filipino) as a second language and of speakers of English as a second language. (For 1990 data, see Social Weather Stations, 1994, for English, based on a limited but well selected sample). Gonzalez (1977) projected the total number of Filipino speakers by the year 2000 to be 97.1%, an extrapolation which is probably underestimated because of the rapid spread of Filipino. A linguistic profile of the country, with native speakers of the different Philippine languages as reported in the 2000 census, together with the number of speakers (based on a 10% sampling of households rather than total enumeration), the numbers based on the total population of 76 million, may be inferred from Table 1. Filipino is largely an urban language spoken in major cities as a second language along with the local language, the result of instruction in Filipino from Grade 1 on, in a bilingual scheme. Most likely, the instruction is more effectively carried out by the mass media, especially TV, which is now predominantly in Filipino. Movies and canned programmes recorded from live Filipino talk shows and games as well as Sesame Street-type programmes for children are largely in Filipino, with the exception of some channels and cable TV which is in English. Vernaculars other than Filipino are out-of-the-Metro Manila area; they are languages that are spoken in rural communities and by immigrants into urban communities, the latter along with Filipino and English.

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The table shows Tagalog speakers dominate the population. Hence the claim of the Bisayans that they constitute a segment of the population larger than the Tagalogs is questionable at best. With the growing population in the Philippines (2.3% increase each year, although recently this has gone down to 2.2%) and with the population expected to hit over 100 million in the year 2020, the number of speakers of the major languages will increase to more than their present numbers. Most likely the other minor languages will likewise grow proportionally so that in 10 years Surigaonon and Tausug will also be considered major languages under the criterion of having more than one million speakers. Linguistic atlas McFarland (1981), in his Linguistic Atlas of the Philippines, has mapped out the archipelago in terms of language areas showing the key provinces, the distribution of speakers and languages; so has the Summer Institute of Linguistics in its various publications and annual reports. The map in Figure 1 combines information from McFarland and SIL on the languages spoken in the major regions and/or provinces including the cities; the number of speakers are based on the data from the census summarised in Table 1.

Part II: Language Spread Languages in the educational system Mention has already been made of the language policy of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports as well as the Department’s policy on the use of vernacular languages (major and minor) as ‘auxiliary languages’ for the initial stages of formal schooling and for literacy in general. The main media of instruction after the initial phase using the local vernaculars as ‘auxiliary languages’ are Filipino and English. Filipino is used for all subjects except for the English language, science and mathematics (the latter using English as the medium of instruction). In reality, based on classroom visitations and surveys, codeswitching between Filipino and English continues in the upper years of high school and even in college. Except for a number of schools in Metro Manila which maintain the teaching of Spanish in elementary and high school as a distinctive feature and a continuation of tradition, Spanish is now only voluntarily taught at the tertiary level in area studies courses on the Hispanic Tradition and for historical studies. Colleges and universities in the Philippines do not teach foreign languages beyond the first two years (12 units) except for the University of the Philippines at Diliman, Quezon City, which offers a specialisation in the major European languages. Advanced courses may be taken at different special schools sponsored by the embassies (Alliance Française, Goethe Institute, Nippon Language Center) and commercial centres for language study (Mandarin and Fookien for the Chinese languages). Basic courses in Indonesian or in Malay are given in connection with the Asian Studies Programme at the University of the Philippines. By and large, the state of foreign language study, especially of the smaller and less familiar languages, leaves much to be desired even at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs, where languages are offered by part-time faculty

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Figure 1 A map of major Philippine languages

from the universities only at the most elementary level and then only including the more popular ones such as Japanese, French, Spanish and German. The target audience for Filipino and English is, of course, the educational sector composed of youth.3 Filipinos 25 years old and younger; they constitute more than two-thirds of the Philippine population at present. The only persons

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in the Philippines who take up foreign studies are those intending to join the diplomatic service and those intending to study or work abroad. The great number of Overseas Contract Workers need English for marketing their skills, although many learn the local language of the country in which they work through informal study and contact with the local residents in the Middle East and in different parts of Asia as well as Europe. English and Filipino are taught from Grade 1 on and used as media of instruction from the first grade, although there is much use of the local vernaculars in a bimodal style of communication, with the local vernacular in decreasing use as the children go up the educational ladder. Only in one school (Poveda) is Spanish taught every year in pre-school, grade school and high school. A few secondary schools offer foreign languages as an elective. At the tertiary level, Spanish is usually recommended for those taking up law or historical studies. Specific languages are required for some area studies majors in a few universities in Metro Manila. No language is really taught up to the advanced stages because of a lack of interested students enrolling in the courses. The local vernaculars are not taught formally but are used as auxiliary media of instruction. In some literature departments at universities, vernacular literature is taught in the original and in translation (into Filipino or English), and in linguistics programmes studying the grammar of the Philippine languages there is usually a requirement, but there is none for degrees in Applied Linguistics (except in a course called Field Methods). Filipino is taught from grade school to high school and in the first two years of college; in the hands of a good instructor and under a suitable programme, much progress can be made in the mastery of Filipino, so that, in well managed schools, the ideal of a balanced bilingual competent in both Filipino and in English is approximated. However, more often than not, many students finish college more dominant in English than in Filipino. The uses of Filipino in the educational system are still not universal for motivation, as one will use Filipino for informal transactions in business, the vernacular in the home (unless it is a Tagalog-speaking home to begin with), or a colloquial variety of Filipino for the neighbourhood, and English for content in science, mathematics, and technology as well as for international contacts and business transactions at the higher levels. Based on the findings of the 1985 survey (Gonzalez & Sibayan, 1988) a welleducated Filipino, in a well-run school, learns Filipino (either his mother tongue or his/her lingua franca) and English well enough to carry on higher order cognitive studies and thus not be a semi-lingual (Toukoumaa & SkutnabbKangas, 1977). Depending on their interests, affluence, opportunity to study or travel extensively abroad, and his initiative to take up other foreign languages beyond the university, the student can learn other languages, the most common one being Spanish in households that still speak it (a diminishing percentage) and in programmes where foreign governments offer fellowships after graduation or even before that under an exchange programme or a fellowship abroad (Japan, the People’s Republic of China, France, Germany, Italy). Besides Spanish, depending on one’s ethnic affiliation, only one other language is learned as the language of the home, Fookien or Hokkien Chinese, a language different from Mandarin Chinese or Putonghua, which is learned in special Chinese schools.

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The schools where Putonghua (Mandarin) is taught are schools sponsored by the Chinese community which, before immigration laws made it mandatory to change the curriculum to conform to the usual Filipino standard, used to offer a bi-medial system of instruction where content was taught in Putonghua (Mandarin) during half the day and the same content was imparted in English and Filipino during the other half of the day. For reasons of integration, this approach has now been modified to the regular curriculum using Filipino and English as media of instruction, with Putonghua (Mandarin) as a required subject, presumably with some of the content dealing with Chinese history and culture. Cao Pei (1996), for her master’s thesis, tested some Chinese schools in the Philippines and found that, among a minority, Chinese language skills at least at the conversational and intermediate level are attained under the present system using the more traditional methodology. Go (1979) conducted a study on the history and state of the Chinese schools in Metro Manila. Objectives of language education and the methods of assessment to determine attainment of the objectives Initially, based on models set up by Canadian applied linguists and psycholinguists (Pascasio, 1977), the ideal objective of language education in the Philippines was to produce the balanced bilingual equally able to carry on communication and higher order cognitive activities for his education in both Filipino and English. A more pragmatic assessment of actual results shows that this objective is unrealistic and unattainable. The number and percentage of balanced bilinguals in any society remains small. Instead, the more realistic goal should be an individual with enough codes for complementary functions for his role in society (Sibayan, 1978). In general, Filipinos use their home language (their first language or mother tongue), be it Tagalog or one of the other majority languages or even one of the minority languages, as the language of the home and the neighbourhood. This is the language within the family circle and among close friends and relatives; it is used as a language of ordinary informal and colloquial communication, and it remains so. Non-Tagalog families migrating to Tagalog-speaking areas or to urban areas learn Filipino in school and in the neighbourhood; by the second generation of migrants, the children are Tagalogspeaking or Filipino-speaking, while passive competence in the home language is maintained (Gonzalez & Romero, 1993). When the marriage is of mixed ethnic groups (e.g.) Tagalogs and Kapampangans), it is usually the language of the mother that dominates the home (Bautista & Gonzalez, 1986). The home language is seldom used for anything other than ordinary intimate family conversations and everyday business transactions in the neighbourhood. The languages of the school are Filipino (learned more easily if one is a native speaker of Tagalog) and English, the latter primarily because of school teaching and use. There is also evidence that, among affluent families in urban centers such as Metro Manila, children do grow up bilingual in English and the home language (Gonzalez, 1989), resulting from the code used by the parents in communicating with the child growing up (English) and the dominant language

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of the yaya or caregiver, who sometimes speaks a non-standard form of Philippine English (Bautista, 1982). Tagalog-speaking children, whether monolingual or bilingual (in Tagalog and another Philippine language because the parents are migrants from a nonTagalog-speaking province), can use the language in school from Day 1 as a language of education and literacy. The burden of the first few years of schooling is to attain basic interactive communicative competence (to use Cummins’ 1984 term) consisting not only of the ability to converse in the language -– the child normally has attained this even before schooling starts –- but the skills to read and write the language. The objective is literacy training. The important thing is that, if at least 85% of Filipinos can now speak the Filipino language (at least a non-specialised local variety), then reading and literacy skills can be taught from the first day of school. The use of Filipino for classroom interaction and communication can make the attainment of advanced cognitive skills in Filipino, what Cummins call Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), possible at an early stage (Gonzalez, 1985b). The task of learning English is much more difficult since, except for the few affluent households where English is used as the language of the home and thus becomes a second local language, children are exposed to English only via radio (as well as, mostly, TV and movies) before schooling. English is first taught aurally-orally, including pattern drilling at the beginning, then reading and writing. What makes the teaching of English effective in a well-managed school is not only the methodology,4 but the continuing use of the language as a medium of instruction for science and mathematics and its almost exclusive use at the tertiary level. In colleges and universities some subjects are taught in Filipino. The Filipino language requirement is now nine units, including literature and some culture-related subjects such as history and even religious studies. All the other subjects are taught in English. One surmises that it is this use of English that is able to propagate and maintain English in the system rather than the formal study of the language which sometimes consists of repeated and monotonous remedial exercises in grammar and mechanics and the surface correction of poorly written compositions often without really new input or any attempt at innovative ways of helping poor writers and readers advance in their skills. Gonzalez and his graduate students (as well as masters degree theses and a few doctoral dissertations) have attempted to grapple with the problem of assessment and the results of such assessment. In general, native-like pronunciation is seldom ever attained, with certain features ‘perduring’ across generations to constitute consistent features of Philippine English pronunciation (Gonzalez, 1984). Mention has been made of the introduction of native terms for the realia in the culture – the use of what Llamzon (1969) calls Filipinisms (direct loan translations of Philippine collocations) as well as peculiar restructuring in the grammatical subsystem especially in the tense/aspect system of the English verb and in the highly complex system of articles in English. In addition, because teachers of English in the system are often poorly trained, especially at the primary and secondary level, teachers themselves do not have reading skills beyond Grade 6 and often demonstrate inadequate writing skills as well as limited fluency in the language. As a consequence, the proper teaching of reading and writing

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skills leaves much to be desired to attain the level of competence needed to reach CALP in English. In the rural areas, because of lack of exposure to the use of English other than via the mass media, and because of poor models, often a substantial minority of students enter and even leave high school without really having attained fluent basic interpersonal communicative (BIC) skills in English. A Survey on the Outcomes of Elementary Education (SOUTELE, 1980) at the end of the 1970s, showed that the average pupil in school did not learn anything significantly new in Grade 6 but rather merely maintained the level of competence in language skills and subject matter attained at Grade 5 level. Beginning in 1994, a National Elementary Assessment Test (NEAT) has been used to measure achievement in language and subject matter at the end of Grade 6 and at the end of Grade 10 or at the fourth year of high school (National Secondary Assessment Test (NSAT). The latter replaced the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) which had been in use from 1973 to 1993. Initially the total population of school-leaving students was tested but, because of budget limitations, results are now based on a sampling (which began in 1997). The tests are achievement tests, actually classroom tests constructed on the basis of a table of specifications of the learning targets for the year as dictated by a learning continuum prescribed by the Department of Education. Rather than aiming to set national standards, the test scores are divided by different combined means, then percentile is determined with those scoring above the average judged to have ‘passed’. The new tests enable comparisons within districts, divisions, and regions. Unfortunately, because of the sensitive nature of these results and of the stigma that would be attached to an individual school not doing well (and the subsequent reflection of poor testing results on the school administration), scores are seldom made public unless a school asks for its results. Hence, widespread comparison of attainment to measure achievement is not possible. Item analyses of these tests were undertaken by Ibe and Coronel (1995). The NCEE and now the NEAT and NSAT results show recurring problems of achievement among students, especially in higher order cognitive skills (reading skills analysis, synthesis and evaluation as well as information getting, paraphrasing and application). The findings show continuing problems with the higher order skills even in high school, the lack of critical thinking among many, and conceptual difficulties with word problems in mathematics. Similar achievement measures have been found for subject achievement in Grade 6 and 10. In general, for entirely understandable reasons, students score higher in Filipino than in English in language tests; they score less impressively in content subjects (largely social studies) taught in Filipino and attain a consistent average of about 50% of items in the Table of Specifications of tests. The achievement in science, taught in English, is only about 40% of set targets. In mathematics it is about 50%, the average for other subjects. An interesting investigation of evaluating the bilingual education program was conducted by a team (Gonzalez & Sibayan, 1988) which gathered data in 1985. A careful sampling of pupils in Grades 4, 6 and 10, as well as of the teachers’ subject proficiency, in selected schools for each region was undertaken. The two best schools and the two worst schools in the region, based on the information given by the Regional Director, were used in the final sample. The focus was on the effects of the bilingual education policy that was at the time supposed to

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have been implemented in all schools. The results showed that the number of years of implementation of the bilingual education scheme was not a significant factor for achievement in these schools, nor was ethnic affiliation significant. Rather the main difference lay in the location of the school (rural-urban), the nature of the community (open community as opposed to closed community), the quality of the management of the school (measured through actual visitations to schools in the sample), and the quality of the Filipino and English departments – i.e. the proficiency of the teachers). By and large, however, the picture that emerged showed inadequate proficiency on the part of the teachers (especially in science) and inadequate attainment of teaching targets, especially in Grades 6 and Grade 10. The system begins to lag behind in targeted achievement after Grade 5. Children in Philippine schools, generalising from this, scored about 10–15% higher in Filipino language classes than in English classes; scored below the 50% level in science, and slightly above the 50% level in mathematics and social studies (the latter taught in Filipino). Specific studies done under the supervision of Gonzalez (Gonzalez et al., 2003) showed other interesting results based on very limited samples; these studies at least provide some measures by which one can gauge the attainment of objectives. Uri (1992) found that middle-class children in the provinces attained BIC-level competence in English more or less in Grade 5 (after five years of schooling) while some brighter students attained it earlier. An informal study conducted under the supervision of Gonzalez showed that, for affluent Manila schools, BIC-level competence is attainable by Grade 3 and even earlier for affluent students exposed to English beyond school. For Filipino, Lingan (1981) did a study of BIC-level competence (the threshold level) in a nonTagalog-speaking area and found that the average Filipino non-Tagalog attains BIC competence in Filipino by about Grade 5. Attainment may be accelerated depending on the location of the community, with quicker attainment in communities near national roads. The findings for achievement and proficiency among both pupils and teachers, to gauge the attainment of objectives of language education and the measures for gauging this achievement, have not yet been fully analysed for their implications in so far as language education is concerned; i.e the effect of the scheduling or phasing in of the languages used in the system, efforts to have the languages complement each other and make up for any deficits. A more systematic effort on the part of the Department of Education other than the annual NEAT and NSAT and the NAT examinations will be required. These questions and issues are discussed informally in training workshops for English and Filipino sponsored by the Department of Education in cooperation with learned societies such as the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Association for Language Teaching, the College English Teachers Association, Sanggunian ng mga Gurong Filipino (SANGFIL) [Council of Teachers of Filipino], and other associations established for the teaching of Filipino throughout the archipelago. Historical development of policies/practices on the languages of education The current policy on the use of Filipino and English is the product of a compromise solution to the demands of nationalism and internationalism.

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Language choice is determined according to subject areas during elementary and secondary schooling of the Filipino child. In addition, language choice involves the prescribed use of Filipino as a subject for the first two years of tertiary schooling (with the option to use Filipino as a medium of instruction for certain subjects such as Rizal, and Philippine History and Government, and culturally loaded subjects, provided the teachers are competent and provided that teaching materials in Filipino are available). Prior to 1974, English was supposed to be used in all subjects except for the Filipino Language Classes, at all levels. During the period from 1957 to 1974, the local vernaculars were used for the transition to both Filipino (as a subject) and English (as a subject in the first two grades, and as the language of instruction from Grade 3 on). In the meantime, especially during the days of student activism from 1969 to the declaration of Martial Law by Ferdinand E. Marcos on 21 September 1972, there was a clamour to decolonise the system by changing the medium of instruction totally to Filipino. The moderates among the language policy makers at the Department of Education were able to make a convincing case to use a bilingual scheme as a more realistic substitute, given the lack of materials in Filipino and the time and efforts needed to enable its speakers to use it as a language of academic discourse. What became evident after 1974, thanks to the work of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, was the need to intellectualise Filipino to become in its vocabulary and its corpus a language of scholarly discourse. The policy was based on a bottom-up approach whereby texts were created for Grade 1, then year by year up to the upper grades; 10 years for the implementation of the scheme were putatively set down as the deadline for making the transition. In hindsight, in the process of doing a summative evaluation of the Bilingual Education Programme of the country in 1985 (Gonzalez & Sibayan, 1988), the investigators discovered that, even after 10 years, in some non-Tagalogspeaking areas, implementation had barely begun. At the secondary level, it was especially difficult to implement the teaching of economics in third year high school. Sibayan (personal communication) advocated a top-down approach, in addition to the bottom-up approach. That is to say, instead of relying on grade school teachers alone to use Filipino as a medium of instruction and having a group of grade school writers from DepEd produce the teaching materials, selected universities should have been given the task to identify professors who were both knowledgeable in the field as well as competent in the language to do massive teacher training for the upper grades and to create not only textbooks but reference materials in Filipino to enable the teaching corps to do a good job of making the transition. Unfortunately, in spite of numerous surveys during the whole decade of the 1970s and the early 1980s on the problems of implementing the programme through regional and provincial studies, teacher training by regions was left to the initiative of the regional directors of the system. Token seminars and workshops were held but systematic and detailed training in the nitty-gritty of the use of the language, based on classroom experiences, was inadequate; the task of speaking about concepts and principles in social studies by Grade 5 was found to be very difficult for ordinary classroom teachers. Thus the findings of the 1985 national survey indicated that, in some schools, implementation had just begun. Among schools which were successful in terms

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of results (Filipino and English as a language of study, and in content areas, English in science and mathematics and Filipino (formerly Pilipino) in social studies/social sciences), there was no significant correlation between years of implementing the bilingual scheme and achievement. Rather, what significantly correlated with higher scores in achievement were not language medium factors but factors such as the over-all quality of the school, and the location of the community where the school was located. (Optimal sites were urban and open communities; ethnic affiliation did not correlate significantly with achievement since even Cebuanos did well in Filipino language studies). Nationalism indices were taken among the teachers, and once again the indices showed no significant correlation between nationalism and preference for Filipino as a language of instruction. Among both teachers and parents, it was discovered that Filipinos overwhelmingly supported the development of the national language and by and large (except for Cebuanos) all ethnic groups accepted Tagalog as the basis of the national language, but that they were not willing to compromise the academic development of their children by mandating an education totally in Pilipino. Instead, a bilingual education scheme was found acceptable, and it could be continued since the importance of developing the national language had to be balanced with the continuing need for English for international needs, because English provided access to science and technology. Previous to the 1974 policy, a nationwide survey on resources, especially of manpower and teaching materials, was undertaken in order to provide data for policy formulation (Gonzalez & Postrado, 1974). Not enough effort was expended for training teachers nationwide, but at the time, as a result of a World Bank loan, new textbooks were being produced for the Philippines by DECS; the language of the specific subjects followed the scheme, and materials were written during the next decade to attempt to reach the ideal of one textbook per subject for each student in the system. Materials in English were produced for English Language-medium classes, including the English language class itself, mathematics and science. Materials in Filipino were completed for the Filipino language class and for social studies as well as for the performing arts (music, art) and physical education (health and sports). There were actually two massive materials writing projects initially under a World Bank loan scheme and subsequently under the Asian Development Bank loan. The first one was to implement the Bilingual Education scheme and reforms in the system in general, and the second to implement a new scheme called Program for Decentralised Educational Development (PRODED), which had a materials component. In both projects, the textbook materials implementing the scheme were part of a larger project of improving the Philippine education system. Of the considerable amount spent in attempting to improve Philippine education during those two decades (the 1970s and 1980s), perhaps the most significant and lasting outcome was the provision for better textbooks in sufficient quantities (one book per student in every subject). Unfortunately, there were problems of distribution of the textbooks so that, even after they were completed, some schools had not yet been reached by the distribution scheme. The private sector continued using its own textbooks, modeled on the textbooks provided by the educational system to its public school clientele.5 After the nationwide evaluation of bilingual education was completed in 1985,

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the DECS formulated basically the same scheme in 1987 except for the modification that regional directors would be the ones to make the decision on the speed of implementation, especially in those regions where the transition had just begun after 10 years of supposed implementation. Moreover, recommendations were made on proper monitoring of the scheme by a Bilingual Education Committee in the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, the creation of task forces to continue the writing of materials and the harmonisation of the teaching syllabi between Filipino and English to provide for complementation, avoid repetition, and assure planned repetition where justified. The 1987 scheme also recommended that new materials be composed for non-Tagalog regions at the initial transitional level, and it recommended the restoration of the use of the home languages as ‘auxiliary languages’, a recognition and legitimation of the ongoing practice of using different media of instruction in class including the use of the home language for explaining content taught in Filipino and in English. In the meantime, in an attempt to restructure the language academy of the Philippines,6 a law was passed in August 1991 under the Aquino Adminsitration establishing a new language academy called Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) [Commission on the Filipino Language] with an enlarged group of board members representing different major and minor languages as well as different academic disciplines. The Commission was charged with the mission not only to develop Filipino as a language of literature and as an academic language but likewise to preserve and develop the other languages. The KWF is made up of a division for linguistic research, a lexicography unit, a unit dealing with Philippine languages other than Filipino, a section for the dissemination of its findings through publications and workshops, and an administrative unit. Essentially the KWF has the same structure and has basically the same personnel at present as the former Institute of National Language (Linangan ng mga Wika sa Pilipinas) except than an enlarged board now meets regularly to deliberate on language policy and use and to advocate the expanded use of Filipino in academic life. After the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, which mandated Filipino and its development, as well as clarified the official status of Pilipino and English, and opened the door to using Filipino not only for the social sciences but also for the natural sciences, regional centres for the promotion of the Philippine national language were set up in different universities in the provinces. On constitutional grounds, the local government of Cebu Province challenged the notion that Filipino had already been recognised as the national language and contended that Filipino was still in the process of development and hence could not be imposed on the province. The Provincial Board supported that proposal. The KWF won its case for Filipino at the lower court and also in the higher court. In spite of this, English is once more being used in teaching the social sciences, and the Filipino Language Class is the only class in the curriculum using Filipino as both content and as medium of instruction. This avoidance of the use of Filipino has taken its toll on achievement in those subjects taught and tested in Filipino in other parts of the country, a situation which the Cebuanos have found difficult to accept. There is a strong petition at present to have social studies tested not in Filipino but in English, a policy

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that would favour Cebuanos. The DECS has refused to change the language of testing in the social sciences. Major media languages and distribution of media by socioeconomic class, ethnic group urban and rural location Based on data contained in the Philippine Media Factbook (2000), the Philippines has 8 broadsheets of national daily circulation, 2 daily business newspapers and 1 week-end business newspaper and one daily sports newspaper. All these newspapers are in English. There are also 16 tabloids (11 morning and 5 afternoon) in the market. Only 2 of the 16 tabloids are in English, although two use a combination of English and Filipino. The 61 regional newspapers are written in both English and the local language, usually a major language. Based on the 2002 4A’s Media Factbook, there are 81 magazines, 6 of which are annuals, 2 quarterlies, 51 monthlies, 4 bi-monthlies, and 18 weeklies. Only 7 are in Filipino, plus three long-standing weekly magazines in three major Philippine languages (Bannawag for Ilokano, Hiligaynon for Ilonggo Bisaya, Bisaya for Cebuano Bisayan) in addition to Liwayway in Tagalog/Filipino, all published by the Liwayway Publishing Corporation, a sister company of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, publisher of the most important daily newspaper in English in the country. Eighty-seven per cent of households have a radio; broadcasts are in Filipino, English and the local vernacular, in that order. Among the local vernaculars, however, not all are used; usually it is the lingua franca in the region which is used as the language of broadcasting. Ilocano is the lingua franca for all of Northern Luzon, Tagalog for the rest of Luzon, Cebuano for Cebuano-speaking areas not only in the Bisayas but likewise in Mindanao. Educational radio broadcasts for small ethnic groups are provided through private initiatives, especially by church groups. Television programming is provided by 7 major stations, with provision made for nationwide broadcasts in Filipino and English. Filipino is used in approximately 34% of programmes (movies and live shows) and English in 65% and Chinese in 1%. Usually in major cities such as Cebu, Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro, portions of broadcast time are local programmes for news and for political issues which use both English and the local major vernacular. The most interesting recent development in terms of the spread of Filipino is its predominance now over radio (about 90% of programming) and TV (about 65% of programming) and cinema; the Philippines is second only to India in the number of films produced each year, all in Filipino. An attempt was made about 10 years ago, without success, to produce a movie in Cebuano; no local movies (except for codeswitching episodes) use English. For the first time, in 1996, a soap opera produced in Mexico which had attracted a wide viewership was translated not into English but into Filipino, and has set a trend of translating foreign TV series into Filipino. The current trend is the translation of Korean telenovelas into Filipino. Household income determines ownership of mass media instruments; the country is divided into A B households (the more affluent ones), C D households (the middle-class ones) and E households (the poorer class ones). Newspaper and magazine readership for English is distributed usually among the A B

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households while local papers in Filipino and weekly magazines are read more widely among the C D households. Ownership of radios is nearly universal; TV at least in Metro Manila, 99.4% of Class ABC own TV sets, 94.8% of Class D, and 73.8% of Class E (see Dayag, 2004). Ethnicity is not an important factor for mass media ownership, but socioeconomic class is. In remote areas in the Mountain Provinces among the cultural minority communities, households have radios but few in the village have a TV set; if there is a TV set, it is usually available to neighbours in the evenings. An interesting development is that, more than TV, there are video-tapes, and video-tape players are used to show movies for a fee; the movies are flown in or brought by boat each week, a way whereby Filipino and English can penetrate even the remotest areas. Obviously, the more urbanised the community, the more access it has to mass media instruments in Filipino and in English. The proximity of the ethnic community to the highway is important for both the learning and the use of Filipino and English. Effect of immigration on language distribution and measures for learning the national language and supporting the retention of immigrant languages Unlike affluent countries to which immigrants flock, the Philippines is not to any great extent a magnet for immigrants. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Hokkien speakers from South China with relatives in the Philippines came either officially or unofficially and eventually integrated themselves into Philippine society. If they were young enough, these immigrants attended schools catering to the Chinese community and learned some English and some Filipino. Those who were already too old to attend school learned Filipino the natural informal way and became fluent in it. Of course, second generation Hokkien Chinese grow up bilingual in Tagalog and in Hokkien, then learn Mandarin (as a subject) and English (as a medium of instruction) in school. The Hokkien Chinese from South China are the only significant Chinese community that has immigrated into the Philippines in relatively large numbers after the 1949 events in mainland China. Other immigrants who come in because of intermarriage with Filipinos are usually from the A B group and learn languages in school. No formal measures are taken by the Bureau of Immigration to help assimilate these immigrants – there are too few to need this kind of attention. Hence, there has been no significant effect on language distribution. Efforts to learn the national language (Filipino) are left to individual initiative unless the immigrants are young enough to attend school. Nor has there been an attempt to support the use of immigrant languages except in the Chinese schools which, from 1950 to 1973, had a double-medium curriculum whereby a half day was spent teaching in English while the other half day was spent teaching Chinese Language and Culture and other curricular content in Mandarin. The transition was made by a directive from the Bureau of Private Schools based on the 1973 Constitution. A policy of assimilation was applied and the double-medium scheme was discontinued in favour of a regular English-Filipino stream with Putonghua (Mandarin) taught as a subject (Go, 1979). Except in special language schools opened through private initiative, Hokkien is not taught as a language, but is

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of course acquired in the home among Hokkien Chinese, along with its Filipino variety (Ma, 1992).

Part III: Language Policy and Planning Language planning legislation, policy or implementation currently in place In the Philippines, language planning is not under one unified agency but is diffused and located in different agencies according to the nature of the task to be accomplished. The 1987 Constitution mandates the national language to be Filipino, a language it recognises as existing and in the process of further development just like any modernising and intellectualising language. The Constitution likewise mandates the dissemination of Filipino in educational domains, including science, in the future. In the meantime, Tagalog-based Pilipino and English continue to be official languages until a Congressional Act mandates otherwise. The teaching of other languages, especially Arabic and Spanish, is voluntary. Mandated to develop Filipino as a modernising and intellectualising language is an agency founded by Republic Act No. 7104 in 1991, called the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) (Commission on the Filipino Language) consisting of nine members of the board under a Chairman, and a Director General of the Commission charged with running the Commission on a day-to-day basis. The task of the Commission as it has been evolving since its establishment is to develop Filipino as a language of academic work, disseminate it further, do linguistic and sociolinguistic research on it, monitor government policies and laws so that they will not be inimical to its own purposes and work, and preserve and conserve as well as disseminate the other Philippine languages and their respective literatures. One important activity for the standardisation and cultivation of Filipino is dictionary making – i.e. both a monolingual dictionary of Filipino and the continuation of compilations of technical terms (bilingually in English and Filipino) and word-lists in different domains. As defined by KWF, Filipino is the variety of speech used as a lingua franca in the Philippines, found in urban areas and historically first emerging in the Manila area. The use of English in the mass media follows the demands of the market and has no special agency looking after it or legislating its use, except that, some 25 years ago, it was recommended by members of the media themselves that at least half of the songs played on radio would be in Filipino. English has no national agency concerned with its interests; it continues as an official language, and its use in the community continues as a language of instruction at the tertiary level and as a language of science and mathematics at the elementary and secondary levels. The continuing training of teachers is done not only in English departments of teacher training colleges (usually a college of education in a university in different parts of the Philippines) but also through the continuing training activities sponsored by such professional educational groups as the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Association for Language Teaching, and the College English Teachers Association, as well as the Council of Department Chairpersons of English (CDCE), and with the help of agencies such as the British Council, the United States Infor-

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mation Service (through the Cultural Affairs Officer of the US Embassy), and occasionally, through the Australian Agency for International Development (AUS-AID). The organisation of workshops for the teaching and use of Filipino is handled by institutions such as Philippine Normal University in Manila and by different organisations for Filipino language and literature, the most active lately being Sanggunian ng mga Guro sa Filipino (SANGFIL) or Council of Teachers of Filipino, mostly at the tertiary level. For the other Philippine languages, except for a special division for this purpose in the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, no other agency is charged with the preservation and recording of the Philippine languages; the non-governmental agency closest to this objective would be the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Philippines) which, however, is in the process of winding down its field work and research on minority languages. As planned, the field work and linguistic analysis and learning were intended to create literacy materials and eventually to translate the Christian Scriptures into the minority languages. The proposed successor to the SIL, which is not taking on any new work in the Philippines after its current projects have been completed, is the Translators’ Association of the Philippines (TAP).

Historical development of the policies and practices The historical development of the policies is best traced by a quick glance across time in the history of the Philippines. (For the Spanish period and the American period, see Bernabe, 1987; for the early post-war period, see Sibayan, 1973 on the vernacular policy especially from 1957 to 1974; for the period from 1974 onwards, see Gonzalez, 1976, 1980b, 1981a). The Spanish Crown, in numerous directives to the Viceroy of Mexico (which then acted as a conduit of governance towards the Governor General of the Philippines), kept mandating the teaching of the Spanish language to the local residents, seemingly without too much success in the Philippines because of the lack of a concrete programme of instruction (until the last quarter of the nineteenth century when a series of parish-related schools was established after the Royal Decree of 1863 and when two schools, one in Manila for men, the other one in Naga for women, were founded to train teachers for Spanish). The absence of Spanish teachers who could monitor the programme and act as models is probably the main reason for the lack of success. The only Spaniard living in the rural and semi-urbanised areas was the religious pastor who learned local languages rather than trying to teach the locals his own native language (Spanish). Later during the period of intense nationalism in the last quarter of the nineteenth century (Schumacher, 1973), friars were accused of trying to hold back the teaching of Spanish from the locals out of fear of their imbibing liberal ideas from Spain and to prevent possible subversion. To a certain extent, this was true, although how widespread this belief was among the friars needs further analysis since the more convincing reason was that there was no teaching programme nor were there sufficient teachers. At the end of the Spanish Period, the fluent male speakers were former students of the Ateneo, San

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Juan de Letran, the Universidad de Santo Tomas, and the fluent women were the former students of the Beaterios run by the nuns. The 1896 Biak-na-Bato Constitution and the 1899 Malolos Constitution recognised the need to cultivate the local languages, but did not say anything about a national language; rather, de facto these documents recognised the continuing use of Spanish in Philippine life and legislation.7 William McKinley, President of the United States of America in 1898, in his instructions to the First Philippine Commission, ordered the use of the Philippine languages as well as English for instructional purposes. The American administrators, finding the local languages to be too numerous and too difficult to learn and to write teaching materials in, ended up with a monolingual system in English with no attention paid to the other Philippine languages except for the token statement concerning the necessity of using them eventually for the system. In a Whorfian assumption that a language somehow carried the ideology of the native speakers, the American colonisers decided that Filipinos should learn the language of democracy and enterprise. This intent was never achieved, although there were enlightened American administrators such as Najeeb Saleeby (1924) who advocated the use of the main language of the country as a language of instruction, a policy that Vice-Governor General Joseph Hayden likewise espoused. The serious discussions about the national language at least in print began in the 1920s and were eventually laid down as policy by the framers of the 1935 Constitution. The Norberto Romualdez Law was enacted in 1936, establishing the National Language Institute and its mission. The basis of the new national language of the Philippines was Tagalog. In 1939 it was officially proclaimed and ordered to be disseminated by the school system after it had a written grammar and a dictionary (actually a bilingual word list); it was renamed Wikang Pambansa (National Language) in 1940 and taught as a subject in the high schools of the country. The short-lived Japan sponsored government under Laurel (1943 to 1945) recognised Tagalog as the national language and urged its rapid dissemination in the system, although English continued to be the dominant language of government and official use as well as education during the entire Japanese period. Independence saw the mandatory teaching of Wikang Pambansa (National Language) at all levels of elementary and secondary schooling; earlier, in 1942 the national language had been recognised as an official language. The 1973 Constitution reopened the debate on the basis of the national language and mandated the formation once more of a language to be called Filipino, to be based on the other languages of the Philippines. By the time of the 1987 Constitution, given the temper and euphoria of the times, there was less opposition to the current status of the language. The Philippine National Language known as Filipino was now accepted without question as existing and as the language (actually a variety of Tagalog) of the urban areas of the Philippines especially Metro Manila. Spanish and its use among the elites disappeared after World War II in spite of legislation to mandate its teaching in high school (Republic of the Philippines, 1949) and later on in college (initially 24 units, subsequently 12 units; voluntary since 1987). English has continued to be in use as a medium of instruction modified by the bilingual education policies of 1974 and 1987

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but now given official sanction in the 1987 Constitution as an official language (together with Filipino). The use of Filipino and English is now governed by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports Policy No. 25 promulgated in 1974, and No. 52 promulgated in 1987. The teaching of Pilipino for six units at the collegiate level began in 1975; a later Department Order (No. 22 Series 1975) prescribed the content of the syllabus. In 1987, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) enacted through RA 7722 and (in effect creating a new Department of Higher Education in CHED Order No. 59, series of 1997) has prescribed nine units of Filipino, nine units of English (the two equalised for symbolic purposes) and six units of Literature (which may be taught in either Filipino or English). Serious attention to literacy questions was raised in the post-war period largely through the suggestions of visiting linguists in the 1950s, especially Clifford Prator (1950). This resulted in the Department of Education Vernacular Teaching Policy of 1957, whereby the major vernaculars languages were used as languages of initial teaching and literacy up to Grade 3, and with Tagalog and English taught as subjects and eventually with English used as the language of instruction from Grade 3 on. In 1974, when the Bilingual Education Policy was announced, vernaculars were relegated to being transitional languages which could be used for initial instruction and literacy; they were restored as ‘ auxiliary languages’ explicitly in the 1987 DECS policy. Language planning agencies (formal and informal) The formal language planning agency for Filipino and the other Philippine languages is the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino established in 1991 by Republic Act No. 7104. While a division of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino is tasked with the conservation of the other Philippine languages and the compilation of their literatures, little work is really being done at the official government level for the conservation of these languages. Their recording is done rather by anthropologists and literary scholars continuing to record oral literature in these language communities; materials production is being done by the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the Philippines. There are likewise societies of writers in the different vernaculars, although the only really active one outside of Manila, trying to promote the use of Ilokano in the region is Gunglo Dagiti Manunurat nga Ilokano (GUMIL) (Association of Writers in Ilokano). The other literary academies for Kapampangan, Hiligaynon and Cebuano are dormant. There is no formal language planning agency for the continuing use of English in Philippine life, but there is a Department Order maintaining its use as one of two languages serving as media of instruction and a constitutional provision that English shall continue to be an official language with Pilipino and Filipino in the educational system. Informally, while recognising the need for a national language as a symbol of unity and linguistic identity, based on surveys, the average Filipino (Gonzalez & Sibayan, 1988) does not feel the same need to show his nationalism through the language of instruction in schools. Until the mastery of Filipino becomes more necessary for livelihood than for symbolic purposes, based on previous Philippine experience, the widespread use of Filipino as a language of instruc-

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tion especially for science and technology at the higher level of schooling will be limited. On the other hand, because of its economic rewards including the possibility of employment abroad as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW)8, English will continue to be learned and to be valued as really the dominant language of schooling, the success of learning it being determined by the quality of the school and especially the quality of the teachers and their competence in the language. In the mass media, there has been no policy, formal or informal, except the policy unofficially enunciated by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas (KBP) (Society of Broadcasters in the Philippines) on the balanced use of Pilipino and English songs played on radio. Since the 1970s the proportion of programming on radio and TV has increased to about 90% Filipino and a few vernaculars on the radio and 65% Filipino on TV. In the realm of publications, the Filipino press (newspapers and magazines) and the publishing industry (mostly textbooks and a few trade books) still publish predominantly in English (Philippine Media Factbook, 2000), again not due to any enacted legislation but rather due to the demands of the market. Militating against the more rapid spread of Filipino in entertainment is the now widespread availability of video films and VCR disks that constitute informal instruments for the maintenance of English in the field of entertainment. Regional / international influences affecting language planning and policy in the Philippines The most significant influence affecting language policy and planning in the Philippines in so far as English is concerned is the official encouragement of Filipinos to take on employment abroad as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), formerly Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs), a process now administered by a government agency called the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). Indirectly, since OFWs are hired largely because of their familiarity with English and their technical skills, the influence is considerable for the maintenance of the English language and its continuing use in the specialised domains of seamanship, the health sciences, technology and management. Individual embassies in Manila sponsor their own language schools; depending on the availability of study grants overseas offered through these agencies, the number of enrollees grows. Until lately, there was a Japan Information Cultural Center (JICC) which had a Japanese language school and attracted quite a following. So too did the allied Philippine-Japanese Language School under the sponsorship of the Philippine-Japan Friendship Society. The school sites have moved from Makati to the university belt area (Gastambide Street) and now the Philippine-Japanese Center for Japanese Language Study and the Nippon Language School are under the same roof and continue to attract students. The Instituto Cervantes continues its programmes at its site on Leon Guinto Street in the Singalong area, while the Goethe Institute gives German language tuition at its address on Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City. The Alliance Française continues its language teaching in Makati. There are no officially sponsored institutes for Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese) although individual proprietory

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language institutes continue to teach Mandarin Chinese in short-term nondiploma programmes. Hence, while there is external language promotion, numbers are limited and the direct influence of these efforts is restricted. Since 1990, the European Commission, with a resident ambassador in Manila, has promoted a European Studies Programme among four universities in Greater Manila (the University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas, the Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University) which, through its area studies programme and its scholarship schemes, will undoubtedly encourage the learning of European languages among the Filipino students enrolled in these programmes in the four schools. Australia continues to attract many undergraduate and graduate students with its generous fellowships; indirectly this means that the continuing maintenance and enhancement of English is no longer solely because of the cultural influence of the United Kingdom and the Unites States (the number of fellowships from both countries has dwindled) but because of the influence of Australia, a new source of scholarships is now open. Historical development of maintenance policies The influence of English language studies is pervasive in the Philippines because of the period of American colonisation (1898 to 1946). English continues to dominate the Philippine educational system. On the other hand, Filipino, originally Tagalog, renamed Wikang Pambansa and subsequently Pilipino, has had only the educational system and the mass media to help its development since the language was initially only a vernacular with some literature dating back to the nineteenth century, and the language has been seriously cultivated for non-literary academic purposes only since the bilingual education policy of 1974. The influence of Spanish was all-pervasive after the coming of the Spaniards, initially in 1521, more systematically in 1565, and ending only in 1898. The dean of Philippine linguists, the late Cecilio Lopez, in an article on the influence of Spanish on the Philippine languages, calls it ‘an overlay’ (Lopez, 1965) since the content words (nouns and verbs) used in the language are mostly of Spanish origin. Earlier, through Malay, the Philippine languages were influenced by Sanskrit, especially for terms of religion and the spiritual life, and later by Arabic, for terms of law and religion. The American influence subsequently became equally pervasive, even more widespread and extensive than Spanish in the number of cultural importations and words in the Philippine languages. Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese) was being preserved by special Chinese schools under an agreement between the Philippine government and the Republic of China. The programmes were a form of bilingual education consisting of using English and Filipino for the same subjects taught in Mandarin Chinese in a repetitive scheme. This policy was allowed from 1950 to 1973; it was discontinued during the latter year. Chinese language and literature and culture are now taught as separate subjects. The other foreign languages in use and in demand in the Philippines are taught through embassy-sponsored institutions, by the Alliance Française (1920), the Goethe Institute (1961), the Instituto Cervantes, originally Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Espana (1994). The Japan Information and Cultural Center school

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for the Japanese language (now called Nihongo Center) (1967), and the Japanese Language and Culture Institute (1992) were established more recently. Fellowships and scholarships abroad have been offered to attract future scholars in language and area studies and have been in place since their founding years. The Philippine American Educational Foundation (1948) (and earlier the Fulbright Program beginning in 1946), the British Council (1980), the Australian Agency for International Development (Aus-AID) (1995) (formerly Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB) (1986), and the Japan Information Cultural Center (1991) are responsible for these study schemes. In the non-academic domain, there has been no radio station promoting languages other than Filipino and English except the Catholic Bishops’ sponsored Radio Veritas which broadcasts in many Asian languages to overseas audiences rather than to local residents.

Part IV: Language Maintenance and Prospects Intergenerational transmission of the major languages The vernaculars, major and minor, are the languages of the home and the family as well as the neighborhood in non-Tagalog regions. It is only when residents from areas in these regions go out to urban areas (the cities) and Metro Manila, that language attrition takes place (Bautista & Gonzalez, 1986). Once non-Tagalogs settle in Filipino-speaking areas, the original mother tongue is maintained by the first generation and, depending on the language of the yayas or the household help, in the second generation as well. However, if a member of one ethnic group marries a member of another ethnic group, then the language of the home is usually dictated by the wife, with the second generation being more dominant in the lingua franca of the area, having only a passive understanding of the earlier vernacular of the mother or father. In Metro Manila, especially among the poorer classes, neighborhoods build up where people from the same ethnic group live together for mutual help. Here the language has a better chance of continuing at least up to the second generation. By the time the grandchildren come along, however, in the third generation, the language spoken is the language of the community, in this case, Filipino, which the children come into contact with not only in school but in the mass media. Filipino also becomes the ordinary means of interethnic communication or the lingua franca. Bautista and Gonzalez (1986) summarise the data on intergenerational language changes in their book on surveys; Gonzalez and Romero (1983) have studied intergenerational differences and first-language influences on the pronunciation of Filipino among migrants into Filipino-speaking urban areas from rural areas where a vernacular is spoken. Even in households which maintain the original vernacular from the home province, because mother and father belong to the same ethnic group and because of household help still available from the home province, as well as the presence of vernacularspeaking relatives, the children grow up bilingual in the home language and the lingua franca in the urban or urbanising region. On the other hand, while there are many informal and non-school based ways of learning the local languages, for the most part, in the Philippines, English is learned only in school. The efficiency of learning is very much a function of

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the school’s quality in its many dimensions. Gonzalez (1989) has discussed and described the small percentage of elite families where English is used at home and where, as a consequence, a Philippine variety of English has been creolised. In these households, however, even in the most affluent and most cultivated, the presence of household help speaking Filipino and other languages and the use of Filipino in the mass media make monolingualism a remote possibility. The children then grow up bilingual in English (which is usually dominant) and in another Philippine language (usually Filipino, since the affluent for the most part live in urban areas where Filipino is the dominant language of the community). Spanish used to be transferred intergenerationally at least among elite Filipinos before and immediately after World War II. What seems to be happening, based on the author’s own generational peers, is that in the next generation, their children, have a passive competence in Spanish and now for the most part carry on only in English and in Filipino, speaking English with superiors and peers and speaking Filipino among friends and household help. A few radio and local TV programmes use the local vernacular in the area and thus constitute a means of maintenance. The vernacular press is not particularly strong except in Cebu where a daily in Cebuano and in English is printed. Other means of maintenance through the print media are the weeklies: Liwayway (Filipino), Hiligaynon (Ilongo Bisayan), Bisaya (Cebuano), and Bannawag (Ilokano), all published by the Liwayway Publishing Corporation, a sister company of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. Local vernaculars are used for on-the-air radio broadcasts by religious and humanitarian foundations in a form of distance education, usually disseminating information on modern agriculture and civics. Probabilities of language death and language revival efforts and emerging pidgins The major vernaculars are in stable condition, encountering no danger of language death or extinction at present. However, dialects within these languages, as a result of migration and the homogenisation that is taking place because of the mass media and the educational system, are evolving towards convergence. In some cases where the number of native speakers of a specific language has dwindled (for example, among many of the minor languages of the Mountain Province area in the Cordilleras of Northern Luzon), language death is occurring, at least in part because of the much reduced number of speakers. None of the major Philippine languages and hardly any of the minor languages are threatened with this possibility at present. There is really no significant mass-based or government effort to save any language since the policy of education and of the government has thus far been to encourage all languages and to have them in complementary distribution (Sibayan, 1978) on the lives of individuals and communities, with different languages taking on permanent roles. The local language is the language of the home and the neighborhood, Filipino is the national lingua franca for all domains of life except academics, international and national business, and international relation, the latter domains being assigned to English. A creole which emerged after 350 years of Spanish colonisation, Chabacano, is still spoken in Zamboanga City and in Ternate, Cavite. A Philippine variety

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of English spoken among yayas (child caregivers) and bar girls (Bautista, 1981, 1994) shows features of pidginisation, but it has not yet developed into a full pidgin, for the more usual type of codeswitching (instead of codemixing) used in the informal mass media presupposes competence in both English and Filipino. The bar-girl and yaya types of English show poorly learned language skills from school, although near universal literacy (about 94%) is achieved. Some elementary type of schooling exposes even bar girls and yayas to a variety of English. It is more of a basilectal type of English based on educational non-attainment of the standard, what Gonzalez (Bautista & Gonzalez, 1986) calls an ‘edulect’. Sibayan (personal communication) thought that the emerging type of intellectualised Filipino will be based on the codeswitching variety of Filipino and English (the latter for content in the academic registers). This remains to be seen. In the same way that Chabacano developed as a Philippine-Hispanic pidgin and later creole, so now there is a possibility that the codeswitching variety of Filipino and English will evolve in the future to codemixing and therefore a Philippine-English pidgin and subsequently a creole, an English version of Chabacano. It is not clear at present whether this development will actually take place because of the ready availability of formal instruction in the educational system and the informal mass media for the maintenance of English, at least for the domains of academic discourse in science and technology, international and national business, and diplomatic international relations. Clarifications about the language situation and probable directions of change The language situation in the Philippines has been both a positive factor and a negative factor in meeting the education and the communication needs of Filipinos. Positively, the multilingual character of the society renders three languages (spoken by most Filipinos not living in Tagalog-speaking areas) in complementary distribution: • the vernacular for the language of the home and the neighborhood; • English for the language of academic discourse especially for business, science and diplomacy and as a language of wider communication, and • Filipino as the national language, a symbol of unity and linguistic identity. Since the local language and the colloquial variety of Filipino (Tagalog) is learned in the neighborhood, learning it is not a problem. The problem for the school is the cultivation of Filipino as the language of academic discourse and the learning of the second language, English, which belongs to a totally different language family. Instruction in English has to begin with an assumption of zero knowledge, although loanwords from English have crept into the Philippine languages facilitating at least the acquisition of vocabulary. Positively, too, except for some minor vernacular languages on the verge of extinction (especially in the Mountain Provinces of Northern Luzon), the continuing use and conserva-

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tion of languages other than Filipino seem to be assured; these languages are in a steady state without danger of society’s losing them as precious resources. Negatively, the lack of resolve of the system really to cultivate Filipino as a language of scholarly discourse (beyond mere rhetoric) through a systematic and funded programme of training and cultivation (corpus planning) has made progress in Filipino slow. A conscious and enlightened effort is sustained by only a few nationalists usually in departments of Filipino in universities and by nationally minded humanists and social scientists in academic centers in Metro Manila. One does not find the same kind of interest and dedication in areas outside of Metro Manila. Negatively, too, the need to be literate in English side-by-side with being literate in Filipino, and the need for English (as a second language) for higher cognitive activities, make the task of English language learning and teaching more difficult. Competence in English is very much a functioin of socioeconomic status; it is possible for the culturally advantaged and affluent to be fully competent to carry on higher order cognitive activities in English even with poor instruction and methodology. However, the poorer classes, owing to poor teaching and regrettable study conditions do not enjoy the same advantage. If one is barely literate and has not attained even basic interpersonal communicative skills in English, education in English is problematic for mastery of content. Philippine academics and administrators, especially those who head the Department of Education (DepEd), and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), are fully aware of these problems. Limitations of manpower and fiscal resources, however, prevent them from undertaking serious amelioration of the problems and the implementation of effective corrective programmes. The private sector, on the other hand, has been outstanding in its efforts to improve the situation both for Filipino and for English. The needs of the future demand mass-based training among teachers to be able to carry on higher order cognitive activities in both English and Filipino; in other words, to create truly effective bilingual education programmes. In general, the current situation calls for a general improvement in the education of teachers both for liberal learning and for specialised learning especially in science and technology. Sheer numbers and the growth of population9 put a strain on the system in terms not only of physical facilities but above all of human resources (competent teachers and administrators). The use of media instruction, their phasing in, needs serious rethinking to make the students functionally literate in Filipino first, then slowly leading them to carry on higher order cognitive activities in Filipino while, at the same time, training them in oral skills in English and eventually reading skills for higher cognitive order activity in English. In addition, there has to be a complementation in content and skills to be imparted in either language (not both) and reduction of repetition in the syllabi of both languages to avoid needless duplication, in order to optimise learning. For Filipino to be fully cultivated, it cannot remain only the language of the social sciences; it must be expanded to serve the natural sciences as well. Perhaps, then, once English has been mastered, it can return to partial use, even in the social sciences and not only in mathematics and the natural sciences, so that there will be a better balance between Filipino and English to cultivate the ideal of a balanced bilingual. Those in the system have aimed for this objective without necessarily attaining this ideal.

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Correspondence The author passed away on January 29, 2006. Notes 1. Instituto Cervantes for Spanish, Alliance Française for French, Goethe Institute for German, Nippon Institute and Philippine-Japanese Language Institute for Japanese, and special language schools in the business districts of Metro Manila. 2. Magellan had arrived in 1521 but he was killed in a skirmish off Mactan next to Cebu Island. 3. There are more than 21 million students at all levels of the system, based on data for School Year 2003–2005. 4. In the Philippines methodology has moved from grammar translation and analysis up to the 1950s, to the audio-lingual method up to the 1970s, then to the communicative approach in the 1980s, and most recently to the communicative interactive approach in the 1990s (see Sibayan & Gonzalez, 1990). 5. In the Philippines at present, the proportions of pupils in public schools is: 93% public, 7% private at the elementary level, 78% public. 22% private at secondary level). At the tertiary level, the proportion is quite different from that of the elementary and high school level: 35% public versus 65% private; in actual numbers, about 13 million at the elementary level, more than six million at the secondary level, and above 2.5 million at the tertiary level (School Year 2003–2004). 6. Initially in 1937 called the National Language Institute, renamed Institute of National language in 1938, once more renamed Linangan ng mga Wika sa Pilipinas (Institute of Philippine Languages) in 1987. 7. The deliberations of the Malolos Assembly were for the most part in Spanish, except Aguinaldo’s speeches; he felt more comfortable in his Cavite Tagalog than in Spanish (Agoncillo, 1960). 8. The socioeconomic groups that apply for overseas work are mostly from the middle and lower classes. 9. The Philippines has a population of 86M in 2005 and is projected to have more than 100 million by the year 2020.

References Alberca, W.L. (1996) The Thomasites revisited: A few instructive notes on English language teaching in the Philippines during the early American period. In E.S. Castillo (ed.) Alay sa Wika Essays in Honor of Fe T. Otanes on her 67th Birthday (pp. 153–174). Manila: Linguistics Society of the Philippines. Bautista, L.S. (1981) Questioning-responding in Pilipino and English: Classroom interaction in Philippine literature classrooms. The De La Salle University Graduate Journal 12 (1), 1–34. Bautista, L.S. (1982) Yaya English. Philippine Studies, 30, 377–94. Bautista, L.S. (1994) Bargirl English. In A. Gonzalez, FSC (ed.) Philippine Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences Vol. II – Linguistics (pp. 384–5). Quezon City: Philippine Social Sciences. Bautista, L.S. and Gonzalez, A., FSC (1986) Language Surveys in the Philippines. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Bazaco, E. (1953) History of Education in the Philippines. Manila: University of Sto. Tomas Press. Bernabe, E.S.F. (1987) Language Policy Formulation, Programming, Implementation and Evaluation (1965–1974). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Bloom, B.S. (1956) Taxonomy of Education Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. New York: David McKay. Casambre, N. (1985) An evolving Philippine variety of English. Educational Quarterly 32 (3&4), 35–36. Census of Population and Housing (2000). Manila: National Census and Statistics Office.

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Census of Population and Housing (1990). Manila: National Census and Statistics Office. Collantes, R. (1977) Presente y futuro de la enseñanza del Español en Filipinos (Present and future of the teaching of Spanish in the Philippines). Cuaderno del Centro Cultural 4 (3), 26. Coronel, I.C. (1990) The cognitive outcome of elementary schooling in the Philippines: A secondary analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Manila, University of the Philippines. Cubar, N.I. (1976) The Philippine Linguistic Landscape: 16th–19th Centuries. Quezon City: University of the Philippines. Cummins, J. (1984) Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Dempwolff, O. (1934–1937, 1938) Vergleihende Lautlehre des Austronesischen Wortschatzes (Comparative phonology of the Austronesian vocabulary). Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur Eingeborenen-sprachen 15, 17, 19 (Berlin). Department of Education and Culture (1974) Department Order No. 25. Implementing guidelines for the policy on bilingual education. Manila: Department of Education and Culture, Republic of the Philippines. Department of Education, Culture and Sports (1987) Department Order No. 54. Implementing guidelines for the 1987 policy on bilingual education. Manila: Department of Education, Culture and Sports, Republic of the Philippines. Dyen, I. (1965) A Lexicostatistical Classification of the Austronesian Languages.Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Gallman, A.F. (1977) Proto-South East Mindanao and its internal relationships. Paper presented to the Austronesian Symposium at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 18–29 August. Go, F. (1979) The bilingual education experience of Philippine Chinese schools. A retrospective and evaluative view. Preliminary manuscript. Gomez de Rivera, G. (1997) Revive Spanish language courses. In ‘Opinion’, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 May, p. 10. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1972) Review of Teodoro Llamzon’s Standard Filipino English (1969). Philippine Journal of Language Teaching 7 (1&2), 93–108. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1976) The language question: Language policy and the national development in the Philippines. Contribution to Education. Department of Public Information, Republic of the Philippines. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1977) Pilipino in the year 2000. In B.P. Sibayan and A. Gonzalez, FSC (eds) Language Planning and the Building of a National Language: Essays in Honor of Santiago A. Fonacier on his 92nd Birthday (pp. 263–90). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1980a) Language and Nationalism. The Philippine Experience thus far. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1980b) Philippine language policy through the years: In retrospect. In Proceedings Specialists’ Conference-Workshop, First Series, Language Policy Conference Series. Center for Continuing Education, U.P. Los Baños, 12–13 January. Manila: College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1981a) Language policy and language-in-education policy in the Philippines. In R.B. Kaplan et al. (eds) Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 2 (pp. 48–59). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1981b) Pampangan: Towards a Meaning-Based Description. Canberra: The Australian National University. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1982) English in the Philippine mass media. In J. Pride (ed.) New Englishes (pp.211–26). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1984) Philippine English across generations. The sound system. De La Salle University Dialogue (20), 1–26. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1985) Communicative language teaching in the rural areas. How does one make the irrelevant relevant? In B.K. Das (ed.) Communicative Language Teaching

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(pp. 84–105) RELC Anthology Series No. 14) Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre/University of Singapore. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1989) The creolization of Philippine English: Evidence for English as a first language among Metro Manila children. In W. Villacorta, I. Cruz and L. Brillantes (eds) Manila: History, People and Culture (pp. 359–73). Manila: De La Salle University Press. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1991) The Philippine variety of English and the problem of standardization. In M. L. Tockoo (ed.) Language and Standards Issues, Attitudes, Case Studies (pp. 86–96) (Anthology Series 26). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1994) The missionary grammarians and their artes and vocabularies. In A. Gonzalez, FSC (ed.) Philippine Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. II – Linguistics (pp. 181–96). Quezon City: Philippine Social Science Council. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1996a) The role and contribution of the Thomasites and the Filipino pensionados. Paper presented at the Symposium on Independence and 50 years of Philippine-American Friendship, Ateneo de Manila University, 3 July. Gonzalez, A., FSC (1996b) Philippines: Mission and religious languages. In S. A. Wurm, P. Mühlhäusler and D. T. Tryon (eds) Atlas of Language and Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas (pp. 625–632) Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Gonzalez, A., FSC (2003) The role and contribution of the Thomasites to language education. In Corazon D. Villareal (ed.) Back to the Future: Perspective on the Thomasite Legacy to Philippine Education (pp. 53–62) Manila: American Studies Association of the Philippines, Cultural Affairs Office, US, Embassy, Manila. Gonzalez, A., FSC and Alberca, W. L. (1978) Philippine English of the Mass Media. Preliminary edition. Manila: Research Council of De La Salle University. Gonzalez, A., FSC and Fortunato, T. (1995) The teaching of writing in English and Filipino in the Philippines. In R. B. Kaplan (ed.) The Teaching of Writing in the Pacific Basin (pp. 85–102). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. (Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 6 (1&2). Gonzalez, A., FSC and Postrado, L. (1974) Assessing Manpower Teaching Materials for Bilingual Education: A Final Report. Manila: United Publishing Co. Gonzalez, A., FSC and Romero, C.S. (1993) The Manila lingua franca as the Tagalog of first and second generation immigrants into Metro Manila (A pilot study). Philippine Journal of Linguistics 24 (1), 17–38. Gonzalez, A., FSC and Sibayan, B.P. (eds) (1988) Evaluating Bilingual Education in the Philippines (1974–1985). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Gonzalez, A., FSC, et al. (2003) Three Studies on Philippine English Across Generations: Towards an Integration and Some Implications. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Hidalgo, C. (1977) Philippine Lexicography From 1521 to the Present. Quezon City: University of the Philippines. Ibe, M. and Coronel, I. (1995) Determinants of the outcomes of elementary schooling under the program for decentralized educational development. Tanglaw 3 (1), 1–22. Komisyon Sa Wikang Filipino (2005) Diksyunaryong Monolingwal sa Filipino batay sa. (A Frequency Count of Filipino by Dr. Curtis D. McFarland). Manila: De La Salle University Press. Kroeger, P.R. (1991) Phrase structure and grammatical relations in Tagalog. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, CA. Lingan, A.H. (1981) The threshold level in Pilipino as a second language: A Region II sample. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Philippine Normal College-De La Salle University-Ateneo de Manila University Consortium. Llamzon, T. (1969) Standard Filipino English. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Lopez, C. (1965) Spanish overlay in Tagalog. Lingua 14, 467–504. Ma, A.Y. (1992) Linguistic adaptation of Philippine Fookienese as manifested in a selected family across three generations: A pilot study. Unpublished masters thesis, Ateneo de Manila University. Majul, C.A. (1967) The Political and Constitutional Ideas of the Philippine Revolution (revised edn). Quezon City: University of the Philippines.

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Marasigan, E. (1981) Creolized English in the Philippines. Paper presented at the Sixteenth Regional Seminar of Regional Language Centre, 20–24 August, Singapore. McFarland, C.D. (1977) Northern Philippine Linguistic Geography Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (Monograph Series No. 9). Tokyo, Gaikokugo Daigaku: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia. McFarland, C.D. (1981) A Linguistic Atlas of the Philippines. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. McFarland, C.D. (1993) Subgrouping and Number of Philippine Languages. Manila: Prepared for the Secretary of Education, Culture and Sports, Republic of the Philippines, Pasig, Metro Manila. Mercado, L.N. (1975) Elements of Filipino Theology. Tacloban City: Divine Word University Press. Montañano, R.L. (1993) Higher order cognitive skills in Filipino: Towards measurable criteria for describing Cummins’ CALP. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 24 (2), 73–85. Montañano, R.L. (1996) The cognitive/academic language proficiency in Filipino in honor students in two selected secondary schools. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 27 (1&2), 73–82. Pascasio, E.M. (1977) Bilingual education research and its directions. In. E.M. Pascasio (ed.) The Filipino Bilingual (pp. 117–125) Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Perez, I.Q. (1993) A description of the English spoken by college students of Assumption College, San Lorenzo Village, Makati: A pilot study. Unpublished masters thesis, De La Salle University, Manila. Pei, C. (1996) A case study on the method of teaching Chinese language in two selected high schools in Metro Manila. Unpublished masters thesis, De La Salle University, Manila. Philippine Media Factbook (2000) Other Facts and Figures. Information Agency, Media Studies Division. Pike, K. (1963) A syntactic paradigm. Language 39, 216–230. Prator, C.H., Jr. (1950) Language Teaching in the Philippines. United States Educational Foundation. Republic of the Philippines (1949) Vicente Sotto Spanish Law. Circular #25 series 1949. Teaching of Spanish in the Secondary Schools. Riego de Dios, I.O., R.V.M. (1976) A composite dictionary of Philippine creole Spanish. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ateneo de Manila University. Saleeby, N.M. (1924) The Language Education of the Philippine Islands. Manila: Filipina Book Guild. Santos, T. (1984) Classroom language use in selected public elementary schools in Region III. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, De La Salle University, Manila. Schuchardt, H. (1887) Kreolische Studien IV: Uber die malaio-Hispaniche der Philippinen. Stizungsberich de Kaiserlich Akademischer Wissenschafter zu Wien (Philosophisch-Historiche Klasse) 105, 111–150. (Creole Studies IV: On the Malayo-Spanish of the Philippines. Schumacher, J.N. (1973) The Propaganda Movement: 1880 – 1895. The Creators of a Filipino Consciousness, the Makers of the Revolution: Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House. Sibayan, B.P. (1967) The implementation of language policy. In M. Ramos, J.V. Aguilar and B.P. Sibayan (eds) The Determination and Implementation of Language Policy (pp. 126–189). Quezon City: Alemar-Phoenic Publishing House. Sibayan, B.P. (1973) Language teaching in the Philippines: 1946–1973. In A. Gonzalez, FSC (ed.) Parangal kay Cecilio Lopez: Essays in Honor of Cecilio Lopez on his 75th Birthday (pp. 283–291). Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines. Sibayan, B.P. (1978) Bilingual education in the Philippines: Strategy and structure. In J. Alatis (ed.) Georgetown University Round Table on Language and Linguistics (pp. 302– 329). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. (International Dimensions of Bilingual Education). Sibayan, B.P. (1982) Teaching children in two or three languages. Paper read at the Seminar on Interlanguage Processes in Language Learning and Communication in Multilingual Societies, SEAMEO, Regional Language Centre, Singapore.

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Sibayan, B.P., Bautista, L.S. and Gonzalez, A., FSC (1993) Teaching and learning simplification strategies in a Philippine classroom – A pilot study. In M.L. Tickoo (ed.) Simplification: Theory and Application (pp. 155–192). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. (SEAMEO RELC Anthology Series 31). Social Weather Stations (1994) Survey findings on the use of English language. Philippine Journal of Linguistics 25 (1&2), 85–7. SOUTELE (1980) Report on the Survey of Outcomes of Elementary Education. Manila: Department of Education and Culture. Toukomaa, P. and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1977) The Intensive Teaching of the Mother Tongue to Migrant Children at Pre-school Age. Tampere: Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Tampere. (Research Report 26). Uri, G. (1992) Threshold level English and public school pupils: A semi-urban sampling. Unpublished masters thesis, De La Salle University, Manila. Wolfenden, E. (1973) Masbateño text. Unpublished data paper, Dallas, Texas. Wurm, S.A., Mühlhäusler, P. and Tryon, D.T. (eds) (1996) Atlas of Languages and Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Zobel, E. (1998) The position of Chamorro and Palauan in the Austronesian family tree: Evidence from verb morphology and morphosyntax. Unpublished paper, Frankfurt University. Zorc, R.D. (1977) The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgroupings and Reconstruction. Pacific Linguistics, C–44. Canberra: The Australian National University. Zorc, R.D. (1986) The genetic relationships of Philippine languages. In P. Geraghty, L.

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The Language Situation in Vanuatu Terry Crowley Department of General and Applied Linguistics, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand One of the smallest nations, Vanuatu is also linguistically the most diverse. In addition to its English-lexifier pidgin national language, English and French are official languages. While local languages are valued symbols of identity, little attempt has been made to promote functional literacy in local languages, while English and French have been promoted by education. Although Bislama is the national spoken language, little attention has been paid to developing its written form. It has been difficult to speak of ‘language planning’ regarding local languages, the approach having been one of maximum non-involvement, though some changes are now envisaged.

Introduction Vanuatu is a politically independent republic located in the south-western Pacific between Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, about 1700 km north-east of Brisbane in Australia (Figure 1). Formerly known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu gained its independence from joint Anglo-French colonial control in 1980. This political ‘condominium’ was not established until 1906, which possibly makes Vanuatu the last part of the pre-colonial world to have ever been colonised by a European power. Ni-Vanuatu1 (as the people of Vanuatu are known) and people from the neighbouring island groups of Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya (in the eastern part of Indonesia) and Torres Strait (between the Queensland mainland and Papua New Guinea) are normally described as Melanesians. This name derives from the physical appearance of the people who are darker in complexion than their Polynesian, Micronesian and South-east Asian neighbours. The population of Vanuatu is currently estimated to be about 195,000, which is fewer than what in many countries would be regarded as a regional city of very moderate size. This population is spread throughout a large number of islands of varying size in a Y-shaped archipelago that spreads over a north-south distance of approximately 850 km (Figure 2). Inter-island travel is often difficult, dependent on irregular (and often uncomfortable) shipping, or relatively expensive plane flights which only service a restricted range of locations. While travel between islands can be difficult, travel within islands can sometimes also be awkward. Only the largest and most populated islands of Espiritu Santo, Malakula, Efate and Tanna have road networks of any extent. These roads are for the most part fairly rough, and they are easily damaged (or even made impassible) by bad weather. Only on Efate is there a road that links all populated centres on the island, though it too can be impassible in bad weather. On all other islands, roads typically extend only to those places where construction is least disfavoured by topography or rainfall, and people on some islands frequently have to walk some distance to reach the nearest road. Telecommunications have improved considerably since independence 154 The Language Situation in Vanuatu

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Figure 1 Location of Vanuatu in the southwestern Pacific

(though it is only possible to say that because telecommunications were particularly basic before 1980). There is now a direct-dial telephone network (powered by solar cells in the outer islands where there is often no electricity supply) linking all islands (as well as linking Vanuatu to the outside world). However, telephone calls are quite expensive given most local people’s incomes, and it is not uncommon for community telephones to have to be disconnected due to non-payment of bills in the outer islands where people are limited in their income-generating capacities. While in some rural areas there is a fairly dense coverage of private telephone connections, many villages have no telephones at all. People in some villages are able to make do with the less satisfactory teleradio alternative, which can be patched into the telephone network. The sound quality with this system is much worse and there is no privacy, so anybody who is listening on the network can eavesdrop on a conversation. Of course, many villages have

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Figure 2 Islands of Vanuatu

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neither a telephone nor a teleradio, which means that long distance communication depends on a willingness – or ability – to travel (often on foot) to a village where there is some means of telecommunication. Under such circumstances, something as simple as making a phone call can sometimes take people two or three days of their time. There are only two urban centres of any size in Vanuatu, the capital Port Vila on the central island of Efate (with a population of approximately 35,000) and Luganville on the northern island of Espiritu Santo (with an approximate population of 10,000). The Melanesian population lives overwhelmingly in small rural villages following largely subsistence lifestyles, with only about 15% of Ni-Vanuatu living in either of the towns. The gross domestic product per capita is approximately $US1000 (Siegel, 1996a: 98), which reflects the relative lack of exploitable resources in the country, so there is a high dependence on external aid. The major export commodities produced in Vanuatu are copra, cocoa, beef, coffee and kava,2 while tourism (mostly from Australia and New Zealand) and a tax-exempt finance centre provide additional employment for educated local people, as well as opportunities for investment.

The Language Profile of Vanuatu National/official languages Vanuatu is linguistically the world’s most diverse nation in terms of the number of actively spoken indigenous languages per head of population, with at least 80 local languages spoken by an average of only about 2500 speakers each.3 This extreme linguistic – and accompanying cultural – diversity is acknowledged in the preamble to the constitution of Vanuatu, which states: We the people of Vanuatu Proud of our struggle for freedom Determined to safeguard the achievement of this struggle Cherishing our ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity Hereby proclaim the establishment of the united and free Republic of Vanuatu. The constitution declares that Bislama is the ‘national language’, while Bislama, English and French are all declared to be ‘official languages’. In addition, the ‘principal languages of education’ are declared to be English and French: The national language of the Republic is Bislama. The official languages are Bislama, English and French. The principal languages of education are English and French. (The Constitution of Vanuatu, Article 3:1.) In addition to the high status accorded to these three lingua francas, there is also a paragraph which protects the indigenous vernaculars, and which even provides for the possible elevation of any one of these languages to the status of ‘national language’ at some time in the future if the circumstances warrant.4 There is actually a slight difference in the wording of the English and French versions of the constitution with regard to the status of these languages. Article 3:1 in the French version reads as follows:

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La langue véhiculaire nationale de la République est le bichelamar. Les langues officielles sont l’anglais, le bichelamar, le français. Les langues principales de l’éducation sont l’anglais et le français. Langue véhiculaire nationale translates as ‘national lingua franca’, not as ‘national language’ as it appears in the English version of the constitution. On the basis of the French wording, it is arguable, therefore, that the original framers of the constitution had in mind the idea that Bislama would effectively function as the official spoken language at the national level, while English and French would function as the official written languages. Charpentier (1999) comments that he was one of those originally involved in the framing of this aspect of the constitution, claiming that it was decided at the time that in the case of any dispute between the English and French versions of the constitution, the French version would prevail. However, this provision was not written into the constitution itself and no minute noting such a provision can now be located, so this argument presumably no longer has any legal standing. The practice since independence has certainly been to base constitutional arguments on the basis of the English document, since the vast majority of trained lawyers in the country are English-educated. In fact, the ombudsman’s report to parliament on the observance of multilingualism in 1996 even makes the specific recommendation that ‘the Attorney-General undertake to have the French version of the Constitution revised so that it faithfully reflects the English version’ (Office of the Ombudsman, 1996), which implies that the English version is now seen as prevailing over the French version. The constitution also includes certain safeguards to ensure the preservation of multilingualism in the country by clearly stating that citizens have a right to obtain the services of the government in whichever of these three languages they use (Article 62:1). Citizens are guaranteed by Article 62:2 that any complaints about breaches of the preceding article can be heard by the ombudsman. The ombudsman, furthermore, is required to submit an annual report to parliament concerning the observance of multilingualism in the country, and any steps needed to ensure its continuance (Article 62:3). Although the constitution provides strong safeguards for the status of Bislama, English and French, there is some provision for change in this area. I have already referred to the possibility that one of the local languages could be promoted as a (presumably co-equal) national language alongside Bislama under Article 3:2. Since independence there have been no suggestions at all that any of the local languages should be considered as a national language, a fact which is hardly surprising given that the largest local language in the country reaches less than 6% of the total population. There was some brief debate in the immediate run-up to independence concerning the possibility of adopting Nakanamanga (of northern Efate and parts of the Shepherd Islands) as a national language, though the limited geographical spread of this language ensured that such a suggestion could not be too seriously considered. There is yet another article in the constitution which allows for the status of any one (or two, or all three) of these three official languages to be altered: A bill for an amendment of a provision of the Constitution regarding the status of Bislama, English and French . . . passed by Parliament under Arti-

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cle 83 shall not come into effect unless it has been supported in a national referendum. (Article 84) To date there has not been any serious proposal made by Ni-Vanuatu for any such changes to be considered, though one occasionally hears casual suggestions that maintaining French alongside English as an official language is wasteful for such a small country, and that the country would be better off with just English as a single metropolitan language. Equally, however, one hears words of support for the maintenance of French as an official language alongside English because of the unique perspective in the Pacific that this gives Vanuatu, linking it more closely to developments in francophone polities such as neighbouring New Caledonia, as well as to more distant Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia. By this set of constitutional provisions, Vanuatu has established itself as a nation that is unique in the Pacific in a number of significant respects. It is firstly the only country in the region that gives both English and French equal constitutional status. In all other newly independent or self-governing polities in the Pacific, only one of these two languages is given such recognition. Vanuatu, therefore, represents the only point at which the anglophone and francophone worlds intersect in the Pacific. Secondly, if we assume that a ‘national’ language is higher in standing than an ‘official’ language, then Vanuatu is the only Pacific Island nation where a non-metropolitan language (in this case, Bislama) is given higher constitutional status than a former colonial language. While in some polities there are constitutional guarantees for the equal status of a local language with the former colonial language, there is usually some additional constitutional rider which states – as in the case of the Kiribati5 constitution – that ‘in the event of any inconsistency between the two texts [of the constitution], this English text shall prevail’. The intention that is implicit in such provisions is presumably that English ultimately should be viewed as having higher constitutional status than the local language. Finally, Vanuatu is the only country in the Pacific – indeed in the world – in which a European-lexifier pidgin language has been declared to be a national language. Bislama, along with Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea and Pijin in Solomon Islands, constitute mutually intelligible varieties of a single language which we can refer to generically as Melanesian Pidgin. However, in these two other countries there is no constitutional statement about what is the national language. The fact that both constitutions were promulgated at independence exclusively in English can be taken as implying that this was to be regarded as the de facto national language in the two cases. As the national language, Bislama functions as more than just the major lingua franca within Vanuatu, as it also carries some of the emblematic functions that we typically associate with a national language. Vanuatu’s coinage is inscribed in Bislama only (Ripablik blong Vanuatu ‘Republic of Vanuatu’), while the motto on the national coat of arms is given in Bislama (Long God yumi stanap ‘In God we stand’). Finally, the words of the national anthem are sung exclusively in Bislama: Yumi, yumi, yumi i glad blong talem se Yumi, yumi, yumi i man blong Vanuatu.6

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By way of contrast, the coinage in both Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is inscribed only in English, and the national anthems of both countries are also sung only in English. Bislama is a relatively new language, having evolved initially as a result of multilingual contact in camps of recruited labourers in the islands of southern Vanuatu around the mid-1800s when sea slugs and sandalwood were processed for sale to China by a work force recruited from a variety of different speech communities (Crowley, 1990a: 71–100). In this situation where Ni-Vanuatu labourers had limited access to the English of their European overseers, an English-lexifier pidgin rapidly emerged and became the lingua franca of these labour camps. The sea slugs were often called by their French name biche de mer, and the pidgin that grew up in the context of the trade in this commodity came to be referred to as biche de mer English. This was rapidly abbreviated to simply bichelamar as a language name (which became Beach-la-Mar to English-speakers), eventually yielding modern Bislama. In the second half of the 19th century, tens of thousands of Ni-Vanuatu were recruited – and some were forced – to work on plantations further afield, mostly in Queensland, with some also going to Fiji. The 19th-century antecedent of modern Bislama rapidly became the lingua franca of these overseas plantations. Many people signed up for contracts of three years’ duration and then returned home having acquired a knowledge of this language. Many of those who stayed for more than the minimum three years were repatriated with the end of the practice of recruiting Melanesians as plantation labourers just after Australia’s federation in 1901, which was just before the establishment of the Anglo-French condominium in Vanuatu in 1906. After this time, people began for the first time to move in significant numbers to a variety of locations as plantation labourers within Vanuatu. People from the Banks Islands were recruited to work on plantations in the areas of southeastern Espiritu Santo, Aore and Malo, while people from Espiritu Santo, Ambae, Maewo, Pentecost, Malakula, Ambrym, Paama and the Shepherd Islands were recruited to work on the plantations of northern Efate (Crowley, 1990a: 100–107). This large-scale recruitment of labour resulted in the continuation of the spread of Bislama as a plantation lingua franca to many parts of the country where it had previously been unknown or little known. During the early 1940s, in parts of Vanuatu – particularly the island of Efate and the south-eastern part of Espiritu Santo – huge American military bases were established from which Japanese positions in the Solomon Islands were attacked. There was never any Japanese occupation of any islands in Vanuatu, nor was there any significant bombing in rural areas, though the American military occupation did have the effect of further spreading Bislama as a lingua franca, as large numbers of young men were recruited from many different parts of Vanuatu to work as manual labourers in the construction of roads and airfields (Lindstrom and Gwero, 1998).7 Bislama is now used practically throughout the country as a lingua franca. There are parts of Vanuatu where young children do not speak the language, notably on islands such as Erromango or Aneityum where just a single vernacular is spoken and there are few outsiders, and where relatively few children have the opportunity to travel to town. Even on such islands, however, children inevi-

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tably learn Bislama as they get older, with few people over the age of ten being unable to speak it. It is not uncommon for older (and even middle-aged) women in rural areas to have a somewhat restricted active command of the language, though they usually have at least a reasonable passive command. At the present, the only parts of the country where there are significant numbers of adults with little (or no) familiarity with Bislama are parts of the interior of Espiritu Santo and Malakula, but even in such isolated communities it is almost certain that some individuals will have a reasonable proficiency in the language. Minority languages In the Vanuatu context, it makes little sense to make any distinction between ‘major’ and ‘lesser’ minority languages, as is often made in countries such as the Philippines (Gonzalez, 1998: 487) or Mozambique (Lopes, 1998: 441–9). There is a very real sense in which all of the 80 actively spoken indigenous languages should be regarded as a ‘minority’ language in that no single language is spoken by more than 6% of the total population of the country. The average-sized language accounts for no more than 1.25% of the total population. Of course, some languages have more speakers than others, though only three languages have more than 9000 speakers. As many as 37 of these languages have fewer than 1000 speakers each, so clearly the largest number of languages fall into this category of very small language communities. A breakdown of the number of languages for each population range is set out in Table 1. Figure 3 shows the location of those languages that have over 5000 speakers. All of these indigenous languages of Vanuatu are ultimately related to each other as members of the approximately 500-strong Oceanic subgroup of languages, which extends from Easter Island in the east, New Zealand in the south, Hawaii in the north, and parts of Irian Jaya in the west. These languages in turn belong to the considerably larger Austronesian language family, which extends further westwards into Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. This language family also includes the indigenous languages of Taiwan as well as the Malagasy language of Madagascar. Within Vanuatu, the languages of the islands of Aneityum, Tanna and Table 1 Vernaculars according to population size 0–999

37 languages

1,000–1,999

16 languages

2,000–2,999

6 languages

3,000–3,999

5 languages

4,000–4,999

4 languages

5,000–5,999

3 languages

6,000–6,999

3 languages

7,000–7,999

2 languages

8,000–8,999

1 language

9,000–10,000

2 languages

10,000+

1 language

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Figure 3 Largest vernaculars of Vanuatu

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Erromango in the southern province of Tafea are rather distinct from the languages of the rest of the country, and specialists have suggested that these southern languages are likely to be more closely related linguistically to those of neighbouring New Caledonia (Lynch, 1998: 48). There are also three languages in Vanuatu that are of Polynesian origin, namely those of Ifira and Mele on, or immediately offshore from, the island of Efate, Emae in the Shepherd Islands, and Aniwa and Futuna in the south. These languages reflect relatively recent ‘back migrations’ from Polynesia in the east.8 The remainder of the languages of Vanuatu are also recognisably interrelated within a single linguistic subgroup, though they are nevertheless quite distinct languages in the sense that they are all mutually unintelligible. It should be pointed out that the number of 80 languages cited above should at this stage be regarded as tentative only. Other figures have been quoted in published sources, with perhaps the most widely quoted figure being 105 languages (Tryon, 1976, 1979, 1981). However, numbers have ranged between 52 in Capell (1954: 95–110) to 109 in Grimes (1996: 918–28), 110 in Tryon (1972: 45), and 113 in Tryon (1996a: 171). While such discrepancies may be puzzling to non-specialists, several explanations can be offered for this. Some of the higher numbers include moribund languages with just a handful of speakers, whereas the figure that I have cited excludes those languages that are no longer actively spoken, even though there may be a handful of elderly people who still maintain an ability to speak such dying languages if they are called upon. We could therefore add to the total of 80 at least an additional dozen or so languages that are almost extinct, as they can each still claim a small number of residual speakers (and this number may turn out to be higher as additional information comes to hand). However, there are other explanations as well for these discrepancies. The lower earlier figure cited by Capell was based on incomplete linguistic information, which was all that was available at the time. Capell’s (1954: 102) reference to a single language on Ambrym, for example, must now be increased on the basis of current evidence to at least five distinct languages. Charpentier’s (1982) documentation of southern Malakula is far more detailed than that of Tryon (1976), and for the same area Charpentier recorded six languages not noted at all by Tryon. However, there are still parts of Vanuatu where the precise linguistic situation has not yet been fully documented, so this figure of 80 should be reconsidered when more detailed information comes to hand. In particular, the linguistic situation in many parts Espiritu Santo has been only scantily documented, and further surprises may await us there as more research is carried out, with possibly more languages needing to be recognised. Of course, we also face the inevitable problem of what constitutes the difference between ‘dialects’ of a single language and separate ‘languages’. Since people from the villages of northern Efate and southern Efate cannot understand each other, we would be justified in recognising two distinct languages here. However, people from villages on the eastern coast of the island between these two areas appear to be understood by people both in the southern and northern parts of the island. This eastern area could therefore equally be taken to represent an extension either of the northern language or of the southern language. Alter-

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natively, perhaps, it could be called a separate language in its own right (Clark, 1985). Such situations are referred to by linguists as ‘dialect chains’, and they result in sometimes arbitrary decisions being made as to how many languages are involved. The situation on Tanna today is of the same nature (Lynch, 1978: 719–20) and the scanty evidence that we have from some parts of Espiritu Santo suggests that such phenomena may well be widespread there as well. Early (1994: 31–2) indicates that there is a similar situation on parts of Epi, and it is possible that this kind of phenomenon was more widespread there before massive depopulation and demographic realignment affected the distribution of languages on the island in the 19th century, resulting in the extinction of some intermediate varieties. While I have indicated that there are at least 80 actively spoken vernacular languages in Vanuatu, just about all of these languages exhibit some degree of dialect diversity. Some languages are in fact extremely diverse, and even small geographical distances can involve some significant degree of linguistic divergence. The island of Paama, for example, is less than 10 km from north to south, yet there is an immediately recognisable north-south divide between dialects, and more detailed study shows that there are even regional differences within these two areas. We have nowhere near enough information even to guess how many recognisably distinct dialects of all of these 80 languages there might be, but the number would certainly run into the hundreds in total. Of all of the published censuses to date, only in the census of 1989 has there been a question relating to proficiency in local languages. The question was worded in such a way as to elicit information only about how many people spoke ‘a local language’, without attempting to seek to record which local languages were spoken by people in which locations (Crowley, 1994). The population figures for each language that are presented in this monograph have been derived instead by estimating where language boundaries are thought to lie and then totalling the published populations of villages within these areas (and then extrapolating to the present on the basis of the average annual population increase among Ni-Vanuatu). It should be recognised, however, that there are several potential problems with these figures: (1) It is usually almost impossible from the published census results to establish the number of people resident in an area who come from other language groups. The numbers of such people are usually small, but there are some rural areas where it is known that there are significant numbers of plantation labourers who often come from other islands, e.g. rural Efate, parts of coastal Malakula, and south-eastern Espiritu Santo, including Aore and Malo. (2) It is also usually almost impossible to establish how many speakers of a particular language are resident either in one of the two towns, or in some other language area as short-term visitors, or as temporary, or even permanent,residents. There are probably no language communities in the entire country where all speakers live within their traditional home territories. However, some communities have larger proportions of their populations resident away from ‘home’ than others. People from overpopulated small

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islands such as Paama and Tongoa, for example, are encountered in relatively large numbers in town and on rural plantations throughout the country. (3) We very often do not know for sure which villages lie within which particular language area, especially in border areas. (4) As with any census, not all population centres were covered equally well. People from some areas – typically those from fairly conservative isolated rural locations – have traditionally been opposed to being included in the census, as they are suspicious of the intentions of the national government in recording the kinds of information that are sought. The number of speakers of languages spoken in such rural areas may therefore be underestimated. Another census was conducted in 1999,9 though it will be some time before the results are analysed and published. Language questions were dealt with slightly differently in this later census, with heads of households being asked what was the predominant language used within the household. Individuals within each household were then asked separately whether they could speak ‘a local language’, Bislama, English, French, or ‘any other language’, and there was a separate question asking if people could read and write in ‘a local language’, Bislama, English, French, or ‘any other language’. Census enumerators in both the 1989 and 1999 censuses were not asked to record local language names, merely to tick ‘a local language’ as a generic category. There are actually several very good reasons why they should not have attempted to record more detailed information without at least some special training in the elicitation of such information. While it may seem obvious that all that is needed is for the census to include a question which asks each person in the country for the straightforward information ‘What is your language?’ and ‘What local languages can you read and write?’, it is not difficult to envisage all sorts of problems with the answers that such questions would produce. To begin with, many languages in Vanuatu simply do not have names. There is only a single language spoken on Paama, and the language has no name in the local language. When speaking their language, the people of Paama will generally refer to it as selusien tenout Voum ‘the language of Paama’, or simply by the word lanus ‘vernacular’ (ultimately from English language). Any response to a question asking what language is spoken by somebody from Paama will necessarily represent an ad hoc solution, and most people would end up saying something like ‘I speak the vernacular’. A census enumerator on nearby Southeast Ambrym would face exactly the same problem, as there is no separate language name there either. In linguistic terms, people from Paama and Southeast Ambrym speak quite distinct languages, as people who have not learned each other’s languages cannot understand each other. However, a linguistically naive census enumerator would have no way of knowing whether the separate responses ‘I speak language’ from Paama and Southeast Ambrym mean that people speak the same ‘language’ or different ‘languages’. On a multilingual island such as Malakula, a linguistically naive census enumerator asking people from the north-eastern part of Malakula, including the islands of Atchin, Wala, Rano and Uripiv, might receive a variety of answers

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at differing levels of specificity or generality. Some people might answer that they speak the ‘language of Atchin’ or the ‘language of Wala’, while others might say that they speak the ‘language of north-east Malakula’. Finally, if the enumerator happens to be recognised as a non-Malakulan, the respondent might answer simply that he or she speaks a, or the, ‘language of Malakula’. All of these answers would be quite correct, though entering numbers of speakers on a census return form for ‘Atchin’, ‘Wala’, ‘Rano’, ‘Uripiv’, ‘Northeast Malakula’ and ‘Malakula’ as separate ‘languages’ would suggest that there are six distinct languages here. However, there is in fact just a single language involved, and all of these different answers simply refer to locations where that language is spoken at different levels of generality. Another problem relates back to the issue of the boundary between language and dialect. While the distinction can be difficult enough in purely linguistic terms, folk perceptions on this question can vary quite considerably in Vanuatu. There is a widespread tendency in Melanesia for people to exaggerate minor differences in speech in such small-scale communities. In linguistically highly fractured southern Malakula, for instance, the separately named varieties of Ayiauleian, Mbotkot, Natanggan and Nioleien are, to a linguist, mutually intelligible dialects of a single language (Charpentier, 1982: 44), though there is no local name for the language as a whole. It is likely, therefore, that a linguistically naive census enumerator would end up counting many more languages than a linguist would recognise in the same area. At the same time, other individuals may underestimate linguistic differences. While most people from Paama and Southeast Ambrym would immediately recognise that there are two quite distinct languages involved, I have sometimes heard people say that the two languages are ‘the same’. Such a claim can only be interpreted as implicitly comparing the language of Southeast Ambrym with both Paamese and the other languages of Ambrym that people may be familiar with to some extent. It does not take even a linguistically fairly naive person very long to realise that although Paamese and Southeast Ambrym are different languages, there are many more similarities between Paamese and Southeast Ambrym than there are between Southeast Ambrym and the languages spoken on other parts of Ambrym. A speaker of Paamese hearing Southeast Ambrymese when it is spoken can frequently recognise words, and occasionally even complete phrases, even if the overall meaning is obscure. However, a speaker of Paamese hearing normal speech from any other part of Ambrym is almost guaranteed to recognise nothing. The expressed opinion that Paamese and Southeast Ambrymese are ‘the same’ should therefore be interpreted in linguistic terms as meaning that ‘as two separate languages go, Paamese and Southeast Ambrym are not as different from each other as some other languages are’. Again, however, a linguistically naive census enumerator should not be expected to be able to read such subtleties in this kind of answer. For some parts of Vanuatu, the only sources of linguistic information that we have about the distribution of local languages are very short wordlists, gathered in most cases by people who had little (or no) special familiarity with the languages of that area. In such cases, it is perhaps inevitable that forms will be either phonemically over- or underdifferentiated, as well as sometimes being incorrectly transcribed or given an incorrect translation, or even being mixed

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with unrecognised illicit loans either from other local languages, or even from Bislama. Such lists have been taken by Tryon (1976) as the basis for a lexicostatistical comparison in order to arrive at an estimate of the number of languages in an area, with the lexicostatistical figures inevitably being distorted – almost invariably downwards – as a result. Lexicostatistics is, in any case, nothing but a very crude method of determining the number of languages in a given area. The results of any application of this method should always be regarded at best only as suggestive, to be tested later against more detailed information involving observations on the ground of local language choice along with local statements about mutual intelligibility, as well as information about degrees of structural and phonological divergence between linguistic varieties. For some parts of Vanuatu – most notably parts of the Torres and Banks Islands, Espiritu Santo and Malakula – we are completely reliant on very short wordlists for any conclusions about how many languages may be spoken in those areas. While Tryon’s (1976) massive lexicostatistical survey of the languages of Vanuatu produced some valuable hypotheses about the numbers of languages in some areas, these have probably sometimes unjustifiably come to be regarded as accepted fact by less well-informed outsiders. Semantic errors – or failure to recognise that different forms in two wordlists represent legitimate variants in both varieties – resulted in published cognate figures that can repeatedly be shown on the basis of more accurate later information to be as much as 20% too low. Such discrepancies have clearly led to errors in the drawing of a number of language boundaries. A reinterpretation of Tryon’s data suggests that he may have recognised mutually intelligible varieties as distinct languages in a significant number of cases, thereby providing an unjustifiably high number of languages in the country. Partly for this reason, then, the widely quoted figure of 105 languages for Vanuatu has been tentatively revised downwards to the figure of 80, which is felt to be more plausible given the nature of the data that we are forced to operate with at the present. Religious languages Vanuatu is today an overwhelmingly Christian country, as indicated by the national motto Long God yumi stanap ‘In God we stand’. This situation results from extensive mission activity dating from around the mid-1800s, with the new faith being well established in most parts of the archipelago by the first decades of the 20th century. However, there still remain pockets of animist or ‘cargo cult’ resistance in parts of Tanna, Malakula and Espiritu Santo. Prior to the widespread acceptance of Christianity, the Melanesian people practised a range of animist beliefs, but their traditional worldview involved the ready acceptance of many outside practices and items of technology. The Christianity that has evolved in Vanuatu involves something of a syncretism between a belief in traditional spirits and the newly introduced Christian faith.10 While Christian missionaries often attempted to suppress traditional practices, some Christian ceremonies came to be tied in with traditional celebrations, such as that for the harvest of the new season’s yams, which is associated with Easter.11 Traditional song-styles in Melanesia, in which essential aspects of the traditional religion are often expressed, were often only partly understandable.

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Lindstrom (1990: 121–2) points out that on Tanna, formulaic songs and spells typically include nonsense words, which are often interpreted as being the speech of the ancestors. Such ‘opaque nonsense’, he indicates, allows individuals to be seen as revealing knowledge, while at the same time maintaining its secrecy, and thereby also its value as a commodity. Given that such phenomena are widespread in Melanesia (Lindstrom, 1990: 151), one might suppose that early Christian Ni-Vanuatu would have expected that the variety of their languages that were used for the new religion should be different in significant ways from the ordinary spoken languages. This has led in some cases to an apparent willingness among speakers of Vanuatu languages to accept structurally odd translations into their languages by European missionaries as models to emulate in producing new written religious texts. Religion, literacy and education for much of Vanuatu’s pre-colonial and colonial history were very closely intertwined. All of the writing systems that are used for most of the local languages in the country have been developed by Christian missionaries of a variety of denominations over the past century and a half, with most orthographies being produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, based on the Roman alphabet, often with some adaptation involving the use of diacritics.12 Literacy was originally taught in church-run schools, whose primary purpose for a long time was simply to propagate the Christian message (Lynch, 1979: 9–15). Just over half of the languages of the country have had at least some printed materials produced in them at some stage by church organisations, and some of the major proponents of vernacular literacy in the modern context are also primarily religious organisations, such as the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Some local languages were adopted for use as religious languages also outside their traditional territories, which gave them added status as religious languages. Those languages that are known to have been adopted in this way as mission lingua francas in Vanuatu include the following: (1) Aulua: The Aulua language of Malakula was propagated by the Presbyterian Church in the 19th century as a mission lingua franca among speakers of the Banam Bay, Port Sandwich, Maskelynes, Avok, Nisvai, Nasvang and Axamb languages of the south-eastern part of the island. (2) West Ambrym: The language of West Ambrym was apparently also used as a lingua franca among speakers of the South Ambrym and North Ambrym languages (but not, apparently, with speakers of Southeast Ambrym, where there is a possibility that Paamese may have been used in this way to some extent). However, this did not prevent missionaries from also producing small amounts of materials translated specifically for speakers of the languages of South Ambrym, North Ambrym and Southeast Ambrym. (3) Mota: The language of the small island of Mota in the Banks Islands has a particularly interesting history as a mission language. Tryon (1996b: 619–20) reports that Bishop Patteson was responsible for the use of Mota for teaching purposes for over half a century between the 1860s and 1931 at the training school for the Anglican Mission that was established on Norfolk Island.13 It was eventually decided that training should be conducted in English, but during the period that Mota held sway, a regular newspaper

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entitled O Sala Ususur ‘The way of the story’ was produced in the language. Graduates of this institution were posted to a number of islands throughout the Torres and Banks islands of northern Vanuatu, as well as Ambae, Maewo and Pentecost where the Anglican Church was (and still is) influential.14 Since Mota was abandoned as a language of instruction at the mission training school in 1931 in favour of English, the use of Mota outside its home island has declined considerably in the intervening years, though the Mota word mama ‘father’ is still widely used in the areas where Mota was formerly used as a church language as a term of address for an Anglican priest. (4) Efate-Shepherds: The only other area of Vanuatu where a mission language was used outside its traditional area is in the central islands of Efate and the Shepherd group. The situation that developed there was unique, and is particularly worthy of mention. Clark (1985: 4) refers to three separate attempts to create a written standard uniting the separate languages of the area, each of which exhibits a certain amount of dialect variation: (a) In 1889, a translation of the New Testament was produced in what was intended to represent an artificially created compromise between the quite distinct South Efate and Nakanamanga languages. (b) A second attempt in 1908 involved a translation of the Old Testament that was produced with some books written in the local variety spoken in Havannah Harbour, some in the variety spoken on Nguna, and some in the speech of Erakor on the southern part of Efate. This translation failed to be accepted because the South Efate sections were simply not sufficiently intelligible to readers from further north. (c) Finally, an artificial written standard combining features from the Nguna and Tongoa varieties of Nakanamanga was created. This translation was more successful, being used throughout the Nakanamanga-speaking area, as well as by speakers of the separate Emae and Namakir languages. Clark (1985: 4) reports that this written variety is still widely used, though it should be pointed out that there is also small body of translated material in the quite separate Namakir language. On the subject of religious languages, some additional comment is warranted in this section on the form of religious translations into Vanuatu’s vernaculars and the extent to which these translations have had an impact on secular literacy practices. Christian missionaries came to Vanuatu with a range of linguistic aptitudes. Some learned the local vernaculars extremely well and produced quite workable translations of the New Testament (or greater or lesser amounts of the Bible). The languages of Vanuatu vary somewhat in their phonological and morphological complexity, with the languages of the southern islands exhibiting the greatest degree of phonological and morphological complexity. Translated materials in the Erromangan language, in particular, systematically incorporate a wide range of clearly ungrammatical constructions in printed texts that have been in regular use on the island for generations. This, combined with an awkward and inconsistent spelling system, as well as a considerable amount of apparently archaic vocabulary, serves to render much

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of the printed literature in the language almost unreadable for many younger speakers. There would be little point in presenting a simple catalogue of grammatical errors in the linguistic work of 19th-century European missionary translators if there had been no enduring effects from the work that they did. A catechism and hymnal in Erromangan were produced in 1867 and these hymns continue to be sung on a regular basis today. The original hymns and catechism, as well as the Lord’s Prayer, have been reprinted (almost without change) many times over the years. The latest reprinting was in 1992, and in this version of the hymn book, a large number of newly produced hymns was added to the original collection in a volume entitled Narufo tompor Erromango ‘Hymns of Erromango’. These were all written by native speakers of Erromangan under the supervision of an exclusively Erromangan publishing committee. Many of the newly composed hymns that are included in the 1992 reprint of the hymnal contain structural features that do not appear in the normal spoken language at all, or which appear only very rarely. For the most part, these divergent features correspond to some of the more unusual features of the oldest hymns and other religious materials that were originally produced by the 19th-century missionaries. Effectively, then, the linguistic features found in translated materials, which originate from the work of the first missionaries, appear to have been adopted as models for a new variety of written ecclesiastical Erromangan. This variety differs in significant ways from the ordinary spoken language, and is only ever used in the production of written ecclesiastical texts such as hymns. Some of these features include verbal prefixes which are illicitly remodelled in the direction of the corresponding independent pronouns, e.g. ko(k)le‘we (plural inclusive future tense)’ is often written incorrectly as koskle-, because of partial similarity with the free form pronoun kos ‘we (plural inclusive)’. The quite distinct categories of inalienable and alienable possession in the spoken language are incorrectly collapsed together in this written ecclesiastical variety, with the suffix expressing a third person singular inalienable possessor being re-analysed as part of the root, and this new noun is then marked with a postposed possessive pronoun that normally expresses only an alienable possessor. Thus, in contrast to spoken ni-m ‘your name’ we often find in nineteenth-century hymns written by European missionaries – as well as hymns recently composed by Erromangans – the once incorrect construction ni-n sorom to express the same meaning, despite the fact that it is literally nonsensical, meaning ‘your his/her name’. Effectively, then, the early missionaries on Erromango established a written variety of the language as an ecclesiastical literary norm. In doing this, these missionaries were doing nothing unique in Vanuatu, though the extent of their ungrammatical adventurism was certainly more noticeable in Erromangan because of the particular complexity of the language that they were attempting to translate into. Early biblical translations into some of the other languages of Vanuatu also contain some structurally and stylistically odd features. In the case of Paamese, biblical materials in the local language are also no longer nearly as publicly accessible, as there have been no reprints for many decades. Such materials have therefore not had the same effect on Paama as on Erromango in terms of providing a model for a modern written ecclesiasti-

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cal form of the language. However, when Paamese people do have a chance to refer to these old materials, any deviations from normal conversational patterns that result in difficulty of understanding are generally attributed to the failure of the reader to understand the esteemed ‘old language’, rather than being explained as earlier missionary errors of translation. Early (personal communication) reports that native speakers of languages on Epi with whom he has worked on Bible translation projects will often accept – and sometimes even produce themselves – translations that are completely ungrammatical, unnatural, or even unintelligible, as long as they feel that they somehow accurately reflect the source text that they are translating from. Even if translators have no previous model of materials badly translated by earlier missionaries, it seems that they are prepared to produce written religious materials that violate their own native-speaker intuitions about the language, in keeping with a widespread assumption that religious language must be somehow ‘special’. However, there is little evidence that any of the aberrant features in the translated written literatures have systematically made their way into any spoken variety of modern Vanuatu languages. When Erromangans pray and preach in church, they speak spontaneously, without the help of notes or pre-prepared sermons,15 and the resulting speech is typically much more like the ordinary spoken language, and is not characterised by the same preference for structurally aberrant and archaic features that we find in, for example, recently composed hymns. Christian missionary activity during the 19th and early 20th centuries was generally conducted exclusively through the medium of local languages, and people completely avoided the use of Bislama as a language of religion. It should be remembered that at that time, Bislama was lexically and structurally a fairly basic sort of language that was used predominantly on plantations. There were often strained relationships between European missionaries and labour recruiters, with the former accusing the latter (often quite correctly) of attempting to kidnap people against their will, forcing them to leave their home islands for long periods. Those Ni-Vanuatu who went voluntarily to work in Queensland often did so to escape trouble or obligations in their home communities, so Bislama effectively came to be regarded as the language of social deviants and troublemakers, both by missionaries and by members of local communities. Given these sorts of attitudes, it is scarcely surprising that the question seldom arose of making use of Bislama as a language for religious purposes. In any case, Bislama was probably not sufficiently widely known in many parts of Vanuatu during the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is quite likely that very few women would have spoken the language (and even today, middle-aged and older women from many parts of Vanuatu often speak the language without great confidence). In addition, Bislama would not have been spoken by children (and again, in some parts of Vanuatu, children do not learn to speak Bislama until they begin having social contact with people outside their home communities when they begin to attend boarding school to complete their upper primary levels of education). There were, however, some apparent exceptions. Père Pionnier was a Catholic priest who was posted to Vanuatu during the periods 1886–87 and 1893–99. He failed to learn any local language, and apparently made use instead of Bislama in his dealings with local people. It is likely, however, that his use of Bislama was

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oral rather than written. He did leave some written records of materials that he had produced in Bislama to assist him in religious services (Pionnier, 1913), but there is no evidence that these materials were intended to be read by local people. Mission organisations largely avoided the use of Bislama as a religious language even until the 1960s, as it was not regarded as a language that could successfully ‘reach the hearts’ of Ni-Vanuatu (Camden, personal communication). However, attitudes towards Bislama began to change rapidly in the 1970s when it became a language of serious political debate in the run-up to independence. Around this time mission organisations began also to take the language seriously as an evangelical medium. The translation of parts of the New Testament into Bislama commenced in 1967 under the influence of Pastor Bill Camden, and the four gospels were circulating in print, at least in parts of Espiritu Santo, shortly before the formation of the first of the political parties. In 1971 the four gospels were finalised in Bislama as Gud Nyus bilong Jisas Krais (‘The Good News of Jesus Christ’), and the Acts of the Apostles was published as Ol Wok blong ol Aposol in 1974. Since then there has been a series of hymnbooks produced in Bislama, known as the Nyu Laef (‘New Life’) books, and these are widely used throughout the country, in some cases alongside older vernacular hymnals, while in other cases almost completely replacing vernacular hymnals, which on many islands are now often out of print. In 1996 the full text of the translation of the Old and New Testaments appeared in Bislama as Baebol long Bislama (‘The Bible in Bislama’). Within a period of thirty years, Bislama has changed from a language that was almost completely avoided in religious contexts to the language in which the largest number of people now read religious materials.16 Church services in villages around Vanuatu these days are often fairly multilingual occasions. The sermon and associated announcements may be given in the local language if the pastor/elder/priest is from the local community, while hymns may be in either the local language or Bislama. Prayers may be offered in the local language or Bislama, with more fundamentalist Protestant participants – from, for example, the Apostolic, Seventh Day Adventist or Assemblies of God churches – seemingly preferring Bislama over the local language, and, a little incongruously, often preferring the archaic King James English version of the Bible for readings. Ultimately, however, the choice of language seems to be a matter of personal taste, as well as being dependent on whether or not there are any visitors speaking other languages who might be present. Bible readings are more likely to be in Bislama, or even a metropolitan language (Masing, 1992: 32), though any following exegesis for the benefit of the congregation will usually be presented in the local language. However, even today attitudes against the use of Bislama and in favour of the use of vernaculars in church are sometimes encountered. Masing (1992: 4–5), for example, reports a dispute which broke out in her local community on Malakula in which an older person attacked some younger preachers for having used Bislama rather than the local Aulua language in church. As no outside visitors were present, the elder maintained that the ‘much richer’ Aulua language should have been used. I have already mentioned an apparent tendency among more fundamentalist groups to make greater use of Bislama in church services, in contrast to estab-

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lished churches such as the Presbyterians, the Anglicans and the Catholics, who make greater use of vernaculars in sermons and prayer. In terms of written church materials, newly established religious organisations in Vanuatu such as the Mormons, the Baha’i and the Seventh Day Adventists appear to be putting all of their efforts into providing written materials exclusively in Bislama. The longer-established churches are still making some effort to produce new vernacular translations in a variety of languages, with the Summer Institute of Linguistics working under the auspices of the Vanuatu Christian Council, with translation projects currently under way for a number of languages, including some on Tanna, Epi, Malakula and Espiritu Santo. Yet other vernacular translations of biblical materials have been produced by different church organisations on Malakula, Ambae and Tanna, as well as into the language of Ifira. English and French are little used in the religious context in Vanuatu with an exclusively Ni-Vanuatu congregation, except for an occasional Bible reading, or when producing fixed expressions such as when people say grace before a meal (‘For what we are about to receive . . . ’) or when one feels the spirit of the Lord suddenly upon oneself (‘Hallelujah, praise the Lord!’). However, while Catholic sermons in rural communities are generally given in the local language or Bislama, the liturgy itself – with its versicles from the priest and its set responses from the congregation – is only celebrated in French. Effectively, then, the incomprehensible Latin Mass has in Vanuatu presumably become the incomprehensible French Mass for some rural Catholics. However, although English and French are little used in Vanuatu as religious languages, there is a strong association in Vanuatu between being Catholic and francophone on the one hand, and, by implication, between being Protestant and anglophone on the other. This association derives historically from the fact that the Catholic faith was initially introduced to Vanuatu by exclusively Frenchspeaking priests from France and New Caledonia, while the various Protestant denominations were introduced by English speakers from a variety of countries. Because schools in Vanuatu were established in the first place by the missions, it was only natural that Catholic missions would teach French as a subject, while Protestant missions would be expected to teach English as a subject. It should be pointed out, however, that the francophone-Catholic and anglophone-Protestant overlap actually represents something of a stereotype. While there are probably relatively few professed Catholics in Vanuatu who are not francophone, there are certainly many Protestants who have attended French-medium government schools, and these schools are completely independent of the Catholic Church, and there are also some francophone Protestants who have links with evangelical churches in neighbouring New Caledonia.17 Languages of literacy As indicated in the preceding section, ‘languages of literacy’ and ‘languages of religion’ are by and large coterminous in Vanuatu in the context of local vernaculars. Masing (1992: 51) shows that in the rural society that she investigated, just over three quarters of all books in the village were religious in content, and my own experience would suggest that this would be fairly typical for any randomly chosen village in the country. About two thirds of the books that she counted were in a metropolitan language (in this case, English), just over a quarter were in

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Table 2 Distribution of books in Lumbulbatui village according to language and content Religious

Secular

English

295

136

Bislama

160

25

21

0

Aulua

Bislama, and just under 4% were in the local language. As is typically the case in rural areas, vernacular books have often been out of print for many years. These books are often old and fragile, with damaged spines, lost covers or torn or missing pages. Cyclones regularly ravage the islands and these take a huge toll on people’s valued books, and even something as simple as spilling sweet tea on a book will inevitably attract destructive cockroaches. Despite the close relationship between literacy and religion, there is still some validity in Vanuatu in making a distinction between ‘languages of religion’ and ‘languages of literacy’ in that there are some recognisable distinctions in literacy practice according to the nature of the domain. The figures in Table 2, derived from Masing (1992: 52), demonstrate clearly that in this rural Malakula community, vernacular literacy is encountered exclusively in the domain of religious materials. My own experience suggests again that this distribution of materials according to language and domain is quite typical for the entire country. There are some language communities in Vanuatu in which secular materials are available, though the range of titles is invariably very small for any given language, and the number of languages involved is small. Crowley (1980) and Crowley & Mael (1984) are secular sources for Paamese, Carlot (1983) for South Efate, Viralalao (1981) and Vira et al. (1997) for Duidui, Tabi & Buli (1985) and Mabonlala (1986) for Apma, Luwi et al. (1988) for Lewo, and Crowley (1997a) for Erromangan, all of which are short collections of vernacular stories, for the most part traditional. There are also some collections of vernacular texts written by academics, though the nature of the accompanying translations and discussion clearly indicates that they were intended primarily for an academic rather than a local reading audience, and there has generally been no attempt to distribute these academic volumes to members of local communities. Charpentier (1997: 226–8) argues that literacy, being a non-traditional practice, has no legitimate place in modern Vanuatu societies, implying it only takes root when a people have become completely westernised, and that any vernacular literacy in particular is seen as being ‘useless’ (Charpentier, 1997: 228). In fact, however, observations show that people engage in a significant amount of active literacy throughout Vanuatu. Masing (1992: 57) reports that the majority of people in the community that she investigated write fairly frequently (though I think it would be fair to say that people generally write far less frequently than we find among westerners). English was the language that was most widely reported as being used among secondary school leavers, while others predominantly used Bislama. Nobody in her survey group reported using the local vernacular for writing, though a broader sample over a wider area would probably have shown people using the local language, most typically for letter writing. A range of different sorts of written messages are produced by members of the

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community, ranging from invitations to social functions, reports of village meetings, assignment of communal tasks, requests for financial support and letters. For the most part, however, secular literacy in Vanuatu is practised increasingly through the medium of Bislama or metropolitan languages, with minimal use being made of local languages. Lynch (1979) and Crowley (1989a: 123) report that one of the major consequences of the reliance on metropolitan languages for access to a wide range of information has effectively led to the establishment of a ‘New Information Order’ in Vanuatu societies, in which the control of valuable information is no longer exclusively in the hands of respected elders, but is now only accessible to younger formally educated people. This can be seen as thrusting a kind of ‘premature maturity’ upon these younger people, as well as resulting in the traditionally highly valued knowledge of older people being devalued. There has never been any comprehensive survey at the national level of literacy levels in Vanuatu, and any published figures probably represent estimates. As mentioned earlier, the 1999 census included a question on reading and writing ability in ‘a local language’, Bislama, English, French or ‘any other language’. However, even before the results of this census are published, caution will need to be exercised in interpreting the results, as different enumerators appear to have interpreted their instructions differently. Some insisted on ticking just a single box, assuming that it was not possible to be literate in more than one language. Other enumerators, while allowing for the ticking of more than one box, were forced to treat both fully competent vernacular literacy and marginal vernacular literacy with the same tick for ‘yes’. Linguistic profile of Ni-Vanuatu Table 3 presents a list of the 80 actively spoken vernaculars in Vanuatu, arranged alphabetically, along with an indication of the island where each language is spoken, its currently estimated number of speakers, and a figure indicating the proportion of the national population that is represented by that language. The column dealing with the writing system indicates whether any printed materials have been produced in that language, along with a rating of the writing system according to the following scale: ***** writing system available in print that is fully in accord with modern principles of orthography design **** writing system that is fully in accord with modern principles of orthography design which is not yet in print or which is currently undergoing development *** writing system in print which is basically sound according to modern principles of orthography design, but perhaps with relatively minor imperfections ** writing system in print only in old sources with no recent study to attest to its reliability * writing system in print only in old sources which is known to be of dubious quality Ø no writing system at all known to be in print. Where some stars are included in parentheses, e.g. ***(*), this means that there is an established three-star writing system, but that improvements on this in the light of more modern linguistic study are currently under way.

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Table 3 Vanuatu local languages and their speaker-populations Language name

Island

Speakers

Percentage of Writing population sytem

Anejom

Aneityum

900

0.46

***(**)

Apma

Pentecost

7,800

4.02

***

Aulua

Malakula

750

0.38

**

Avok

Malakula

500

0.26

Ø

Axamb

Malakula

Baetora

Maewo

Baki Banam Bay Bierebo

Epi

Cape Cumberland

Santo

750

0.38

**

1,330

0.69

Ø

Epi

350

0.18

***(*)

Malakula

900

0.46

Ø

800

0.41

***(*)

2,400

1.24

**

Central Santo

Santo

1,400

0.72

(****)

Duidui

Ambae

8,700

4.48

***(**)

Emae

Shepherds

400

0.21

**

Erromangan

Erromango

1,900

0.98

*(****)

Futuna-Aniwa

Futuna, Aniwa

1,500

0.77

***(**)

Hiw

Torres

235

0.12

Ø

Ifira-Mele

Efate

3,500

1.80

***

Kiai

Santo

450

0.23

Ø

Kwamera

Tanna

3,500

1.80

***(**)

Lakona

Banks

1,250

0.64

**

Lamen

Epi

850

0.44

***(*)

Laravat

Malakula

675

0.35

Ø

Lenakel

Tanna

11,500

5.93

***(**)

Lendamboi

Malakula

800

0.41

Ø

Lewo

Epi

2,200

1.14

***(*)

Loh

Torres

500

0.26

**

Mae

Malakula

900

0.46

Ø

Mafea

Santo

250

0.13

Ø

Malua Bay

Malakula

500

0.26

Ø

Maskelynes

Malakula

1,100

0.57

(****)

Merlav

Banks

1,550

0.80

Ø

Mkir

Epi

175

0.09

Ø

Mores

Santo

75

0.04

Ø

Mota

Banks

900

0.46

***

Mpotovoro

Malakula

430

0.22

Ø

Mwotlap

Banks

2,200

1.14

Ø

Naha’ai

Malakula

1,100

0.57

Ø

Nakanamanga

Efate, Shepherds

9,500

4.90

***

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Table 3 (cont.) Vanuatu local languages and their speaker-populations Language name

Island

Speakers

Namakir

Shepherds

3,750

Percentage of Writing population sytem 1.93

***

Nasvang

Malakula

275

0.14

Ø

Nefe’ei

Malakula

330

0.17

Ø

Nefwerfwer

Malakula

1,250

0.64

Ø

Nevat

Malakula

400

0.21

Ø

Ninde

Malakula

1,100

0.57

**

North Ambrym

Ambrym

4,900

2.53

**

North Tanna

Tanna

5,000

2.58

***(*)

Northeast Ambae

Ambae

5,000

2.58

*****

Northeast Malakula

Malakula

Nume

Banks

10,000 900

5.0

***(*)

0.46

Ø

Paamese

Paama, Lopevi

6,000

3.09

***(**)

Port Sandwich

Malakula

1,200

0.62

Ø

Raga

Pentecost

6,500

3.35

***

Sa

Pentecost

2,500

1.29

Ø

Sakao

Santo

4,000

2.06

*

Seke

Pentecost

600

0.31

Ø

Shark Bay

Santo

800

0.41

Ø

Sinesip

Malakula

600

0.31

**

South Ambrym

Ambrym

2,500

1.29

**

South Efate

Efate

6,000

3.09

***

South Gaua

Banks

330

0.17

Ø

South-Central Santo

Santo

2,200

1.13

Ø

Southeast Ambrym

Ambrym

3,700

1.91

***

Southeast Santo

Santo

1,000

0.52

Ø

Southwest Santo

Santo

4,000

2.06

Ø

Southwest Tanna

Tanna

5,000

0.52

**

Sunwadaga

Maewo

1,400

0.72

Ø

Sunwadia

Maewo

650

0.34

**

Tamambo

Malo

4,000

2.06

***

Tolomako

Santo

900

0.46

**

Tutuba

Santo

500

0.26

Ø

Unua-Pangkumu

Malakula

800

0.41

**

Ureparapara

Banks

440

0.27

Ø

Vao

Malakula

1,900

0.98

**

V’enen Taut

Malakula

3,350

1.73

*****

Vera’a

Banks

275

0.14

**

Vovo

Malakula

475

0.24

Ø

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Table 3 (cont.) Vanuatu local languages and their speaker-populations Language name

Island

Speakers

Percentage of Writing population sytem

Vurës

Banks

1,050

0.53

**

West Ambrym

Ambrym

1,200

0.62

**

Whitesands

Tanna

7,500

3.87

**

Wusi

Santo

300

0.15

Ø

It should be pointed out, however, that for those languages that are indicated as having no writing system in print (marked on the table as Ø), members of local communities often do write in these languages. When people do this, they typically transfer spelling conventions on an ad hoc basis from more widely known writing systems, such as those of other vernaculars, Bislama, or metropolitan languages. The resulting writing system may be evaluated in linguistic terms as anywhere between one- and five-star status, depending on a variety of factors, such as the orthographic creativity of the individual writer, or the inherent difficulty involved in writing that particular language. These figures add up to a total of 90.65% of the population of Vanuatu that is indicated as speaking one of the 80 indigenous languages of the country. The remainder represent the small proportion of the population who are not Ni-Vanuatu, along with non-vernacular speakers who represent the minority of Ni-Vanuatu, who live predominantly in the urban centres and who grow up for the most part as first-language Bislama speakers (Crowley, 1995a). While there is some variation from island to island in terms of the proportion of people who live in town as against rural areas, this is generally close to the national average of 15% urban dwellers and 85% rural dwellers for all languages. (Figures 4–13 show the geographical locations of the languages shown in Table 3.)

Figure 4 Torres Islands

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Figure 5 Banks Islands

Apart from young children, it is extremely rare for anybody in Vanuatu to be monolingual. Most people speak their own community language as well as Bislama with complete fluency. In some of the linguistically more diverse islands, especially in parts of Malakula and Espiritu Santo, it is not uncommon for people also to speak one or two (and sometimes more) other local vernaculars in addition to their own, as well, of course, as Bislama (and possibly some English and/or French). A substantial number have learned English or French (and sometimes both) at school, with the 1989 census figures showing that 40.5% of people over the age of six claimed to be able to speak some English, while 21.4% of people claimed to be able to speak some French (Office of Statistics, 1991: 127). It should be pointed out, however, that the vast majority of people seldom actually use either of these languages for spoken purposes.

Language Spread Languages in education Siegel (1996a: 99–100) indicates that western-style education in Vanuatu was set up in the first place by missionaries who operated initially through the medium of the local languages, and promoted vernacular literacy, with the ultimate objective of enabling people to understand the new message of Christianity. The content side of early schooling was not very broad, and Lynch (1979: 9) reports one elderly Ni-Vanuatu who had attended one of these mission schools speaking in Bislama and describing his education as basically Baibel, baibel, singsing nomo ‘Bible, more Bible, and just singing’. The products of mission schools by and large had a very restricted access to information, as the only printed materials that such people had access to were entirely religious in content, with typically no information being made available to people about local issues, history or cultural practices (Lynch, 1979; Crowley, 1989a: 123).

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Figure 6 Espiritu Santo

Masing (1992: 33) reports that the mission schools did not divide students up into classes. Students moved instead from one learning task to another at their own pace as they mastered the previous stage. Students were required initially to recite the alphabet in the local language and then memorise material from the catechism, after which they were taught to read, and then to write, in the local language. Successful students were ultimately sometimes taught something of either of the metropolitan languages, though this was not the ultimate goal of these mission schools.

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Figure 7 Ambae, Maewo and Pentecost

The Anglo-French condominium government paid little attention to education for most of its history, leaving responsibility for schooling in the hands of the missions, which continued to operate through the medium of the vernaculars until the 1950s. From the 1960s, the British administration moved to set up English-medium primary schools in rural areas in different parts of the country, while a secondary school and a teacher training college were established in Port Vila. Seeing the political loyalties of the local people being tempted by the provision of schools by their condominium partners, the French administration responded by setting up competing schools, often with better facilities and fund-

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Figure 8 Malakula

ing (and no school fees), to lure parents to send their children instead to French-medium schools. The current generation of younger educated Ni-Vanuatu have, therefore, been educated exclusively through the medium of one of the two metropolitan languages, with only the older generations remembering what it means to experience vernacular education. Not only was vernacular literacy not taught in these government schools, but there have generally been strict rules prohibiting the use of either local vernaculars or Bislama by students in school hours, both in English- and French-medium schools. This has usually been with either the tacit or explicit approval of local parents, who came to see success in school as being closely linked to successful learning of a metropolitan language, and the use of Bislama or local languages was regarded as interfering with this process. After Vanuatu gained its independence in 1980, the government moved to unify the two originally quite distinct systems of education for the two languages into a single national system. The intention was to have a single national curriculum to replace the completely different curricula of the two condominium governments, which would be taught equally through the medium of the two languages in different sets of schools spread all around the country. There were to be parallel teaching materials in both languages, a single set of employment

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Figure 9 Ambrym, Paama and Epi

provisions for teaching staff, and a single set of school fees for all schools regardless of the medium of instruction. Under this unified education system, the Ministry of Education now encourages all children in Vanuatu to attend pre-primary kindergarten classes. These are widely, though not universally, available throughout the country, being staffed by local people with a minimal amount of basic early childhood education training. These pre-schools are run entirely by local communities, and much of the labour is voluntary. The facilities are usually very basic, but children are at least introduced to the idea of being in a classroom. They participate in a range of pre-reading activities and perform other structured activities in preparation for

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Figure 10 Efate and the Shepherd Islands

Figure 11 Erromango

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Figure 12 Tanna

Figure 13 Aniwa, Futuna and Aneityum

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formal schooling, often using locally made artefacts or materials that can be found locally such as seeds and shells (Brown & Crowley, 1990). There seems to be a range of language practices in kindergartens. Most kindergarten classes are conducted in the local languages or sometimes Bislama, though children do sometimes get some exposure to English or French in the songs or games that they are taught. However, some urban kindergartens appear to make much greater use of metropolitan languages in order to give children a head start for the first year of primary schooling. Kindergartens in the towns are often privately run as business enterprises. Children attending such kindergartens are certainly often exposed to more English or French than would be the case in rural areas, to prepare them for what their parents presumably hope is greater success once they get to primary school. There has for some time now been six years of compulsory primary education in Vanuatu. Students usually attend lower primary classes in schools that are close to a child’s local village so they often continue to live with their parents in their own village (or perhaps other close relatives if the school is a bit further away). Classes are conducted in either English or French by locally trained Ni-Vanuatu teachers, for whom neither English nor French is their first language. While there are often school rules in force prohibiting the use of local languages or Bislama, the reality has often been that teachers who happen to come from the local community do make some use of local languages to explain points that are being taught in English or French. Lynch (1996: 247) reports that there was some official sanction in 1982 from the ministry for the use of vernaculars in the teaching of traditional or artistic subject matter, though not in more academic subjects. However, other ministerial directives on the place of vernaculars or Bislama in the classroom have been less positive, with one minister in 1995 stating that any use of languages other than English or French in the classroom by teachers would be regarded as ‘professional misconduct’ (Lynch, 1996: 248). The government of Vanuatu is currently in the final stages of adopting an Education Master Plan, the drawing up of which is being backed financially by the World Bank, and which will be implemented with the help of a number of other international aid donors. Among other things, this plan proposes that the current universal six years of education be extended to eight years, and that early primary education (i.e. a universal preparatory year, along with years one and two of primary schooling) should be conducted through the medium of the local vernacular in places where the local community make this choice.18 The primary motivation behind this change of policy is an educational one, with the argument being that the current policy of imparting initial literacy through an unfamiliar metropolitan language is educationally damaging to the child (and ultimately, the country). However, the question of language maintenance is also seen as an important issue, the argument being that instilling initial literacy through the medium of the local vernacular will also serve to strengthen local languages against the pressure of metropolitan languages. While there is perhaps some truth to the claim that incorporating local languages into the formal education system may give those languages some additional status that they did not have formerly, it has to be conceded that the overall effect in terms of language maintenance is not likely

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to be great, given that the most that is being proposed is the development of two years’ worth of primary teaching materials, with no provision at all for the development of broader-based vernacular literacies operating at all levels within local societies. It should be stressed that this plan is still at the discussion stage, though there does appear to be fairly widespread political and community support for it, as well as a substantial degree of interest having been expressed from potential aid donors. However, there has also been a variety of less positive reactions to the plan. Criticisms have come in particular from some in the francophone sector of the education system, who suspect that there may be a hidden agenda to diminish the status of French, despite explicit wording within the plan itself that English-French official bilingualism at the national level should not only be maintained, but that it should be strengthened. In particular, one of the specific goals of the Education Master Plan is to promote greater individual bilingualism in English and French at the upper secondary level. Bracken (1998) reports that the World Bank backers of the proposed plan found ‘unanimous support among Ni-Vanuatu to preserve the country’s vernacular languages’. However, it should be pointed out that this sentiment clearly does not necessarily equate to giving unanimous support to the proposed revisions to educational policy, and the people referred to in the World Bank report as supporting the proposal may be confusing the educational advantages of initial vernacular education and its potential spin-off in terms of language maintenance. Bracken (1998) also reports that the World Bank backers encountered the greatest amount of opposition from expatriate circles when earlier versions of the Master Plan were being drawn up. Such people typically expressed concerns about the practicalities of implementing such a policy, or concerns that this policy would have a negative effect on the learning of English and French. The latter point is relatively easy to counter on the basis of evidence from other countries, but the former is more serious. Since this proposal has not yet entered its initial implementation stage, we have no way of knowing to what extent all of the requirements for success will be taken fully into account. There is therefore a danger that political pressures both from within Vanuatu and from expatriate advisers who are not completely familiar with the linguistic situation on the ground in Vanuatu may force an attempt to implement this plan too quickly, with the possibility that some essential considerations may be side-stepped. For instance, in 1999 the Ministry of Education moved ahead to set up pilot projects in individual schools in over a dozen different language areas. No real monitoring processes were set in place, and there was minimal special training provided for teachers. Teachers were also expected to produce their own reading materials on ministry-supplied rolls of brown paper. If these issues are not properly addressed and the full implementation of the vernacular education proposal falters as a result, this may well sour the appetite of the public for another more carefully implemented proposal in the future. It is planned to phase in initial vernacular education throughout the country over a period of at least ten years, beginning in the early 2000s. Some of the

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important practical questions that need to be addressed before such a policy could be successfully implemented would include the following: (1) It needs to be established which languages already have efficient and accepted writing systems that are reasonably widely used by members of the community in order to be able to decide which languages could be brought into this system earlier on, and which languages need further linguistic documentation and study before they can be incorporated into the programme. (2) Another consideration for determining which languages can be brought into the programme relatively early involves the question of which languages are spoken in places where there is regular exposure to the written form of the language in the form of (at the very least) a hymnal, or other religious materials. (3) Some unwritten languages are spoken by dialectally quite diverse communities, and it would need to be established which linguistic communities would most readily accept a single writing system for all varieties, rather than insisting on separate writing systems being developed for the different regional varieties. (4) Another consideration is which languages have published dictionaries so that teachers can check the spellings of words. (5) Some languages are spoken in areas where speakers of that language constitute the sole school population, and such languages could be brought into the programme relatively early. In other schools, however, there is likely to be a linguistically mixed enrolment. In such cases, more complex decisions would presumably be necessary. (6) It would need to be established which schools are located in areas where Bislama, rather than local language, is the major medium of local exchange. In towns, as well as in some rural areas, the main community language is Bislama, so the future role of Bislama within the education system of the country would need to be addressed, and this may require a certain amount of public re-education given that many parents may harbour negative attitudes to Bislama in the educational context. (7) The question of which languages have trained personnel who are capable of producing the relevant curriculum materials of an acceptable standard will also need to be taken into account. This will also involve determining the extent to which designated teachers are themselves adequately literate in their own languages. (8) The success of such a programme will also depend on establishing which languages have trained or trainable teachers. The proposal, as it is currently formulated, provides for unemployed Year 10 leavers who are resident in their local communities and are willing, to be trained as early primary teachers. One problem is that it is intended to pay these teachers only a fraction of what a fully trained primary teacher receives, even though they will be heavily involved in the demanding activity of materials preparation. (9) For such a programme to succeed, it is essential that there should be a written literature in the local language which reflects the natural form of the

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language, rather than consisting exclusively of translated biblical materials. Such material could be incorporated into the curriculum in the form of story-telling and vernacular reading exercises. (10) Public acceptance will also have to be considered. It is possible that some languages will have speakers who have been successfully primed and who are enthusiastic about the idea of initial vernacular education, while people in some areas may be reluctant to accept change. If this reluctance is based on any misconceptions, there would be a need for the re-education of parents. I have already referred to the question of public attitudes to Bislama, though public misconceptions also in some cases seem to centre around the idea that it is intended to ‘revive’ moribund languages which have only a handful of usually elderly speakers. Some members of the public also mistakenly think that ‘vernacular’ education in Vanuatu means choosing one of the various languages of the country for teaching in all of the country’s schools. Such a policy also needs to be implemented with great care to ensure that all possible problems are anticipated before they arise, and so that all necessary training and resources development can take place. Any implementation of such a programme also needs to be done with evaluation strategies at each stage. While some languages could be adopted in the very near future as languages of initial primary instruction, there are many other languages which are extremely poorly described, and for which we have little idea of what kind of writing system should be adopted. In other cases, languages may have been written for over a century in a writing system that is poorly suited to the sound system of the language, which it would possibly be counterproductive to attempt to teach to children. In such cases, it may even be essential to develop a writing system from scratch on the basis of completely new linguistic research. There are some parts of the country where our ignorance of the linguistic situation is so profound that we are even uncertain as to the number of the languages that are spoken. Finally, there are areas where there are reasonably well described languages which may have tolerably efficient writing systems, but where we are uncertain as to the location of the precise boundaries between these languages and those of neighbouring groups (assuming, of course, that discrete boundaries can even be drawn), as already noted in The Language Profile of Vanuatu. For the successful implementation of any policy of universal initial vernacular education, the description of all languages in the country – especially those that are spoken in areas where the languages are particularly poorly known – must be encouraged, along with the recording of spoken materials in these languages to form the basis of a secular written literature that is not made up exclusively of translated religious materials. At the moment, however, there is no formal mechanism available for systematically promoting the description of the languages of the country. The Vanuatu Cultural Centre can guide potential academic researchers in particular directions, but it has no resources to support the description of particular languages that are seen as having high priority if there are no researchers actively seeking permission to carry out linguistic research in the country.

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Upper primary classes are often conducted in schools that service a wider area, so students often need to attend schools as boarders outside their home language area. For some students, this may be the first time that they come into contact with Bislama, though they usually rapidly acquire fluency in the language outside the school context (given that the language is, of course, normally prohibited in the context of formal schooling). For those students whose upper secondary education continues within their own language area, they may not be exposed to Bislama until they begin their secondary schooling at about the age of twelve. School rules will again typically prohibit the use of languages other than English or French, and at this level, teachers do not attempt to make use of local languages or Bislama as a tool for explanation in the classroom as they sometimes do with junior students. It is much more difficult for students to be accepted to secondary level in Vanuatu. Places are far more limited and only about 20% of the initial primary intake proceed to junior secondary school (Masing, 1992: 24). Those who fail to be accepted often return to their local community having undergone six years of schooling in English or French, which they will in all probability no longer use except perhaps very occasionally (Masing, 1992: 32). Some will attempt to find jobs in town, though with such a low-level qualification, they are most likely to acquire only non-skilled jobs for which a knowledge of a metropolitan language is of no special value in any case. Some vocational training is available in rural areas for such early school-leavers, but many such classes are conducted largely in Bislama, so metropolitan languages are again of limited value. Those who proceed to secondary level attend one of a restricted number of English- or French-medium institutions, most of which require students to board outside their home communities. At such schools, there are usually only limited possibilities for students to keep in regular contact with their families except during school holidays. There is selection of students again for admission from junior secondary to senior secondary education, and only 15% of those eligible are accepted for further study (Masing, 1992: 24). There is once again a choice between English- and French-medium upper secondary schools. Students attending English- or French-medium secondary schools are required to take the other language as a subject up till Year 10. For Years 11–13, the other language becomes an elective subject. There is strong interest in French among students at the main English-medium schools, though interest in English among students at French-medium schools is considerably higher. No other languages are taught as subjects at secondary schools in the country at which the enrolment is predominantly Ni-Vanuatu.19 The role of the two metropolitan languages within the country became a major political issue in the run-up to independence in the late 1970s, and the issue has boiled over in public a number of times since then. In fact, it is arguably the relative position of English and French – rather than the status of Bislama or any of the local vernaculars – that represents the only major linguistic issue to have been seriously addressed in public in the last twenty years. The largest street demonstrations that Vanuatu has ever seen were by French-educated people and their supporters protesting in the late 1970s at perceived threats to French-medium education from the predominantly English-educated Vanuaaku Pati government that was in power in Vanuatu

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before independence. The British and the French had for decades been playing Ni-Vanuatu off against each other, and had successfully divided people into opposing ‘anglophone’ and ‘francophone’ sides. In the words of the first Minister of Education in independent Vanuatu, this political posturing: . . . has affected the historic, political, social and economic progress of this country and has provided the main basis of division between the Melanesians, by creating them either ‘Anglophone’ or ‘Francophone’. (These terms are mostly used by those whose aim has been to divide and rule and to disrupt our unity and progress towards independence.) (Kalpokas, 1980: 240–41) There is a common myth outside Vanuatu that the country is, or used to be, divided up into discrete ‘anglophone’ and ‘francophone’ areas (e.g. Watson-Gegeo, 1987: 30). This was never so, and it is not so today. It is quite common to find both French-medium and English-medium schools in very close proximity to each other, not infrequently even within the same village, and some families even have some of their children going to English-medium schools and others going to French-medium schools. In fact, since independence, a number of schools have been converted to ‘bilingual’ schools, in the sense that students following the same curriculum materials take their classes in either English or French depending on which stream they belong in. Since independence, however, there have been very significant shifts in the enrolment figures for English-medium and French-medium schools. There has been a gradual, but consistent shift in primary enrolments, from figures which slightly favoured French-medium at independence, to a nearly two-thirds majority for English-medium within seven years (Crowley, 1989b: 41). By 1998, the proportion of English-medium enrolments had increased to over three quarters, despite a number of years of government by a coalition that was dominated by a party which actively promoted French-medium education to counteract the very obvious erosion to English-medium schools. This consistent drift from French- to English-medium education has been of considerable concern to some. During the period 1991–95 a coalition of parties dominated by politicians with strong francophone sentiments was in power at the national level. However, while this government conducted a certain amount of grandstanding about this issue in parliamentary debate and changed signage in some government offices, few serious efforts were made to promote official equity in usage between English and French both as languages of education or as languages of government, as a way of counteracting the drift over the preceding years towards English.20 The ombudsman’s annual reports on multilingualism for the period 1995–97 placed special emphasis on the need to maintain official equality between the two languages, and some specific recommendations in this regard were proposed (Office of the Ombudsman, 1995, 1996, 1997). However, the francophone-dominated government has since been replaced with a series of governments that have been dominated again by Englisheducated people, and the previous ombudsman has recently been succeeded by someone whose particular linguistic concerns at this stage are not known – except that he is himself English-educated, in contrast to the previous ombudsman – as no new annual reports on multilingualism have yet been presented. My

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suspicion is that for as long as governments are politically fluid, Vanuatu will remain dominated by anglophones, or where compromises between anglophones and francophones have to be made, there will be less direct pressure to maintain equity between English and French, with people being given greater freedom to make their own choices between the two languages, as advocated by Early (1999). Given the greater accessibility of tertiary education through the medium of English, as well as the dominance of anglophone capital in the economy of Port Vila, such a laissez-faire attitude will probably result in a further drift away from French. Attitudes towards the use of languages other than the relevant metropolitan language in secondary school classrooms vary somewhat. Anne Naupa (personal communication) reports that there is far less acceptance of the use of any Bislama in class in French-medium schools than in English-medium schools. However, even in English-medium schools, there is variation from school to school as to the extent of acceptability of Bislama, with some schools prohibiting the language and others permitting it, though at the same time providing encouragement for the use of English. Even within the same school, different teachers follow different practices, with some teachers opting never to use Bislama in the classroom, while others supplement the English content with substantial amounts of discussion in Bislama. Successful secondary students in Vanuatu can, of course, proceed to tertiary education. There are now increasingly varied opportunities available through the Port Vila (Emalus) campus of the University of the South Pacific (as well as the Luganville and Tanna university sub-centres), while substantial numbers of other students travel overseas to study at the University of the South Pacific campus in Suva in Fiji or at the Alafua campus in Samoa. Others attend the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby or the Papua New Guinea University of Technology in Lae, while smaller numbers attend universities or other tertiary institutions in Australia and New Zealand. These institutions obviously all teach through the medium of English. French-medium tertiary education is available from the Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie in Nouméa, the Université Française de la Polynésie in Tahiti or at universities in metropolitan France. Very few Ni-Vanuatu actually achieve success in studies at these institutions, and most francophone university graduates have made the sometimes difficult switch to English as a medium of instruction and attended the same institutions favoured by their anglophone counterparts. However, it was reported in 1999 that a French-medium tertiary centre is to be established in Vanuatu under the auspices of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie. Given the expense of running the anglophone University of the South Pacific, of which Vanuatu is a financially contributing member nation, it is difficult to imagine such an institution being viable in the long term given the very small potential clientele unless it receives substantial ongoing foreign – most likely French, or possibly Canadian – aid. Although Bislama has no recognised role in the primary and secondary education systems of the country and students are often penalised for even speaking the language informally on school grounds, the same kinds of restrictions obviously do not apply when students begin their tertiary studies, as people are assumed to be entitled to make their own personal choices as to what

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languages they speak. The Pacific Languages Unit of the University of the South Pacific was established in Vanuatu in 1983, and one of the objectives of this unit was to raise the status of Pacific languages in the eyes of the people who speak these languages. One way of doing this was to offer a university credit course on, and in, Bislama. Doing this would serve to make people aware that the language has a clearly definable linguistic identity of its own. Moreover, offering a subject that was both taught and examined exclusively through the medium of Bislama would make people aware that serious academic study at tertiary level could be carried out through a language which, until not much more than twenty years earlier, was regarded largely as a language of poorly educated plantation workers. Accordingly, in 1985, Pastor Bill Camden and Terry Crowley jointly taught such a course as an intensive summer school offering. This course attracted an enrolment of twenty students, many of whom were full-time students from the Suva campus picking up additional credits towards their degrees during their summer holidays. By 1987, this course had been developed as a complete externally taught course, which was made available to students as part of the Certificate in Pacific Language Studies that was offered by the University of the South Pacific. The printed course materials consisted of a two-volume study guide (Kos Buk 1 (Course Book 1) and Kos Buk 2 (Course Book 2)) amounting to over 550 pages in total, a set of supplementary readings (Buk blong Ridim (Reader)) of about 140 pages, and a reference grammar of the language, written in Bislama itself. This was entitled Grama blong Bislama (Grammar of Bislama) and it ran to about 240 pages. The course covered four main areas, each of which dealt with a number of particular topics. The general breakdown of the course, then, was as follows: (1) The nature and history of Bislama as a language: pidgin and creole languages, pidgin and creole genesis, pre-plantation and plantation language contact involving Ni-Vanuatu, and other Pacific pidgins and creoles. (2) The current status and use of Bislama: constitutional and social position of Bislama, geographical and social varieties of Bislama, the question of standardisation. (3) The phonology and lexicon of Bislama: the nature of phonemic contrasts, phonological variation in the forms of words, principles and problems in Bislama spelling, adaptation of foreign words into Bislama phonology, ways of expanding the lexicon of Bislama. (4) Bislama grammar: word classes, morphology, noun phrase and verb phrase structure, prepositional phrases, complex sentences. The various topics in the first of the four parts of this course were chosen because it was felt that it was essential to give students an appreciation of both the special nature of Bislama as a pidgin/creole language, and at the same time, to make students aware that the language has the same kind of potential as any other language. The second section was included in order to make students critically examine some of the attitudes they had acquired about Bislama through their primary and

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secondary education. The third section was designed to make people realise that the incorporation of the new words into the lexicon is natural, but that people who do not speak English (or French) do not necessarily understand words borrowed from English (or French) on an ad hoc basis. This section of the course also aimed to make people aware that the kind of random spelling in Bislama that is so frequently found in the public domain is neither desirable nor helpful. The final section of the course was included not because it was thought that students have a burning urge to learn about the internal structure of the Bislama noun phrase or other such technical aspects of the language, but because this is the kind of topic that students sometimes find difficult. Including difficult material in the course was not something that was done to satisfy any perverse needs on the part of the course coordinator, but to make students realise that the language itself has a complex (and clearly non-English) structure of its own, and that technically difficult material could be discussed through the medium of this one-time plantation language. Apart from when the course was offered initially as a summer course, there have not been large enrolments. Under current arrangements in the Pacific Languages Unit, this course is no longer offered, as the original Certificate in Pacific Language Studies, of which this course was a component, is no longer available. However, the more recent full major in Pacific Vernacular Studies may well include a modified version of this course in the future (Lynch, personal communication). There is also a strong case to be made for finding some place for incorporating Bislama into the formal education system as a subject at upper secondary level. Students at this level are the people who are most likely to be communicating in Bislama in its spoken – and, more importantly, written – form with the wider public. Given the lack of adherence to standardised spellings and norms of expression in the media and many other contexts in which Bislama is used, it could be argued that such skills could be passed on in a classroom context. The main issues that face users of Bislama are (1) the temptation to incorporate material on an ad hoc basis from English (and, much less frequently, French), which is an especially strong tendency in translation from English to Bislama; and (2) a lack of awareness of standardised spellings that have been agreed on, as reflected in the published dictionary (Crowley, 1995b) and the recently produced translation of the Bible. The difficulty that students face in distinguishing between English and Bislama could be overcome by explicit instruction in Bislama spelling, translation and expression once they have acquired a high level of command of English at the upper secondary level. Such skills could be passed on as part of a general subject that might be called ‘Communication Skills’. Such a subject could provide regular exercises in translation into and out of Bislama, Bislama spelling, creative writing in Bislama, and the editing of previously written Bislama materials. However, there are other topics that might profitably be included, such as intercultural communication and public speaking. Objectives of language education The use of English or French as media of instruction is primarily instrumental in the sense that the languages are being taught so as to enable people to learn

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essential content material elsewhere in the curriculum, and to enable students to proceed to the next level of education. Ni-Vanuatu by and large do not use these languages conversationally with each other outside of the educational context. This is firstly because the choice of English or French can often be seen as being politically divisive, especially when Bislama is readily available as a politically neutral language choice. Secondly, the proportion of the population which is sufficiently fluent in either language to carry out a successful conversation is relatively small. It must be assumed, therefore, that the primary objective of teaching people English or French is to provide them with access to higher-level education in that language, and not to produce English- or French-speaking élites in the towns. At the same time, however, students’ ability in the metropolitan languages clearly has to be more than purely passive, as many upper secondary students end up being employed in situations where some kind of active command is called for in their dealings with expatriate workers or customers. Although there is a dual-language education system in operation in Vanuatu, it should be pointed out that there is a requirement for upper secondary students in English- and French-medium schools to take the other language as a subject. That is, anglophone students must study some French, while francophone students must study some English up to Year 10. The thinking behind this policy is presumably that all people of a particular level of education should be at least able to read and understand (if not speak to some extent) the other metropolitan official language of the country, given that sometimes documents in just one language are in circulation. I know nothing at all about what sorts of assessment procedures are in place for ensuring that these objectives are met. In fact, my strong suspicion is that the policy outlined in the preceding paragraph is only partly successful in any case. Given the way in which English-medium education has come to dominate in the education system of Vanuatu, francophones do not generally take a great deal of convincing that it is in their interests to learn some English, and substantial numbers become reasonably competent in the language. Anglophone secondary students, however, tend to be particularly resistant to the idea of learning French, and relatively few achieve any degree of fluency.21 I am not aware of any discussion having been conducted in the country concerning the particular varieties of English and French that the education system of Vanuatu should aim to promote. Teachers of English and French at primary level are almost exclusively second language Ni-Vanuatu speakers of the languages, so the models that children are exposed to are certainly not native-speaker models by any stretch of the imagination. For the most part, children do not come into any significant contact with native speakers of English or French until secondary level, and it is really only in senior secondary schools where native speaker models are at all influential. By this stage, children will obviously have already acquired fairly fixed patterns of pronunciation, grammar and lexical usage from exposure over many years to non-native speaker models. One interesting question that is worth considering at this point is the extent to which a distinct Vanuatu ‘dialect’ of English has emerged among Englisheducated Ni-Vanuatu, as well as the related question of whether a distinct local

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variety of French has emerged as well. In Papua New Guinea, a recognisable Papua New Guinea set of idiomatic expressions, and even some phonological and grammatical norms, have emerged in English as the language has come to express a distinct Papua New Guinean identity among the educated élite (Smith, 1988). In Vanuatu however, English is so rarely used in its spoken form even among the best educated Ni-Vanuatu that it would be difficult to recognise any systematic features that one would want to ascribe to a Vanuatu dialect of English. One related observation that is frequently made is that the French of French-educated Ni-Vanuatu much more closely approximates to the standard of spoken metropolitan French. Ni-Vanuatu who speak English, by way of contrast, are much more likely to carry some kind of local accent, and also, it has been argued, to speak with less fluency. Assuming that these observations are correct – and it must be recognised that these are for the most part purely impressionistic observations that have not been subject to rigorous empirical verification – the most commonly suspected explanation for this is to claim interference from Bislama in the case of English speakers. However, this suggestion has never been proved, and it needs to be kept in mind that the pre-independence French education system much more strongly valued linguistic uniformity than was ever the case in the English-speaking world. It is noteworthy that dialect differentiation among the best educated speakers of French in France is almost non-existent,22 whereas it is quite unremarkable for well-educated speakers of English to have marked Australian, New Zealand or a variety of British or American accents (along with many others). In any case, the pre-independence British education system was more closely adapted to the local situation than was ever the case with the more rigidly centralised French system. The French-medium education system in its overseas territories has also been described as being specifically aimed at producing évolués who would speak, act and think like metropolitan French people. This system was successful to the extent that French-educated Ni-Vanuatu today speak to each other in French in informal situations much more readily than English-educated Ni-Vanuatu speak to each other in English. I have on a number of occasions observed some well-educated francophone Ni-Vanuatu speaking to each other in French in local ‘kava bars’, while I do not remember ever having encountered the same kind of behaviour between anglophone Ni-Vanuatu.23 Languages in the media In a country such as Vanuatu where transport is difficult and electricity supplies are for the most part restricted to the two towns where fewer than 20% of Ni-Vanuatu live, the media are far less intrusive than is the case in many other countries. Newspapers are by and large only easily accessible to people in the towns, and television broadcasts are also similarly restricted in their reception. Radio is the only medium which reaches the entire population of the country across all language groups, and which crosses the urban-rural divide in society. Because the language choices and issues of public access, as well as historical developments, are somewhat different for each of these media, I will discuss each medium separately.

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Radio The first radio broadcasts in Vanuatu were in the 1960s. These programmes were beamed initially in English, French and Bislama from a government station. Bislama rapidly came to dominate the airwaves, with English and French being reduced to secondary status, simply because so few people understood English or French and so many understood Bislama. In the early 1970s the amount of airtime over what was then known as Radio Vila was increased significantly, and the power of the transmitters was also boosted, enabling a much larger rural proportion of the population to receive the short-wave broadcasts. This period represented the run-up to independence, and the radio was used to disseminate competing political ideas. Bislama rapidly became the dominant medium for the expression of these ideas, due to its politically neutral position vis-à-vis English and French. After independence, the radio station was renamed Radio Vanuatu in recognition of the vital national function that was played by the radio in keeping people informed about recent developments. However, when Vanuatu became independent, the government retained direct control over the radio station, a fact which has prompted repeated, often quite justified, claims that the government of the day was using its power to restrict people’s access to competing interpretations of the day’s events. Short wave radio broadcasts from Radio Vanuatu can be received all over the country, and even in rural areas where there is often little spare cash, one of the first things that people choose to buy when they have some money is a battery-operated radio. Many people are largely reliant on Bislama radio broadcasts for national and international news and reports of shipping movements, and people listen to the radio for the many public education programmes that are regularly broadcast. The radio also broadcasts paid ‘service messages’ every day, allowing people to pass personal messages over the radio where there is no access to telephones or teleradio.24 The plea eni man i harem mesej ya, plis pasem i go long X ‘anybody hearing this message should please convey it to X’ is regularly heard at the end of these messages, as it is recognised that somebody may have temporarily run out of money to buy new batteries, their radio may have broken down, or they may be otherwise prevented from hearing their message. Radio Vanuatu broadcasts about 80% of the time in Bislama. The remaining time is devoted equally to programming in English and French. Much of the programming in metropolitan languages involves material rebroadcast from overseas stations, such as news programmes from Radio Australia or Radio France International, or old BBC panel games, and the intended audience appears to be expatriates living in the country, rather than Ni-Vanuatu. Very few locally produced programmes are broadcast in English or French. Radio Vanuatu has never made any attempt to present programmes in any of the local languages. The lack of vernacular broadcasts has never been a public issue, as people presumably recognise that it would be impossible to broadcast in 80 languages over a single radio station (and that to establish 80 different radio stations would be completely impractical). There has only been one situation of which I am aware when vernaculars were used in broadcast radio, and this did not involve Radio Vanuatu. At the time that Vanuatu gained its independence in 1980, there was a short-lived rebellion based on the island of Espiritu Santo

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which involved a failed attempt to set up an independent state known as the Vemarana Republic. The main centre for this political resistance was the small settlement of Vanafo, which was located in the interior of Espiritu Santo. This community consisted of a significant number of settlers from other islands, and they attempted to communicate with their supporters and opponents at the time of the attempted insurrection by establishing a radio transmitter and broadcasting in Bislama, as well as in some of the main vernaculars of settlers in Luganville, such as Paamese. The avoidance of vernaculars over Radio Vanuatu is not complete, however, as something of an exception is made for the broadcast of local music, whether this is recreational or religious in nature. Vernacular songs played over the radio can become popular nationwide even where all but a few per cent of the population know the meaning of the words because they are sung in some local language. (People are sometimes known to come up with their own local vernacular words to a widely played song in an unfamiliar language. These words may be quite different in meaning to the words in the original song but they allow people from other islands to enjoy the song as well.) The language in which an announcer is speaking will therefore not allow an accurate prediction to be made about the language of the songs that (s)he may broadcast. In a programme that is presented in Bislama, the music that is played may be in a variety of languages. The popular Wokbaot Rikwes (‘Mobile Request’) programme, for example, while presented in Bislama, plays songs in whatever language is chosen by the person being interviewed, whether that be Bislama, English, French, a local language, or possibly even Caribbean French Creole. Similarly, the presenter of an English-medium request programme may play some French songs, while French-speaking announcers frequently broadcast songs in English. In the early 1990s, a second local radio station was established. Known as FM98, it broadcasts on the FM band, rather than the medium and short wave bands of Radio Vanuatu. This station can only be picked up close to main centres, and is obviously aimed at people who are wealthy enough to own stereo receiving equipment. The choice of programming, as well as language choices, on the FM station is quite different to what is broadcast over the AM and short wave frequencies. There is a greater emphasis on what appeals to a younger and more monied listening audience. Advertisements are more noticeable, and there is less attention paid to the public education aspects of broadcasting than we find on the AM and short wave service. Significantly, the dominant languages of the FM service were originally English and French in pretty well equal quantities, with Ni-Vanuatu announcers attempting – often not terribly successfully – to imitate the non-stop patter of commercial radio announcers overseas. However, it appears that lately, there has been an increasing tendency to use Bislama. The FM station tends to avoid playing local vernacular songs, though the announcers seem to be happy to play Fijian and Tahitian hits. It seems that as long as a song is from overseas, it is considered suitably sophisticated to be played on the FM band, even though the numbers of speakers of Fijian and Tahitian living in Vanuatu are tiny.

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Newspapers When the first radio broadcasts were made in the 1960s, the French administration in Vanuatu was particularly keen to see its political influence extended to a greater proportion of the population. They set about establishing institutions of government in direct competition with the British in an attempt to drum up support. One of the strategies adopted by the French Residency to bring this about was to begin issuing a newsletter in 1961 entitled Bulletin d’Information de la Résidence de France (‘French Residency Information Bulletin’). This was initially written mainly in French, though it contained some material in Bislama. This jockeying for influence between the two colonial powers coincided with – or perhaps even directly fostered – the development of a conscious political awareness among a number of English-educated Ni-Vanuatu who established the first political party in the condominium, the New Hebrides Cultural Association. This was followed shortly afterwards by the establishment of a competing movement that aimed to attract predominantly francophone support. This was the beginning of the anglophone-francophone divide in Vanuatu politics that has been a recurring theme up to the present. These political organisations both produced newsletters to provide information primarily to the rapidly growing urban population (Van Trease, 1995: 21). The rural population was largely excluded, as it very often took too long for newsletters to reach outlying areas, by which time the news was often stale. The most influential of these newsletters was New Hebrides Viewpoints issued by the largely anglophone New Hebrides National Party (formerly the New Hebrides Cultural Association). Although the French government had been producing a newsletter since 1961, the British were much slower to act, and it was only in 1972 that they began issuing their own British Newsletter, in direct response to indigenous political groups which had begun producing their parties’ newsletters. So, by the early 1970s, there were British and French government newsletters, as well as a variety of newsletters issued by new political parties, all making use of Bislama, along with one of the two metropolitan languages, depending on whether the publishers saw themselves as anglophones or francophones. Prior to the 1960s and early 1970s and this flurry of political activity conducted through these new media outlets, Bislama had been seen by Ni-Vanuatu largely as a language of rural plantation labourers. Those who made the choice to leave their villages to work on plantations were often seen as troublemakers, leaving to escape from village authorities. Since speakers of Bislama in earlier times were often seen as undesirable types, the language that they spoke continued to be associated with the same negative attitudes that had characterised it since it first spread around Vanuatu as a result of the Queensland plantation trade in the late 1800s. It was seen as a language that belonged nowhere, as exemplified by the description of the language by one person as lanwis blong rod ‘language of the road’, with uncomplimentary comparison being made with the expression pikinini blong rod ‘illegitimate child (”child of the road”)’ (Charpentier, 1979: 133). With this description, Bislama was being described implicitly as a ‘bastard language’. However, the development of an urban economy with the expansion of tourism and the establishment of a tax haven for international businesses led to the creation of more prestigious non-plantation jobs that required some formal

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schooling. This, coupled with the rise of nationalist politics, saw Bislama move into domains that it had not previously occupied. It became the one and only language that could appeal to the entire urban population, whether educated or not, whether schooled in French or English, and whether manual labourers or skilled employees. Bislama changed very rapidly from being the language of those who some had thought to be enslaved in the past, to the language of those who sought to be free in the future. When the French Residency issued its first newsletter in 1961, its writers had very little in the way of orthographic tradition in Bislama to fall back on, as Bislama had until then not been used in written form in public at all. One might have expected these francophone writers to adopt a set of gallicised spelling conventions followed by earlier francophone writers such as Père Pionnier. While there is certainly some evidence of gallicised spellings in their written materials, there is, in fact, much greater evidence of influence from English. However, there was also a clear attempt to spell words in some kind of a phonologically based rather than a purely anglocentric etymologically based spelling system. Since the inspiration from this cannot have come from any pre-existing tradition in Vanuatu, the writers of such materials were presumably taking as their major model either the spelling conventions widely followed in vernacular languages in Vanuatu, or the spelling system of Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, which was already fairly well established by that stage (though the extent to which people were aware of this in Vanuatu is not known). The early colonial government newsletters evolved later into the British government’s Tamtam (‘drum’) and the French government’s Nabanga (‘banyan tree’). The choice of Bislama names for these newspapers rather than names in English and French reflected a move towards the expression of a greater local viewpoint, but the British newspaper continued to publish bilingually in English and Bislama, while the French newspaper published bilingually in French and Bislama. After independence, a single Vanuatu government weekly newspaper was established, and this continues to publish as Vanuatu Weekly/Hebdomadaire, with material in English, French and Bislama. For the first few years of independence, this was the only regular newspaper. The content was fairly tightly controlled by whatever government held power – in much the same way that the radio has been under tight government control – and there have been regular complaints about a lack of press freedom. In the early 1980s, an independent newspaper was established but it did not last long, as the foreign editor was deported for publishing material that the government of the time disagreed with. In 1994, the Trading Post began operation as a much more successful – and daring – privately owned newspaper. Its major news items and editorial comment are entirely in English. Letters to the editor are in English or Bislama, depending on the choice of the letter writer. There is also a popular gossip column entitled Mi harem se . . . ‘I hear that . . . ’, in which short items of gossip are printed either in English or very colloquial Bislama. Even items that are printed in English often have jocular interjections in the latest Bislama slang, and items in Bislama are sometimes sarcastically heavily laden with English when senior people are described as behaving in particularly crass ways, such as in the following (Trading Post 490, 16 October 1999):

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Mi harem se wan senior secretary long diocese of Vanuatu we hem i directly involved wetem official matters to the bishop hem i givim pikinini long haos gel blong hem blong Torba.25 Otherwise, the only Bislama content in the Trading Post consists of items of local sports new on the back page, as well as a four page insert summarising recent world and local news stories on what is intended to be a weekly basis. However, late in 1999 the newspaper conducted a reader survey, and the wording of some of the questions suggests that the editor was considering providing more news coverage in Bislama if that was what readers said they wanted. Another newspaper, known as Nasara (‘public discussion area’) was also established in 1998. This also appeared initially mostly in English and Bislama, though with a greater amount of regular Bislama content than we find in the Trading Post. More recently, there has also been some news in French as well. However, there were reports in late 1999 that this newspaper was about to lose its financial backing.

Television Television broadcasting in Vanuatu only began in 1992 when TV blong Vanuatu (‘Television of Vanuatu’) was established. Given that the signal can only be received in the urban areas and a very restricted range of rural centres, and also given that the receiving equipment is much more expensive than radio sets, television broadcasts are clearly aimed primarily at a wealthier urban audience. There is very little local content broadcast over the television because of the cost involved in producing programmes, though there is a daily (on weekdays only) national news broadcast in Bislama, and short music clips of local bands performing in a range of languages: Bislama, local vernaculars, English or French. Other programming is organised to give equal emphasis to material in English and French, with all-English and all-French programming on every other day.26 Satellite dishes have also sprouted up all over Vila. So far, those who have installed these dishes have largely been relatively wealthy expatriates and local Chinese business operators who prefer to have a wider range of programming than that offered by TV blong Vanuatu, as well as broadcasts 24 hours a day rather than the limited hours offered by the local station. Of course, such broadcasts are entirely in English, French, Mandarin or Cantonese, and the content is completely non-local. Related to the question of broadcast television is the access that people in Vanuatu have to videocassette recorders. While television broadcasts cannot be received in most outer island locations, it is not uncommon for television screens to be used in rural areas to show videocassettes (and VCRs are very common in urban areas as well). Even where there is no main electricity supply, people often buy generators specifically so that they and their family and friends can watch programmes on video. Such showings are sometimes for educational or religious purposes, though local entrepreneurs often organise video evenings purely for people’s entertainment, for which a small entrance fee is charged, and video nights in rural areas often attract large audiences. As might be expected, the amount of locally produced material that is seen on such occasions is extremely limited, with most people therefore watching

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videos in English or French only, and there is no attempt to provide subtitling or dubbing in Bislama. However, people are often not able to clearly hear the sound when in a large audience in a venue that is typically not acoustically ideal (and with an electricity generator humming in the background). In fact, it is often not always necessary to be able to follow a great deal of the dialogue as the most popular shows are action movies with lots of fighting and shooting. Such movies allow people to make up their own story-line as they go, and I have even heard people producing their own imaginary, but entirely plausible, dialogue for the benefit of the friends with whom they are sharing the movie.

Advertising and public awareness I have included advertising as a separate heading as this is worthy of discussion independently of the various media. Not surprisingly, vernaculars play no role in advertising in the country given the numbers of languages involved, so this discussion focuses on the relationship between Bislama, English and French in the context of advertising. Closely related to advertising is the promotion of public awareness on particular issues. While the two are similar in that broadcast media or written public notices and posters are used to present messages to the public, they differ in that advertisements aim to persuade people to purchase a product, while awareness programmes simply aim to educate people about public issues. Public awareness broadcasts, newspaper items and posters are almost invariably presented in Bislama. Radio slots in the past have promoted issues as varied as road safety to children (Lukluk long lef, lukluk long raet, lukluk long lef bakegen ‘Look to the left, look to the right, and look to the left again’) and breast feeding over bottle feeding to mothers (Tata botel, titi hem i nambawan ‘Goodbye bottle, breasts are best’). Political campaigns are also conducted almost exclusively in Bislama27 when the audience is linguistically mixed, though candidates speaking to audiences within their own language area will normally campaign in the vernacular. There is also some limited public awareness that is conducted in rural areas through the medium of local languages. The Forestry Department, for example, has produced limited numbers of posters in some local languages promoting sensible forest management programmes. Advertising on radio for commercial products and services makes much greater use of English and French, though Bislama is also used to some extent. Television advertising is similar to radio advertising, though advertisements in metropolitan languages are usually taken from overseas sources, mostly being advertisements in English from Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Some locally produced television advertisements are made in Bislama. There is little advertising in French, and even on designated French broadcast days, advertisements still appear overwhelmingly in English. There is a tendency for written advertisements to appear in a metropolitan language while advertising over the radio is more likely to be in Bislama. However, products that are primarily aimed at local buyers rather than also being aimed at the wealthier urban expatriate minority are more likely to be advertised in print in Bislama. The newspapers produce printed advertisements in English, French or Bislama, according to the choice of the advertiser. Most

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commercial advertisements are in English, though some are in French, while public notices and lost-and-found advertisements can be found in all three languages, depending on the choice of the person who places the advertisement.

Literary writing Finally, I propose to discuss briefly the linguistic choices that are encountered in creative writing produced by Ni-Vanuatu. Only a very small number of literary writers in the South Pacific have achieved any degree of international recognition, and this recognition has for the most part been achieved through the medium of a metropolitan language, such as Albert Wendt’s success with his novels relating to the experiences of Samoans. In Vanuatu, I know of no novel that has been authored by any Ni-Vanuatu writer, in any language. Literary writing among Ni-Vanuatu has for the most part involved short poems in free verse, which appear in a wide range of published outlets, e.g. the local newspapers, school magazines, or collections of poems published either by the authors themselves or by the University of the South Pacific. It is generally more highly educated people who produce such works, and there is a strong tendency for people to write in either English or French. While it is certainly not unknown for people to compose poems in Bislama, I have never encountered any creatively written poetry in a local language. However, it would not be fair to say that local languages are never used for creative written literary purposes, as young people frequently compose new songs to be sung by local ‘stringband’ groups in their local languages. Some such songs are composed exclusively in the local language and are intended purely for local consumption. However, some of the better organised musical groups put out cassettes and compact disks for a national market, with a mix of songs in the local language, Bislama and a metropolitan language, and sometimes with more than one language being used within a single number. Immigrant languages Vanuatu is a small country with few resources, which has not made it a target for immigrants. According to the 1989 census results, the non-citizen population constituted only 2.4% of the total. Most of this number was made up of people on temporary visas, either short-term tourists or employees on three-year renewable work contracts as civil servants. Some are also non-citizens operating businesses in the country, but they are present in the country only on the basis of renewable residence permits. Foreigners can only apply for citizenship after a period of ten years of uninterrupted residence. As successful applicants are required to relinquish any other passports that they hold, there are only very small numbers of expatriates who opt to take up Vanuatu citizenship and become permanent resident immigrants. There is no special linguistic provision made for the several thousand long-term foreign residents in Vanuatu. Given the status of English and French in the country, it is common for such people to assume that a knowledge of either language will be sufficient to allow them to successfully carry out their duties, and very often this confidence is justified. It is extremely rare for any expatriate (except perhaps for the occasional missionary or a linguistic or anthropological

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fieldworker) to learn anything of a local Vanuatu language other than perhaps a few common greetings. It is much more common for expatriates to make an effort to learn Bislama – indeed, for some jobs such a knowledge is indispensable – but the government provides no training in the language. Some non-government organisations (e.g. Peace Corps or other volunteer agencies) and several of the diplomatic missions of foreign governments require new expatriate appointees to undergo training in Bislama and they regularly organise short introductory courses in the language. Other individuals usually have the opportunity to attend courses that are mounted from time to time by the University of the South Pacific’s Port Vila campus. There have been some longer-term immigrant communities whose language is neither English nor French. There have been Vietnamese people resident in Vanuatu in small numbers since people were recruited initially as plantation labourers in the 1920s and 1930s. Most were eventually repatriated to Vietnam in the 1960s, but a small community remained in Vanuatu where they ended up running businesses in Port Vila and Luganville. By and large, the younger generations of Vietnamese have been incorporated into the local francophone education system and have become first-language French speakers. There is also a small community of Chinese immigrants, again often running small businesses in towns. These people have generally gravitated towards the anglophone education system, resulting in a situation where Chinese and Vietnamese business people may need to make use of Bislama with each other as an intermediary language. By and large, the Chinese seem to maintain much closer contact with other overseas Chinese communities, and the local Chinese languages are maintained by the younger generation more than we find among the Vietnamese community. There is no provision made for the maintenance of either of these Asian languages in the education system of Vanuatu, and this has never been seen as a public issue. In fact, neither community is ever likely to attempt to make an issue out of this, understanding full well that their very visible influence in the local economy makes them the occasional target for local resentment. There have also been communities of Wallisians (from the French territory of Wallis and Futuna) and Gilbertese (from newly independent Kiribati, which was formerly part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands administered by Britain). While maintaining their respective vernaculars, the Wallisians have generally gravitated towards French as a language of education, while the i-Kiribati learned English. However, these communities are now much smaller than they used to be prior to independence.28

Language Policy and Planning Language planning: De facto and de jure Apart from the constitutional clauses relating to language that were presented in The Language Profile of Vanuatu, there is no legal reference to language planning of any kind in place in Vanuatu. There have been numerous calls from academics and language practitioners in the past for some kind of official activity in this area given the linguistic diversity of the nation and the kinds of measures

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that might be considered to both protect and foster that diversity (Lynch, 1979; Pacific Churches Research Centre & the University of the South Pacific, 1981; Crowley, 1984; Pacific Languages Unit, 1984; Crowley & Lynch, 1985; Crowley, 1989a; Thomas, 1990; Early, 1999), and the ombudsman has issued a series of reports on the need for some kind of language planning activity (Office of the Ombudsman, 1995, 1996, 1997). Although these suggestions and recommendations are not necessarily all along exactly the same lines, it is no exaggeration to state that to date nothing has ever followed from any of these suggestions in terms of legislation, or indeed any kind of government-sanctioned policy statements for implementation, with the exception of recent moves in the direction of setting up a programme of initial vernacular education (as mentioned in Language Spread). The closest to any de jure language policy from government is what follows directly from what is contained in the constitution. The principal languages of education currently are English and French, while English, French and Bislama have a variety of official functions, with Bislama functioning as a kind of pseudo-national language to allow people to avoid making a politically divisive choice between English and French. A recent survey conducted by myself of a randomly selected set of government offices and offices of government authorities shows that whatever the constitution implies about the constitutional equality of Bislama, English and French as official languages, there is considerable laxity in how this is applied in terms of signage and public notices. Offices that occupy former condominium (i.e. joint British and French) offices often retain the pre-1980 signs with no change, and these were often scrupulously bilingual in English and French. The Post Office (or Hotel des Postes) is one such, where signs indicating the availability of stamps, where one can register one’s letters, or which postbox is for local and overseas mail are still in English and French, but not Bislama. However, more recently produced signs such as those on the post-independence doors, as well as the new public telephones and the new slot for missorted mail, are in English only. The only public use of written Bislama in the post office was a computer printout in three languages informing the public that post office staff will not open any post boxes for people who have forgotten their keys. In the Ministry of Education offices – which formerly housed the French Education Office – many more signs are in French only, as education prior to independence was a national rather than a condominium responsibility. Completely new offices display a range of uses of the three official languages. In the Police Station, some signs are in English only, some in French only, and some are in Bislama only. In the municipal library, the signs on the front appear in all three languages in lettering of equal size, though the hours of opening are given in English and French but not Bislama. The sign at the front of the National Museum is in Bislama only, while the displays inside are described in all three languages. In the offices of the international airline Air Vanuatu and the domestic airline Vanair, most public signage is in English only, with some material appearing in both English and French, though largely ignoring Bislama. Where Bislama appears in a public sign or notice in a government office, it tends not to be used to announce what something is; rather, it is more likely to be used to tell people what to do (or what not to do) while they are in that office.

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Thus, Bislama is more likely to be used to tell people not to smoke, to remember to close the door, to walk and not run in case of fire, or not to leave rubbish behind. English and French, however, are more likely to be used to announce that a particular office is where the Department of Finance is located, or where the Director-General’s office is. The extremely tenuous hold of Bislama as a genuine national language is illustrated by a recent incident about which it is not possible at this stage for legal reasons to provide specific details. It can be reported, however, that one government authority has been given notice by the Office of the Ombudsman (in a letter written only in English) that the authority was under investigation for having violated the provisions of the constitution by having advertised several positions only in Bislama. These were positions that were intended for Ni-Vanuatu, yet the Office of the Ombudsman was insisting that the positions should have been advertised either both in English or French, or in Bislama, English and French, but not in Bislama only. Because of the constitutionally equal status of English and French, there is a government ‘Language Services’ department, whose duties are primarily to ensure that important official documents written in either English or French are made available in the other language. Despite the name, the Language Services Department has no role whatsoever relating to the status or use of the nation’s local languages, and while staff do carry out some translation between the metropolitan languages and Bislama, they make no attempt whatsoever to promote the establishment of a written standard for the language.29 The present status of the vernacular languages of Vanuatu has been of concern to many influential Ni-Vanuatu, and there has been considerable questioning of the appropriateness of the current exclusive emphasis on metropolitan languages in the education system. For example, at a national conference on language policy held in Vila in 1981, which was jointly sponsored by the University of the South Pacific, and the Pacific Churches Research Centre, the dominant theme was expressed as the need to: redress the balance created during the colonial era in which the major emphasis had been given to encouraging the languages of the two metropolitan powers. (Pacific Churches Research Centre & University of the South Pacific, 1981: 4) These kinds of issues have also been debated in parliament. In the meeting of 30 April 1982, for example, there was debate on the role of Bislama in schools. Practically all discussion was either in favour of using Bislama as a medium of instruction in schools, or a much greater use of vernaculars in schools, with just a few speakers arguing in favour of maintaining the status quo with English and French. There was no actual vote taken to determine future policy in this regard however, and subsequent policy decisions until the late 1990s indicated that there was no real political will to follow up these earlier expressions of opinion. Use of Bislama as a medium of initial education is likely not to be accepted by most parents, and Charpentier (1999) even goes so far as to predict major public demonstrations if Bislama were to be adopted as a medium of instruction over vernaculars. Siegel (1996b) writes more encouragingly of the potential for Bislama as a language of formal education, but until public attitudes towards

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the language change significantly, it is likely that the role of Bislama as a language of instruction will be primarily in the non-formal sector or in the area of adult literacy. Vanuatu’s constitution provides for the establishment of a Council of Chiefs, known as the Malvatumauri, which has a responsibility to guide government policy in matters relating to Melanesian traditions in Vanuatu, and in land tenure. The Malvatumauri issued a document in 1983 stating the guidelines within which it operates, and this document includes a very firm commitment to the idea of including vernacular languages in the formal education system in Vanuatu (Paramount Chiefs Malvatumauri, 1983). The first National Development Plan for the period 1982–86 stated that the government intended to set up a Vanuatu Education Commission, which would have the responsibility, among other things, for deciding which language (or languages) should be used at various stages of instruction (National Planning Office, 1982). However, that plan – as well as the subsequent five-year plan – passed, with no such commission being established. Official attitudes towards language in the twenty years of Vanuatu’s independence have therefore largely involved some talk, but little action. To be a little kinder, it could be said that while there has been very little real de jure language planning activity conducted in Vanuatu, the de facto policy could perhaps be characterised as an extreme case of laissez-faire. This official attitude perhaps reflects something of the traditional attitude towards languages. In highly multilingual Melanesian societies, people tend to have fairly pragmatic rather than strongly ideological views about the use of languages in the sense that the primary objective in using a language is to convey a meaning. In addition to these laissez-faire views about language planning, I see this attitude reflected in a very relaxed tolerance that people have towards the form of a message in a language. Messages communicated in Bislama will be accepted in practically any form, even if that form is quite deviant from normal grammatical patterns and lexical norms, as long as it can be understood. In fact, even intelligibility of content is not always required, as politicians are apparently free to anglicise their Bislama randomly to rural audiences in a way that sometimes communicates nothing to their audience apart from the fact that politicians consider themselves far better educated in a metropolitan language than their constituents. The fact that suggestions that greater editorial control over the form of translations into Bislama should be exercised in the media have also repeatedly gone unheard is further evidence of the same kind of attitude. The willingness of speakers of local languages to accept stylistically odd, or even grammatically deviant, biblical translations (see above) can also be seen as an example of the same kind of attitude. However, people’s pragmatism in this regard is often tested, and there is a real issue concerning the extent to which the kind of Bislama that is used publicly by well-educated Ni-Vanuatu to lesser educated people is actually correctly understood. Charpentier (1979: 394–5) cites the following letter to the editor of the New Hebrides News in 1978: Plante taim me lisin long Pidgin News long Radio New Hebrides be sometime me no andastand gud from we olgeta radio man oli iusum plante

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English words we mi no save mining blong olgeta. Me man sikul me stap long town, be me wori from olgeta papa mo mama blong yumi long island, we mi bilif oli no save andastand Pidgin News long radio. Me talem toktok ia from we i no long taim, i kat wan olfala blong yumi long island emi askem mi from mining blong word ‘affectem’ we emi harem long Pidgin news long radio.30 Perhaps through constant exposure to such vocabulary over twenty years, people appear to have become inured to such usage, and they seldom bother any more to complain.31 However, the issue has not gone away as shown by Masing’s (1992: 20–21) report of a more recent incident where a government minister on tour to a rural community gave a public speech which, to this well-educated observer, seemed impressive, yet the local reaction was negative. Further investigation revealed that significant points in the minister’s speech were simply not understood at all when the taped version was played back to people. For instance, the minister at one point declared Polisi olsem i adresem situesen blong yumi tedei ‘Such a policy addresses our situation today’. However, local people simply did not understand this sentence at all, the reason being that adresem and situesen are lexical items that are probably never used by ordinary rural people (and it is possible that some people may not be entirely clear about the word polisi as well). If the minister had wanted to speak absolutely clearly to these people, he should possibly have said something like Plan olsem ya i folem stret laef we yumi stap long hem tedei ‘Such a plan is in close accordance with the life that we are experiencing today’. This kind of creeping anglicisation in public achieves nothing except to constantly remind the rural public that they do not speak English well enough to become a community leader or a Radio Vanuatu announcer in Bislama. This situation has arisen because although Bislama has been declared to be the national language, there has never been any coordinated attempt to provide speakers of the language with the kind of vocabulary which would enable it to be used for the wide range of functions to which it is regularly being put without people having to resort to ad hoc solutions. In any case, even if such steps were to be taken, there is no institutional framework in place for that kind of vocabulary to be disseminated, as Bislama has no place within the education system (Lynch, 1996). As a result of the situation in Vanuatu’s early colonial history, Bislama was a language that had no status among any of its users. As a result, speakers of Bislama undeniably face difficulties today. History has left Vanuatu with a national language that is not fully standardised in its written form, and which is lacking vocabulary when compared to the technical sphere in English and French, and when compared to local vernaculars in the sphere of local knowledge and culture. By ‘unstandardised’, I mean that there is no generally accepted norm against which different individual and regional uses can be judged in formal and written uses of the language. That is to say, people often do not know what is considered to be ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ when they are writing Bislama. Spellings also tend to vary randomly between ‘phonemic’ spellings and the ‘etymological’ spellings, which more closely resemble the spelling of the word in English (or French, if it is a word of French origin). For instance, a written text in Bislama may be found with

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the word for ‘republic’ spelt in any of the following ways: ripablik, repablic, ripublic, republik, republic, repablique, ripablique, republique (and this does not exhaust all possibilities32). The banknotes in the national currency, the vatu,33 are marked as having been issued by the Central Bank blong Vanuatu and not, as we might have expected, the Sentrol Bang blong Vanuatu. Also, when borrowed words are accepted into Bislama, speakers face a choice in some cases of two forms of the same word, one derived from English and the other derived from French. For instance, should a new word like ‘centimetre’ be expressed in Bislama as sentimita (based on its English form) or as sontimet (based on its French form), or perhaps as some kind of mixture of the two, e.g. sontimeta? Speakers do in fact alternate in these kinds of ways when faced with this situation, such as when writing for the newspaper, the Vanuatu Weekly/Hebdomadaire, for instance, or speaking over Radio Vanuatu (Ligo, 1981), or taking part in parliamentary debate, or making any kind of public speech at all in fact. Something of a de facto standard for the spelling of Bislama has, in fact, emerged in recent years (Crowley, 1996a). Pastor Bill Camden was among the first to set about devising an orthography for the language in the early 1970s. His spellings were originally systematised in an unpublished spelling list that was distributed at the time among expatriates who were learning Bislama, and others who were interested in the religious translation work that he was involved in. Some of the early spellings that he adopted were different from those that are more widely followed today, such as the use of ai to represent the diphthong in Krais ‘Christ’ (which is spelt Kraes today), and the appearance of a vowel between the two consonants in bilong ‘of’ (which is written today as blong). Camden’s initial spelling system was based on his own understanding of the phonological system of Bislama, and perhaps also in part on pre-existing orthographic conventions for mutually intelligible Tok Pisin (spoken in Papua New Guinea), where such spellings had for some time been relatively fixed. Not surprisingly, this first attempt to systematise spellings was subject to revision, and an editorial committee of people involved in Bible translation sat between 1974 and 1976 to determine a more generally acceptable spelling system. It was at that time that the spellings ai and au were changed to ae and ao respectively, largely to reflect the preference of Ni-Vanuatu on the committee who reportedly felt that these spellings were more appropriate to what they perceived to be the phonetic values of these diphthongs. The manager of Maropa Bookshop, which was one of the main booksellers in Port Vila at the time, then asked Camden if he would produce a reference dictionary (Camden, personal communication). Accordingly, in 1977 he produced A Descriptive Dictionary: Bislama to English, which Maropa Bookshop then published and marketed. Although this book suffered from the unfortunate lack of an English-Bislama section, it filled a much needed gap and came to be widely used for the remainder of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s as a source of Bislama usage and spelling. Since language was very much on everybody’s mind at the time that Vanuatu gained its independence in 1980, the Pacific Churches Research Centre and the University of the South Pacific in 1981 jointly convened a conference to discuss language policy in the country. This conference discussed a wide range of issues relating to the status of not just French and English, but also of vernacular

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languages and Bislama. In his opening address, the then Prime Minister, Hon. Fr Walter Lini, focused his comments on the importance of: . . . developing Bislama as the main language of communication within the country . . . He assured the conference of the present government’s full support should appropriate recommendations regarding the development of Bislama emerge from the discussions. (Pacific Churches Research Centre and the University of the South Pacific, 1981: 4) The conference was valuable in that it allowed influential Ni-Vanuatu to voice their attitudes to Bislama and the question of standardisation publicly. Some opinions reflected the kinds of colonial attitudes of English speakers in the pre-independence era. Tor (1981) expressed the doubt that Bislama was a real language at all, in the following words: ‘So far, the language (if I may call it so) has not been standardised.’ Other comments related to the lack of teaching materials and the lack of technical vocabulary in Bislama, which would prevent its wider use in the formal education system (Liliu, 1981; Tor, 1981). The lack of standardisation in Bislama spelling was repeatedly seen as a stumbling block in securing any wider range of functions for the language. In the end, the conference did not resolve any substantive issues relating to the development of a standardised orthography for Bislama. However, participants did call for the government to establish a permanent commission that should report regularly on the use and development of the languages of Vanuatu in the life of the country. Despite a general feeling at that conference that standardisation of Bislama orthography was desirable, no specific resolutions were passed as to what should represent the standard, since it was felt that this was an area that would require further linguistic research. However, since the commission that the conference called for was never established, no formal mechanism was ever established for following through on this suggestion at an official level. While parliamentarians, government officials and foreign academics and advisers were discussing the status of Bislama and the issue of standardisation, ordinary people continued to write the language. Although the spellings in the translations of the gospels, along with the subsequent hymnals and also Camden’s dictionary, had a significant impact on how some people wrote the language, these spellings were certainly not immediately adopted by everybody. Charpentier (1979: 168–92) documents the widespread variability in spellings that rapidly developed in secular written materials as an increasing amount of material in Bislama was published in the run-up to independence, and also in the aftermath of independence. Given the lack of any official support for the spellings used by the churches, Camden’s original spellings were further fine-tuned for use in biblical translated materials under the auspices of the Kokonas Baebol Translesen (‘Coconut Bible Translation’) team in Luganville. Although this group included representation from a variety of Christian denominations, as well as Ni-Vanuatu from a number of different islands, the influence of Camden’s earlier spellings was clearly obvious in the spelling list that was issued as Ling et al. (1984) under the title Fasin blong raetem Bislama (‘The Way to write Bislama’). Although this was not formally published, the Kokonas Bible translation team did make the list available to those who were interested.

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The lack of public availability of the list meant that many people could not check their spellings against this latest set of authorised Kokonas spellings. Another problem for the secular writer was that this list contained an understandable concentration of spellings for words in the religious area (e.g. names of books of the Bible such as Hibrus ‘Hebrews’, Habakuk ‘Habakkuk’), while a substantial number of lower frequency non-religious words were completely lacking (e.g. naleplep ‘mud’, nasiksik ‘kind of bird’). There were also some spellings that had been publicised earlier which were altered by the Kokonas team, which most secular writers could not have known about. This led to a continuation of the situation of the 1970s and the 1980s in which ecclesiastical texts were published with systematic spellings, while spellings in secular texts ranged along a continuum between those set out in Camden (1977) and a much more ad hoc anglicised (and sometimes even gallicised) set of spellings. While there was often random variation in the spelling of secular Bislama materials, they contained a number of spelling conventions that were becoming increasingly consistent, and these were sometimes at variance with spellings found in ecclesiastical materials. Around the time that the 1984 spelling list was circulated by the Kokonas Baebol team, it was becoming apparent that there was a possibility of two separate varieties of written Bislama emerging: an ecclesiastical Bislama on the one hand, and a secular Bislama on the other hand. Some journalists with Radio Vanuatu at the time, after having taken a course in translation techniques at the University of the South Pacific, came to recognise the unnecessary difficulty of the task that they regularly faced in having to translate news bulletins from English into Bislama at short notice and with no set guidelines for translation. It was therefore decided that a Komiti blong Bislama (‘Bislama Committee’) should be established to assist them in this task. Sitting on this committee were people working with the Media Department (under which is subsumed both Radio Vanuatu and the official government newspaper Vanuatu Weekly/Hebdomadaire), Language Services (which provides official translations for a variety of government departments), as well as representatives of a variety of government and non-government organisations involved in providing the public access to developmental information, such as the Curriculum Development Unit and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Also sitting on the committee in an advisory capacity was a representative of the Pacific Languages Unit of the University of the South Pacific. While the committee did not see standardisation of spelling as its primary objective, some decisions regarding spelling were unavoidable given that words needed to be written down in order for them to be disseminated to departments in government, as well as non-government organisations which might like to make use of these lists. The committee ended up endorsing a number of orthographic decisions that were in line with secular preference and which were at variance with the 1984 Kokonas spelling list. These included the following in particular: (1) That the glide y should be written as i immediately after a consonant, as in a word such as giaman ‘tell lies’. In ecclesiastical materials, the spelling y was being used, i.e. gyaman. (2) The postposed demonstrative ‘this, that’ should be exceptionally spelt ia,

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rather than ya as in ecclesiastical materials (and in conformity with Camden’s earliest spelling). The committee met fairly regularly between 1986 and 1988 and assembled a substantial body of terminological decisions, which were continually updated on computer and distributed to members of the committee. By 1988, however, committee members began to feel a sense of frustration because some of their office managers did not allow time for their staff to attend the monthly meetings, arguing that this was not a proper part of their job. In any case, their decisions bore no official weight and there was no way of enforcing (or even encouraging) compliance from the general public, except perhaps by example. In addition, the committee had no budget for secretarial staff or printing in order to disseminate its decisions more widely. Because of these difficulties, the secretary of the committee in 1988 made a formal proposal to the Prime Minister’s Department (which was responsible for both Media Department and Language Services) that government should grant the committee the power to make official decisions in the area of the lexical development and in the standardisation of the spelling of Bislama. Receipt of this proposal was never acknowledged by the Prime Minister’s office, and there was certainly no decision taken to act on the recommendations. In fact, despite my reference to the Prime Minister’s expression of support for the standardisation of written Bislama in 1981 (Pacific Churches Research Centre and the University of the South Pacific, 1981: 4), he appears to have undergone a rapid change of opinion because in the published summary of the 1982 debate on language in parliament, the Hon. Fr Walter Lini went on record as saying: . . . The only reason to teach Bislama in schools was to read it and write it. This would require standardisation, and would take the life out of it. If they wanted to make it a unifying factor they should not teach it. (Summarised Record of Proceedings, 1st ordinary session of 1982, Friday April 30) Given this statement, the lack of success of the proposal from the Komiti blong Bislama should perhaps not have been too surprising. By the late 1980s, Camden’s dictionary was out of print. Not only this, but it was considerably out of date in that much new vocabulary and many new expressions had entered the language in the intervening years of social and political development. Given the obvious need for some kind of dictionary of Bislama to be made available to the public, Crowley (1990b) published an updated dictionary, which also included an English-Bislama section that was lacking in Camden’s original dictionary. This dictionary was compiled without any official and representative body to decide on orthographic issues, so it was explicitly stated that ‘this dictionary is not intended as a spelling reference manual’ (Crowley, 1990b: 29). Its main purpose, therefore, was to show the meanings and uses of Bislama words. However, since consistency is obviously necessary when writing a dictionary, some decisions had to be made where there was variability in the ways in which words were spelled. The strategy that was followed was basically to adopt the spellings in Ling et al. (1984) except in cases where popular usage seemed to be at variance with these recommendations. In particular, the dictionary reflected the

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decisions made earlier by the Komiti blong Bislama. In cases of orthographic variation, etymological solutions were adopted, or solutions based on the preferences of younger and more educated people, as these were felt to be more likely to be the people actually writing the language for publication. Thus, spellings such as fifti ‘fifty’ and giaman ‘tell lies’ were favoured over the ecclesiastical preference for spellings such as fefte and gyaman. As far as possible, however, the dictionary reflected as full a range as possible of pronunciations of words in Bislama. Thus, for example, a word such as nabanga ‘banyan’ was also entered with napanga, nabangga, nambanga and nambangga being variants of the same word. This meant that no attempt was made to specify which of these spellings should be regarded as ‘standard’. In attempting to please everybody in this respect, the dictionary seems to have ended up pleasing nobody. Those who favoured the spellings in Ling et al. (1984) felt that the dictionary was likely to undermine the work in standardisation that they had already done. In desperation for a standard spelling, some secular organisations inputted the entries in Crowley (1990b) as a basis for a computer spell-check list since no other list was publicly available, although the original intention was that this kind of thing should not happen. It seems that despite any original disclaimers, people simply saw Crowley (1990b) as a dictionary and assumed that what it contained was automatically to be treated as a set of standard spellings. However, when people tried to use Crowley (1990b) in this way, they found that in many cases it did not give the firm guidance that they wanted. Somebody wanting to know how to spell the word for ‘banyan’, for example, would find the dictionary of little help as it contained a whole array of spellings. Requests were subsequently made for firmer guidance to be given if any revised form of the dictionary were to be produced. By 1995, stocks of Crowley (1990b) were completely exhausted. It was clear that a reprint of the original dictionary was out of question and that a new and more prescriptive edition would need to be produced to meet the expectations that people have of a dictionary. While a purely descriptive dictionary can be produced by just a single person, this is clearly not the case with a prescriptive dictionary, as this must meet some kind of community expectations. In 1995, Wilson Kaluat of the Summer Institute of Linguistics approached me about progress on the revised edition, asking me particularly about the extent of my flexibility on orthographic issues. It was his hope that some kind of unification could take place between the emerging secular and ecclesiastical standardised spellings. If any progress was to be made in this area, it was clear that some kind of intermediary body would need to be established in order to facilitate discussion between proponents of one spelling over another. Fortunately, by this stage representatives of a number of non-governmental organisations had established the Literacy Association of Vanuatu as an umbrella body to coordinate policies and practices in the area of literacy, both secular and ecclesiastical. The question of Bislama orthography was clearly one that could legitimately come under the aegis of such a committee. In the absence of any appropriate governmental agency, this committee then became the arbiter in cases where there were differences about how particular words, or categories of words, should be spelled.

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The committee included representatives from a variety of bodies. Included from the government were the Curriculum Development Unit and Media Services, as well as the Malvatumauri, i.e. the National Council of Chiefs. Secular non-government organisations included Nasonal Komuniti Development Trust, National Council of Women and the University of the South Pacific. Finally, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Kokonas Baebol translators were represented as religious organisations. John Lynch from the University of the South Pacific was asked to chair an ad hoc committee of the association to deal with unification of spelling. His approach was to isolate those areas in which there had been lack of agreement and to seek to establish the extent to which particular spellings had most widespread support among committee members. Decisions were then transmitted to myself as compiler of the dictionary and to the Bislama Bible translators for adoption in the text of the Bible that was being prepared for publication to allow comment and reaction before a final decision was made. The result was the appearance of Crowley (1995b) as a published dictionary, and on the basis of this, a standardised spelling list has been distributed to those interested for use on computers. Literacy There is no legislation in place which relates to the promotion of literacy, and the only legal references to literacy of which I am aware are the constitutional provisions mentioned earlier which imply that English and French, as principal languages of education, should be regarded as the major languages of literacy in the country (more particularly in the wording found in the French text). Government policy, then, is geared towards the promotion of literacy in these two languages via the formal education system. There has never been any comprehensive survey of the country to determine the extent of literacy, nor to determine which languages people are literate in. The 1999 national census was the first to include a question relating to literacy. It will be interesting to examine the results of this question when the published results appear, though there are some reasons for expressing some caution beforehand in interpreting these figures. The census question asked individuals if they were literate in ‘a local language’ (without asking which one), Bislama, English, French or ‘any other language’. Some enumerators allowed respondents to give a ‘yes’ answer to more than one of these possibilities, while other enumerators interpreted their instructions as allowing for only one possible choice. Another obvious problem with a question that asks simply whether one can read and write in a particular language is the question of degrees of competence. I witnessed one respondent say that he could read and write in his vernacular ‘just a little bit’. Having independently witnessed this person attempting to read printed stories in the language, I do not think that this person was being unduly modest in his assessment of his own abilities, as he is far more literate in Bislama than he is in his own language, and quite possibly more literate in English than in his own language. However, the census form in this case will suggest equal degrees of literacy in all three languages. Secular literacy in non-metropolitan languages is currently being actively promoted in Vanuatu in a number of different parts of the country and by a

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variety of organisations. Siegel (1996a: 103–7) indicates that a number of secular non-governmental organisations (e.g. Nasonal Komuniti Developmen Trust, Foundation for the People of the South Pacific, Vanuatu National Council of Women, Vanuatu Preschools Association, Vanuatu Rural Development Training Centres Association) have been involved in the promotion of secular literacy either in local vernaculars or in Bislama among teenagers and adults, and sometimes also children, outside the context of the formal education system. A number of organisations with religious affiliations (e.g. the Anglican Church, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i Faith, the Presbyterian Church and World Vision Vanuatu) have also promoted vernacular literacy or literacy in Bislama in different areas in the context of public education, typically in matters relating to public health, agriculture, women’s affairs and environmental issues. As mentioned earlier, the Education Master Plan that is currently under development aims to foster vernacular literacy by teaching students around the country to read and write in their vernaculars for the first three years of their formal schooling in the local language. Language planning agencies There are no government agencies that can be referred to as language planning agencies in Vanuatu. Although the Ministry of Education and the Language Services Department operate in different areas of language activity, this mostly involves the relationship between English and French, as already described in. Other arms of government which are active in different sorts of ways in relation to language in Vanuatu are described below.

Vanuatu Cultural Centre This is an institution which, in addition to administering the National Museum and the National Library, is responsible for making recommendations on cultural policy, as well as for implementing decisions in this area, including the approval of linguistic researchers from overseas universities. The Cultural Centre has set up an extensive network of volunteer ‘fieldworkers’ based in their local communities, who take responsibility for recording information relating to important or endangered local knowledge. Much of this information is recorded in the local language, and it is then held on deposit in the archives of the Cultural Centre. These fieldworkers have also been encouraged to record traditional stories, along with culturally significant vocabulary in local languages. However, despite the fact that these activities have been going on for several decades now, much of the information that has been collected has been deposited in archives and Port Vila without being recirculated back into local communities in a form that is accessible to those communities. On occasion, the Cultural Centre has entered into debates at the national level relating to language. As mentioned below, for example, the Cultural Centre responded to the 1996 ombudsman’s report on the observance of national multilingualism in Vanuatu by criticising the neglect in the report of issues relating to the nation’s vernaculars. During the latter part of the 1990s, there has been a linguist attached temporarily to the Cultural Centre. The responsibilities attached to this position have

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been to promote training in linguistics for the fieldworkers, to organise and archive materials with linguistic content (including oral tradition) that are housed by the Cultural Centre, record any useful linguistic information about any part of the country, and to contribute to public comment on language issues generally, especially with regard to local languages and Bislama. Many of these duties could be characterised as ‘warehousing’ (or ‘museumising’) linguistic information. Given that there is strong community pressure for the recording and archiving of archaic and obsolete linguistic data, it is difficult to envisage any alternative options for a linguist associated with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. In fact, any linguist conducting research independently of the Cultural Centre typically faces strong normative pressure from local communities to record archaic and obsolete vocabulary (sometimes even to the exclusion of modern lexical innovations).

Office of the Ombudsman In accordance with Article 62:3 of the constitution, the ombudsman began issuing annual reports on the observance of multilingualism in the country in 1995. (The 15-year delay between the initial promulgation of the constitution and the issuance of the first report was caused, in part, by the fact that for many years governments failed to make an appointment to the constitutionally required position of the ombudsman.)34 The ombudsman’s second report in 1996 commented that the set of recommendations that were made in the 1995 report were just as valid a year later, but that while those recommendations were politely received by government, there was no move towards implementation (Office of the Ombudsman, 1996: 4). In particular, the ombudsman complained that no agency had been established to monitor the standard of written texts or to oversee the development of terminology. Additional recommendations were made in the 1997 report, including the following: (1) It was recommended that parliamentary minutes should be recorded in the language used in the member’s actual speech. While 95% of parliamentary statements are delivered in Bislama (Office of the Ombudsman, 1996: 13), the minutes are kept exclusively in English and French. (2) The ombudsman recommended that there should also be high level monitoring through a tertiary educational institution of trends in written and spoken Bislama, leading ultimately to the development of a standardised form of the language. While some of the ombudsman’s recommendations have been positively viewed by academic observers, the reports have so far been a disappointment to many who have professional expertise and experience with the language situation in Vanuatu. Having chosen to interpret the constitutional requirement to report on ‘the observance of multilingualism’ primarily to mean ensuring the equal status of English and French, with some additional attention being paid to Bislama, there has been very little mention of the indigenous languages of the country. The content of the reports has been severely critiqued in print for their narrowness by Early (1999), as well as in an unpublished response to the 1996 report by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.

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University of the South Pacific The University of the South Pacific is not a direct arm of the government of Vanuatu, though the government, along with a number of other regional governments, does have some say in the governance of the university through its ministerial member on the university council. The university is also not in any sense a language planning agency, though the Pacific Languages Unit of the university was established in Vanuatu in 1983. Its current mission statement incorporates the following aims: (1) to raise the awareness of Pacific Islanders about problems and issues relating to their own languages and other languages spoken in their countries; (2) to provide Pacific Islanders with the skills necessary to ensure the survival and development of their languages; (3) to teach university credit courses in and about Pacific languages; and (4) to conduct research into Pacific languages and the language situation in the region. The Unit offers an undergraduate major in Pacific Language Studies, which includes individual courses on language issues in the Pacific, translation and dictionary-making, as well as other courses providing a more general linguistic background. In line with this mission statement, the Pacific Languages Unit has acted in a variety of other ways to promote the development of the languages of the region, and in particular those of Vanuatu. A number of the academic staff of the unit over the years have been appointed because of their active involvement in the documentation of both Bislama and the local languages of Vanuatu (while other staff have been involved in documenting languages in other parts of the region that the university serves). Over the years, present and past Pacific Languages Unit staff such as John Lynch, Robert Early and Terry Crowley have produced comprehensive descriptions of a number of Vanuatu languages. The university has also encouraged the development of secular vernacular literatures by providing a publishing outlet for collections of vernacular stories in a number of languages (Viralalao, 1981; Carlot, 1983; Crowley & Mael, 1984; Tabi & Buli, 1985; Mabonlala, 1986; Luwi et al., 1988; Vira et al., 1997). The Pacific Languages Unit has in the past sought to raise awareness about Bislama in particular. Because Bislama has not been taught as a subject – or often even been tolerated as a language of verbal interaction in classrooms in Vanuatu – it was decided that a tertiary course about Bislama which is taught in Bislama should be developed (Crowley, 1996b). However, in developing such course materials, the problem of the lack of a viable set of metalinguistic terminology in the language had to be faced. Given the kinds of linguistic concepts that were needed, it was necessary to develop a fairly extensive set of linguistic terminology from scratch. In making such terminological decisions, the following general principles were followed: (1) If an existing Bislama term could easily be semantically extended to express a new meaning, then the first preference was to do this. In discussing word

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classes, for example, the meaning of the word kale ‘wedge’ was extended to refer to the class of conjunctions, as these can be conceived of as ‘wedging’ a subordinate clause into a complex sentence. The extension of the meaning of the word nem ‘name’ to refer to nouns is based on the fact that we sometimes do the same kind of thing in English, when people refer to nouns as ‘naming words’. (2) If a compound was based on pre-existing Bislama forms, and derived according to existing patterns of compounding, and is semantically fairly transparent, this solution was preferred to borrowing a new term. Thus, rather than borrowing the word morpheme as mofim, it was decided to refer to morphemes as haf-toktok ‘pieces of words’. (3) If neither of these strategies produced a satisfactory solution, borrowings were used. Preference was given to borrowings that could be identifiable with both an English and a French source. Thus, kreol was adopted as the term for ‘creole’ as people educated in both English and French would be able to recognise the source word. (4) In borrowing words from English or French, the preference was to choose the form that involved the least amount of phonological and orthographic ‘deformation’ from the original to produce a plausible-looking Bislama word. For instance, in seeking a word for ‘subject’, sabjek was chosen from English, as the source. If the French word sujet had been chosen as the source instead, the regular rules for dealing with borrowings from French into Bislama would have resulted in the form sise, which would probably have French-educated and English-educated people alike wondering as to its source. The general principle was adopted that borrowing should be avoided unless all other options had been tried first. Given that the word preposition is found in English and préposition in French, it might seem natural that the best choice in Bislama would be to simply adopt the form preposisen. In fact, however, this term was avoided in favour of hinsis, which is a pre-existing word in Bislama, meaning ‘hinge’. Clearly, then, strategy (1) has over-ridden strategy (4) in this case. This is not an isolated case, as the examples in Table 4 illustrate other examples of the same kind of terminological decisions. Some of the kinds of compounds that were adopted in preference to words of English and French origin that could have been borrowed are also set out in Table 5. While it may seem somewhat perverse to insist on the use of non-English and Table 4 Bislama grammatical terminology based on semantic extension Bislama word

Original meaning

English word

French word

singaot

‘shout’

interjection

interjection

wok

‘work’

verb

verbe

jenis

‘replacement’

pronoun

pronom

plante

‘many’

plural

pluriel

wan

‘one’

singular

singulier

poen

‘point’

demonstrative

démonstratif

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Table 5 Bislama grammatical terminology based on compounds Bislama word

Constituent meanings English word

dabolem smolhaf

‘double-small-part’

partial reduplication réduplication partielle

bislama-lanwis

‘Bislama-language’

pidgin

wok-nating

‘work-plain’

intransitive verb

verbe intransitif

wok-samting

‘work-thing’

transitive verb

verbe transitif

fulblok saon

‘completely-blocked stop sound’

plosive

nus saon

‘nose sound’

nasale

nasal

French word

pidgin

non-French words, a justification of this kind of practice appears in the introduction to the published reference grammar of Bislama in terms of the need to make it clear that Bislama is not just a kind of broken English. Choosing a unique set of terminology to describe Bislama indicates to people that the language can be talked about in its own terms, without needing to refer to the grammatical categories of English or French (or even Latin). In addition to these official (or semi-official) organisations, there is a number of non-government organisations which are involved in language planning-type activities. Each of these is discussed below.

Literacy Association of Vanuatu This is a semi-formal collective that includes representatives from a number of government and non-government organisations involved in the promotion of literacy in the country. An ad hoc working committee on Bislama spelling was established in 1995 by the president of the association. Various individuals and organisations were asked to make submissions to the committee relating to the standardisation of Bislama spelling. These submissions were considered and the resulting recommendations were incorporated into the dictionary that was published by Crowley (1995b). It was originally hoped that the decisions of this committee would ultimately be given some kind of official endorsement, though that has not happened as yet, nor does it show any signs of happening. In the meantime, those organisations represented on this coordinating body (i.e. the University of the South Pacific, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Bislama Baebol blong Vanuatu, Nasonal Komuniti Developmen Tras, Malvatumaori, Curriculum Development Unit, National Council of Women and Media Services) agreed to promote the adoption of a single standard spelling system for the language, which this dictionary aimed to facilitate, and the spellings in Baebol long Bislama, appearing in 1996, are basically in line with those of the published dictionary.35 Summer Institute of Linguistics The Summer Institute of Linguistics is an international linguistic research organisation that aims to translate the Bible into the lesser-known languages of the world. The organisation has been active in Vanuatu since 1982, operating locally under the auspices of the Vanuatu Christian Council. It posts highly trained

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personnel to rural areas to learn and then to carry out descriptive research on individual vernaculars with a view to developing writing systems (or improving existing writing systems) for those languages, promoting literacy and translating the Bible (and associated reading materials). These projects are usually regarded as long-term projects, taking up to twenty years (or more) to complete. In some countries, this organisation has come under some political suspicion because of an association with conservative regimes such as that of the repressive administration of the former Indonesian government in Irian Jaya, and some academic linguists (and anthropologists) share these suspicions. Rather than speaking out against repressive governments, the Summer Institute of Linguistics has generally publicly maintained a low profile, presumably in order to be allowed to continue its work. Not surprisingly, there was some concern expressed about the possible involvement of the organisation in Vanuatu when it first proposed beginning operations in the early 1980s, though these concerns have usually been fairly low key. Perhaps because of the organisation’s vulnerability to such criticisms, it also maintains a fairly low profile publicly in Vanuatu, preferring to keep its activities visible at the local rather than national level. The ombudsman’s reports, for example, which were criticised by academics and other national institutions, appear to have been met with silence from the Summer Institute of Linguistics. However, the organisation has consistently worked with the full support and appreciation of its sponsoring body, the Vanuatu Christian Council, for the significant input that it has made in the development of written forms of vernaculars. Regional and international influences The language planning activities that were described in the preceding section are all intranational in the sense that they derive from the work of institutions that have been specifically set up to address issues relating to the situation within Vanuatu. At the same time, however, there is an element of international influence present with some of these institutions. In particular, the University of the South Pacific is a regional institution which services the tertiary educational needs of twelve separate polities: Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu. Although the Pacific Languages Unit is based in Vanuatu and its staff have often been appointed on the basis of their familiarity with the linguistic situation in the country, the university is constrained in its level of involvement within the country by its need to be seen to be servicing the linguistic needs of the other countries as well. The Summer Institute of Linguistics is also an international organisation with members operating in a large number of multilingual countries. While the details of the organisation’s Vanuatu operations are largely left to the staff on the ground to implement locally, I have already mentioned the impact that the sometimes unfortunate choice in the past of political bedmates appears to have had on the organisation’s willingness or ability to speak out publicly in Vanuatu on important language issues. The fact that it is staffed largely by expatriates – though providing practical training to large numbers of local people in literacy work – also to some extent impairs the ability of the organisation to participate actively in national debate.36

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Regional and international influences on the linguistic situation in Vanuatu can also be found in some other areas involving organisations that have no formal presence in the country. Language policy in Vanuatu is no doubt influenced to some extent by events that take place – or which do not take place – in neighbouring Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. These are both Melanesian countries which have a very similar linguistic make-up to Vanuatu, and there are many parallels between all three countries in terms of language planning (or lack thereof). In the 1980s, these three countries established what came to be known as the informal ‘Melanesian Spearhead Group’ of nations within the South Pacific. When this grouping was first established, there was some casual consideration of the possibility of actively promoting the development of Melanesian Pidgin throughout the three countries, though talk along these lines rapidly faded out, particularly as other Melanesian polities such as Fiji and New Caledonia came to be involved. Since Melanesian Pidgin is not spoken in either of these countries, the promotion of the language within this political grouping then ceased to be a viable issue. Events in Papua New Guinea have more recently affected language policy in Vanuatu in another way. The current push for the development of initial vernacular education mentioned earlier follows a fact-finding visit conducted by staff from the Ministry of Education to Papua New Guinea in 1997, where a similar programme was already being implemented. This visit ultimately led to the adoption of the Education Master Plan referred to above. It is entirely possible that had Papua New Guinea not formally adopted such a change in educational policy, Vanuatu may well have stuck with the status quo by which English and French continued as the sole languages of education. The Association de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT) is an international organisation which is similar in function to the Commonwealth of Nations, in that both represent groupings of politically, culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse nations that have in common a link through shared colonial history with the United Kingdom and France respectively, along with a shared linguistic inheritance from those two countries. Vanuatu is one of a very small number of polities – along with Canada – which belong to both the anglophone Commonwealth of Nations and the francophone ACCT.37 While the ACCT has no influence at all on national policy with regard to Bislama or any of the local vernaculars, membership of the organisation does act as a reminder to the Vanuatu government that both English and French have constitutionally equal status. Such factors were perhaps a consideration in some aspects of the ombudsman’s 1996 report, which Early (1999) criticised as placing undue emphasis on the question of ensuring exact parity between English and French, while playing down (or ignoring) other important language issues in the country. Office of the Ombudsman (1996: 1) notes that a significant amount of work on the report to parliament on the observance of multilingualism in that year was carried out by a Canadian volunteer who had worked previously in Vanuatu’s Language Services Department. Given Canada’s national preoccupation with ensuring parity between English and French, and the neglect, in comparison, of its indige-

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nous languages, this kind of bias in the published ombudsman’s report is perhaps not too surprising.

Language Maintenance and Prospects Language transmission Predictions have been made in print that large numbers of languages in the Pacific, including Vanuatu, have a grim future. Krauss, in Hale et al. (1992: 6) argues that as many as 50% of the languages spoken in the world today should be regarded as moribund. Mühlhäusler (1987: 6) argues with specific reference to the Pacific that: contacts with outside colonial powers have had such a traumatic effect on the ecology of most Pacific speech communities that the languages have either changed very rapidly or disappeared altogether. So severe are the structural changes to those languages that have survived, he argues, that: . . . the grammatical adjustment that is encountered in most Pacific languages that have come under the influence of expatriate missions and education systems is hardly less serious than language death itself. (Mühlhäusler, 1987: 16) Mühlhäusler seems to be arguing that those Pacific languages that have survived the colonial onslaught are little more than indigenous relexifications of European structural patterns, and that this structural invasion of vernacular speech patterns represents a very serious threat to a fair number of apparently functioning indigenous languages (Mühlhäusler, 1996). Speaking of the linguistic situation in Oceania, Dixon (1991) attempts to indicate which specific languages of Oceania are under threat: The tragic saga of language extinction which has swept across Australia is likely to extend into other parts of this region during the twenty-first century. An optimistic prediction is that of these c. 1,980 languages perhaps 200 will be spoken in AD 2200 (some linguists would prefer a figure of twenty or thirty). (Dixon, 1991: 230) He states that every language with fewer than 10,000 speakers is at risk of extinction in the medium term (Dixon, 1991: 231). On current population figures, this covers all but one of the 80 actively spoken languages in Vanuatu. He also states that languages with less than 1000 speakers are ‘severely’ at risk. Based on the figures in Table 3, this would mean that only about 40 of the 80 actively spoken languages of Vanuatu are out of immediate danger. There clearly has been some loss of languages in Vanuatu since initial contact with Europeans in the first half of the 19th century, and some other languages are clearly moribund today, as described in the following section. However, of those languages which are currently being actively passed on to a new generation of children who grow up monolingual in that language until they are exposed to languages of wider communication, it is much more difficult to

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agree with suggestions that the languages should also be considered as moribund. For one thing, it is obviously oversimplistic to take raw population figures on their own as evidence of language viability. What we need to pay attention to is not the number of speakers that a language has, but the range of contexts in which its speakers regularly make use of that language. The language of Aneityum in southern Vanuatu, for example, has only about 900 speakers. However, apart from a small settlement of people from neighbouring Futuna, where a different language is spoken, the local language is used by all generations of Aneityumese for practically all daily spoken functions, as well as some written functions. This language has far fewer speakers than the Maori language of New Zealand, which currently has tens of thousands of native speakers. However, intergenerational transmission of Maori has been the exception rather than the rule since the 1950s, with the result that native speakers of the language are rapidly increasing in average age. Real threats in the future to the viability of small languages such as that of Aneityum can be envisaged, however. If scientific predictions about rising sea levels associated with global warming turn out to be correct, some coastal areas would become uninhabitable. Some communities may need to be relocated, and this may put some languages at risk, particularly if they have to move to another island. However, even relocation need not mean the end if a community is relocated as a community. For instance, there are about 500 people who originate from Maat village on Southeast Ambrym who relocated to land close to Port Vila in the 1950s, and they have maintained their language in their new location, and are successfully passing it on to the following generations. Introduced diseases resulted in the loss of some languages in Vanuatu in the 19th century, and the same could happen again. The possible spread of HIV/ AIDS, which is currently having a major demographic impact in parts of Africa, could also easily devastate small languages in a country such as Vanuatu. To date, however, Vanuatu is one of the few countries in the world which has not reported a single case of infection, though it is predicted that if it did establish a foothold, the epidemiological pattern could be expected to mirror that of Africa where the infection is spread primarily through heterosexual contact (as is also beginning to take place in Papua New Guinea). While it is not difficult to see why people might be tempted to predict large-scale language shift in the not too distant future in Vanuatu, I would argue that we should exercise caution in generalising from what has already happened with Australian languages to this rather different situation. What is really needed to assess the future viability of languages in Vanuatu is demographic evidence, along with detailed studies of language use (and trends of usage) in individual speech communities. What I would like to do now is to examine in as much detail as possible the situation regarding language maintenance in Vanuatu, on the basis of questions relating to language in the 1989 census, as well as my own observations as to how languages are actually used in this multilingual nation. In the personal questionnaire in the 1989 census in Vanuatu, there was one question that explicitly related to language ability, and this was worded as follows:

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Wanem lanwis yu save, talem olgeta we yu save?38 Eni lokol lanwis

YES

NO

Bislama

YES

NO

Inglis

YES

NO

Franis

YES

NO

Nara lanwis blong nara kaontri

YES

NO

The published report of this census tabulates the responses to this question according to local government and urban areas in Table B61 (reproduced as Table 6), while Table B62 (reproduced as Table 7) breaks the figures down according to age and sex. I would argue on the basis of these figures that there is clearly no immediate prospect of large-scale language shift taking place in Vanuatu, despite the very small average size of individual languages. These figures indicate that 97.4% of people over all age groups living in rural areas answered that they could speak a local language. At the same time, the figures suggest that total language security cannot necessarily be assured. Comparing both rural males and females across the three age groups tabulated, the proportion of vernacular speakers drops Table 6 Percentage of residents aged six years and over who could speak various languages (Office of Statistics 1991:127) Total number

Bislama and French

Bislama Eng and French

39.6

8.9

1.9

4,631

27.3

12.9

2.0

14,739

Bislama only

Eng or Fr only or other foreign lg

Bislama and English

9.1

0.1

0.0

10.7

0.4

0.0

Local language only

Rural Banks/Torres Santo/Malo Ambae/Maewo Pentecost

9.0

0.1

0.1

44.0

9.5

1.9

8,754

20.6

0.1

0.0

28.6

16.7

2.8

9,037

Malakula

3.9

0.3

0.0

34.2

23.2

2.1

15,348

Ambrym

4.4

0.3

0.0

41.3

22.2

3.8

5,871

Paama

13.9

0.1

0.0

40.8

15.3

2.6

1,401

Epi

2.7

4.4

0.0

44.3

9.3

1.5

2,922

Shepherds

8.0

0.0

0.0

45.3

17.0

3.2

3,151

Efate

1.9

0.3

0.1

56.2

25.6

7.5

9,372

Tafea

30.3

0.0

0.0

22.3

10.3

1.7

17,744

12.5

0.3

0.0

34.9

15.9

2.7

92,970

Santo

0.3

1.2

0.3

50.0

32.1

8.5

5,538

Vila

0.3

0.3

1.6

60.2

35.8

15.6

15,575

0.3

0.6

1.2

57.5

34.9

13.7

21,113

10.2

0.4

0.3

39.1

19.4

4.8

114,083

Total rural Urban

Total urban Vanuatu

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Table 7 Percentage of residents aged six years and over who could speak different languages, by age, sex and area of enumeration (Office of Statistics 1991:127) Local lg

Bislama

English

French

Other lg

Total number

6–14 yrs

93.9

67.0

37.7

19.6

0.2

15,515

15–59 yrs

98.1

92.6

44.1

20.6

0.7

27,954

Rural Males

60– yrs Total

100.0

89.8

17.2

4.2

0.6

3,934

96.9

84.0

39.8

18.9

0.6

47,403

94.0

65.3

36.6

20.8

0.3

14,093

Females 6–14 yrs 15–59 yrs

98.9

81.3

33.1

17.2

0.4

28,383

60– yrs

99.6

60.2

6.4

2.4

0.3

3,091

97.4

74.9

32.4

17.3

0.4

45,567

76.6

93.6

48.3

37.9

1.8

2,507

Total Urban Males 6–14 yrs 15–59 yrs

84.4

94.1

66.8

37.4

5.6

8,336

60– yrs

65.8

77.3

38.1

25.5

8.5

365

82.3

93.4

61.7

37.1

4.8

11,208

6–14 yrs

78.3

92.0

50.6

37.7

2.0

2,299

15–59 yrs

83.8

92.4

60.6

33.5

4.7

7,330

60– yrs

65.6

77.1

23.6

24.3

5.1

276

82.1

91.9

57.2

34.2

4.1

9,905

Total Females

Total

from 100% (or very nearly 100%) among the oldest age group, to one or two percentage points lower among the 15–59 year olds, and it drops by a further four or five percentage points among 6–14 year olds. These kinds of differences are much more noticeable when age and sex groups are compared between rural and urban areas. While 98.1% of rural males between 15 and 59 speak a local language, as do 98.9% of rural females, the corresponding figures for urban males and females drop to 84.4% and 83.8% percent respectively. Among young urban girls, vernacular ability drops to 78.3%, while only 76.6% of urban boys speak a vernacular. These figures are much lower than the comparable figures for rural girls and boys, which are 94% and 93.9% respectively. Although there is a noticeable drop in vernacular ability among all age groups and with both sexes in the urban centres, Vanuatu society is still overwhelmingly rural. The fact that over 80% of the total population lives in rural villages is without a doubt what ensures the continued maintenance of local vernaculars around the country. At the same time, however, the proportion of the population living in the towns has grown steadily since the figure of ten per cent reported in the

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census of 1967. This had increased to 14.2% by 1979, and had reached 18.4% in 1989 (Office of Statistics, 1991: 21). If this urbanising trend were to accelerate, or even be simply maintained, then perhaps we could expect there to be a gradual, but continual, decrease in the overall proportion of vernacular speakers in Vanuatu. One constraining factor against large-scale urbanisation is economic. With few resources in Vanuatu apart from what grows on the land and lives in the surrounding seas, it is difficult to imagine the kind of uncontrolled urbanisation in Vanuatu that we find in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America. A continuing trend towards urbanisation would have the potential ultimately to put certain vernaculars at risk, especially those that are spoken in those areas providing the greatest input for urban immigration. Office of Statistics (1991: 33) indicates that the local government areas contributing the greatest proportion of their population to urban drift are Paama (with an annual net out-migration rate of 4.41%) and the Shepherds (with an annual rate of 2.13%). These islands represent the only parts of the country where demographic projections point to a slight decline in population. This has the potential to affect the future viability in the long term of two of Vanuatu’s 80 languages: Paamese and Namakir. The future of a number of smaller languages in other local government areas could also be threatened by urban drift if out-migration was concentrated in particular locations, rather than being uniform throughout the local government area. The Paama and Shepherds local government areas are to some extent special cases, however, as these are small and unusually densely populated islands. The resulting land shortages mean that subsistence agriculture cannot support the entire population. There is, as a result, strong pressure for young people to move to the towns in search of paid work. At the same time that the proportion of vernacular speakers shows signs of dropping among younger people, especially in the towns, there is a significant increase in the proportion of young people claiming to speak Bislama. Only 67% of rural boys and 65.3% of rural girls answered that they could speak Bislama, while the corresponding figures for town-dwellers were 93.6% and 92% respectively. These figures may be interpreted as meaning that a shift from vernaculars in the direction of Bislama is currently in progress in Vanuatu. The ability to speak Bislama in Vanuatu is, however, an age-graded phenomenon. This means that while significant numbers of rural youngsters did not report an ability to speak Bislama, they are destined to acquire this ability. The major difference between urban and rural patterns is simply that town dwellers learn their Bislama earlier than their rural counterparts, but just about everyone ends up speaking the language by their teenage years. An increase in the ability to speak Bislama on its own should in any case not automatically be interpreted as meaning that language shift is taking place, as it is logically possible for vernacular/Bislama bilingualism to be stable over an extended period of time. There are, after all, many well-established patterns of stable diglossic relationships between languages elsewhere in the world. The first column in Table 7 sets out the proportions of people who can speak a local vernacular. The difference between these figures and 100% represents the proportion of the population that speaks no Melanesian vernacular. These

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Table 8 Non-vernacular speakers Rural

Urban

6–14 yrs

6.1

23.4

15–59 yrs

1.9

15.6

60– yrs

0.0

34.2

3.1

17.7

6–14 yrs

6.0

21.7

15–59 yrs

1.1

15.6

60– yrs

0.4

34.2

2.6

17.9

Males

Total Females

Total

figures are set out in Table 8. These figures may look superficially disturbing for the long-term future of vernaculars in Vanuatu, especially given the 23.5% of urban boys and 21.7% of urban girls who speak no vernacular. However, of the urban population of Vanuatu, 10.1% of the total is of European, Asian and other Pacific Islander descent, and we would not expect these people to speak a local vernacular in any case. On the basis of the published population and percentages, there should be 3757 people above the age of six in urban centres who speak no Vanuatu vernacular, of whom 3378 should be Melanesians, which means that 17.8% of the total number of Melanesians in town speak no vernacular. Nationwide, however, only about five per cent of all Melanesians over the age of six speak no vernacular. This compares favourably with figures compiled just before independence in a linguistic survey. In 1980, a survey of 750 individuals nationwide found that 7.5% of the total had learned Bislama and no vernacular as their first language, and that, as we might have expected, there were greater concentrations of first-language Bislama speakers in the urban rather than rural areas (Charpentier & Tryon, 1982: 151). The two sets of figures are not necessarily strictly comparable as Charpentier & Tryon gave no indication as to the age groups that they surveyed, though it certainly does not seem that the period 1980–89 saw any drastic increase in the proportion of first-language Bislama speakers at the national level. More recently, a survey of urban youth conducted in the mid-1990s by the Vanuatu Cultural Centre revealed that 88.8% of the youth of Port Vila indicated that they know their vernacular well, even if only relatively small numbers use that language as their main language of communication in town (Charpentier, 1999). Interestingly, the figure of 11.2% of young Port Vila residents who must be presumed to be first-language speakers of Bislama is much lower than the corresponding figure of 23.4% which derives from the 1989 census. My suspicion is that the later survey is more likely to accurately reflect young people’s language abilities, and that the census figures were exaggerated by possible confusion between the question that was asked, ‘What languages can you speak?’ and the

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question that people may have thought they were being asked, i.e. ‘What languages do you speak?’. However, a shift from vernaculars to Bislama is, in fact, not the only possible interpretation of the census figures. Corresponding to the drop in vernacular ability, there is also an increase in the stated ability to speak English or French. Thus, while only 37.7% of rural boys and 36.6% of rural girls claimed to speak English, the corresponding figures for the towns are 48.3% and 50.6% respectively. Similarly, while only 19.6% of rural boys and 20.8% of rural girls claimed to speak French, the urban figures increased to 37.9% and 37.7% respectively. On the basis of these figures alone, it would be possible to argue that a shift away from vernaculars is instead taking place in the direction of English and French. (Equally possible, of course, is the interpretation that there is a shift in the direction of English/Bislama and French/Bislama bilingualism.) One point that does not emerge from either the published census figures or surveys of language use in towns is the fact that there are some rural areas where Bislama has become the dominant medium of exchange. This should not necessarily be interpreted as meaning that local vernaculars in these rural areas are being abandoned in favour of Bislama, as the situations that I am referring to typically involve long-term settlers from other islands on plantations or in peri-urban areas. We therefore find Bislama being spoken to a significant extent in plantation or other mixed communities in areas such as Tisman on Malakula, Aore and parts of Malo, and in the village of Saama on North Efate, as well as the peri-urban areas of southern Efate and south-eastern Espiritu Santo. However, even in a long-established and mixed peri-urban community such as Blacksands near Port Vila, where Bislama is a major medium of exchange, there is still extensive use of a variety of different local languages. Language shift is in fact not taking place in Vanuatu in the direction of either English or French either, but it is difficult to reach this conclusion solely on the basis of the census figures because of the way that the language question was formulated. Respondents were allowed no way of distinguishing levels of competence in different languages, as simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers were required. Having observed actual language use in Vanuatu, it is obvious to me that while many people can speak English and French, especially in the towns, they seldom actually do speak these languages, except in certain restricted contexts. Typically, people use English and French inside school classrooms (but they often speak Bislama or a local language in the playground, despite widespread school rules prohibiting this). English and French are often used when writing, often even when writing letters to close family members, or one’s own diary. People who have been to school will often say that they find it easier to read something written in English or French than in Bislama (as written Bislama is not taught in Vanuatu schools). Ni-Vanuatu working in service positions in town (e.g. in stores, restaurants) will also often use their knowledge of spoken English or French if they are serving somebody who is obviously from overseas. The kinds of contexts just described involve only a relatively small proportion of verbal interactions in Vanuatu. Under normal circumstances, it would be very rare indeed to find one Ni-Vanuatu speaking to another Ni-Vanuatu in English or French. Speaking Bislama or a local vernacular is the norm among Ni-Vanuatu, to the point where Ni-Vanuatu who do use English or French with

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each other are liable to be chastised because oli mekem flas blong olgeta ‘they are showing off’. Alternatively, people make use of metropolitan languages in order to joke with people. On Erromango, for example, I have never heard two Erromangans conduct a conversation in English. Although primary school children are required to use English at school, this rule is regularly flouted, and I have never heard of any children who do not immediately abandon English away from school, even with their own teachers. I know of one Erromangan who occasionally attempts to use English in a conversational way, but this is always greeted with howls of laughter, which is his desired effect anyway as he is very much a practical joker. For one Erromangan to speak English to another Erromangan is much the same as baring one’s bottom in public (which this particular character is also wont to do): it is hilarious precisely because it breaks all the accepted rules. People who are very drunk in Vanuatu may sometimes lapse into English (or Bislama) but this is a manifestation of what ethnographers refer to as ‘wild man behaviour’ (Haiman, 1979: 40). This is a tolerated way of allowing males to let off steam, which may also include punching or kicking walls, knocking down banana plants, or causing fights. One is effectively less accountable for one’s behaviour afterwards because, in speaking English (or Bislama), one is not behaving as a member of one’s home community. Thus, while the census figures may be contrived to make it look as if English and French represent threats to Vanuatu vernaculars, if there is a threatening language, then it is Bislama, and I do not view this threat as a serious one. However, there is one aspect of the linguistic demography of Vanuatu which is not recoverable in any way from either the published census figures or any surveys of language use in towns, and that involves the extent to which certain vernaculars may be acquiring additional speakers from other vernaculars, without actually threatening the language as a whole. For instance, on the island of Epi there is one village where the Bierebo language is currently shifting to Lewo, which is another language spoken on the island (Early, 1994: 31). In all remaining Bierebo-speaking villages, the language appears to be stable, and there are no signs that outside this single village Lewo is likely to replace Bierebo. In yet other situations, a local language may be spreading into other areas, though only as a second language, with no sign that this introduced language will replace the original languages. For instance, Paamese is being spoken by increasing numbers of people from neighbouring northern Epi and south-eastern Amrym as a second language, while relatively few Paamese speakers ever learn the languages of the neighbouring islands. Despite the evident vitality of most of the languages of Vanuatu, I would not want my claims to be taken as the basis for adopting a blasé attitude towards these communities. Linguistic ecologies are very delicate things, which can be very easily disturbed, often without the realisation of members of these communities until the change is irreversible. Urbanisation, immigration, emigration and education can all interact within the space of a single generation to cut the lines of linguistic transmission. As Grace Molisa said at a conference organised around the theme Pacific Languages: Directions for the Future in Vila in 1984, people in Vanuatu have a very pragmatic approach to language, viewing languages simply as tools for commu-

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nication. This means that governments in Vanuatu see other areas as having higher priority than the maintenance of languages which do not appear to be under any particular threat. These are in fact pan-Melanesian attitudes, so we should not assume that there are no language problems in Melanesia, but that they may simply have not yet been recognised. Grace Molisa specifically commented: ‘It is rather like silent diseases – you do not know that you are sick until it is too late’ (Pacific Languages Unit, 1984: 12). However, I would argue that the languages of Vanuatu are, for the most part, in a reasonably healthy state for the immediate and intermediate future, despite the alarmist predictions of Mühlhäusler and Dixon. Language death and language revival As I have already indicated, a number of languages have already become extinct in Vanuatu since initial contact with Europeans in the 19th century brought diseases to which local people had no immunity. Those 20 languages in Vanuatu which have become extinct, or which are currently moribund, are set out in Table 9. Table 9 Extinct and moribund languages Language name

Island

Status

Aore

Santo

extinct

Aveteian

Malakula

extinct?

Bieria

Epi

moribund

Iakanaga

Epi

extinct

Ianigi

Epi

extinct

Khatbol

Malakula

moribund

Langalanga

Malakula

moribund

Livara

Epi

extinct

Marakhus

Malakula

moribund

Matanavat

Malakula

extinct?

Mbwenelang

Malakula

moribund

Nasarian

Malakula

moribund

Nati

Malakula

moribund

Navwien

Malakula

moribund

Nisvai

Malakula

moribund

Litzlitz

Malakula

moribund

Surua Hole

Malakula

moribund

Orkon

Ambrym

moribund

Revaliu

Epi

extinct

Sörsörian

Malakula

moribund

South Maewo

Maewo

extinct

Ura

Erromango

moribund

Utaha

Erromango

extinct

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Populations in some parts of the country dropped dramatically over very short periods as a result of introduced diseases, and the original distribution of languages was sometimes seriously affected. On Erromango, for example, the population dropped from an estimated original 6000 to below 400 during the period 1850–1930. As a result of this massive demographic dislocation, the last speaker of the Utaha language died in 1954, and there is today just a handful of elderly speakers of Ura.39 It is possible that there were some other languages spoken on Erromango which became extinct even earlier, though in the absence of documented information on these linguistic varieties, it is impossible to know if these represented separate languages, or if they were simply regional variants of one of the other languages to which I have already referred (Crowley, 1997b). Parts of Malakula have also undergone massive population loss, with some languages having again become extinct or moribund. An additional consideration on Malakula is that prior to European contact, there was a considerable population in the interior. Much of this population has dispersed to a variety of coastal locations, especially over the last few generations. This has resulted in some languages retaining only small and very widely dispersed populations within the ancestral language area, while significant numbers of speakers have now become linguistic minorities in a variety of coastal villages where quite different languages are spoken. While the total number of speakers of such languages may be reasonably high, the speech communities have effectively become discontiguous, possibly giving these languages threatened status within a couple of generations. For example, the language of the Lendamboi area of the interior of southern Malakula was spoken by about 100 people in 1989 in their ancestral area, though a somewhat larger number of speakers of this language were living in a number of different villages along the western, southern and eastern coasts of the island. In some of these villages, Lendamboi speakers were in a majority, while in other cases, they had moved to a village where they represented a minority. Given that there are many pressures on the interior dwellers to move to the coast, unless speakers of this language can establish a clear identity in a new location, the language could easily be threatened, and some of the one-time neighbours of this language have already disappeared, or become moribund. Language revival is not considered as a major issue in any of these cases. Some regret is typically expressed locally at the loss of a language, and one occasionally hears suggestions about how nice it would be if people could speak a moribund language more widely. However, there has never been any serious attempt at a community level to promote a language revival programme for any moribund or extinct Vanuatu language. It is therefore difficult to imagine any of those languages set out in Table 9 surviving for more than another generation. It is interesting to note, however, that individual action can have some degree of success in delaying the eventual demise of some languages in this kind of situation. The Nati language of Malakula was originally spoken in the area known as Wilemp in the interior of the south-western corner of the island until an influenza epidemic devastated the area in the 1920s causing massive depopulation. In the Nati-speaking area, there were very few survivors of this epidemic. By the first

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quarter of the 20th century, all that were left of the original speakers in their ancestral area were three old men and their immediate families (Crowley, 1998: 102–3). One of the three died in the bush in his ancestral area, and his son now speaks another coastal language. Another died on the coast and his sons now speak another coastal language. However, the four sons of the third man still maintain an active speaking ability in Nati. All four brothers currently live close to each other in coastal villages and they use Nati amongst themselves. However, only one of the brothers has attempted to pass a knowledge of the language on to his own children. His wife grew up speaking a different language, but by exposure she has been able to learn Nati,40 and this is now what the family speaks at home. They have five children who can also understand Nati and they also speak it in the home, though in the village they speak the language of the rest of the children. However, unless these children grow up with the same commitment to maintaining Nati, and are as successful as their father in passing it on to their spouses when they grow up, and between them, also to their children, Nati clearly has a bleak future as a distinct linguistic tradition. While some further language loss in Vanuatu is inevitable, it should be pointed out that in no case is any indigenous language in any obvious immediate danger of being replaced by Bislama or either of the metropolitan languages. Wherever language shift is under way, it is always some other local language that is the replacing language, and not one of the national lingua francas. For instance, Early (1994: 17) reports that the Bieria language of Epi is threatened with extinction, though the current generation of speakers is not moving to Bislama, and they are certainly not speaking English or French. The language that is replacing Bieria is Nakanamanga, which represents a recent immigrant intrusion to Epi from the Shepherd Islands to the south. Future directions I view the linguistic future of Vanuatu with a mixture of optimism and pessimism. I am optimistic that most of the 80 indigenous languages will continue to be actively passed on to future generations for a considerable time to come. While substantial language loss has taken place in some parts of Vanuatu, this happened for the most part in the 19th and early 20th centuries at a time when local populations were plummeting. Since the population stabilised and subsequently began a period of normal demographic increase after the 1920s, very few, if any, languages appear to have become unviable. Most languages today are actually gaining speakers as the population of Vanuatu grows at one of the higher annual rates of population increase in the world. If the Education Master Plan that is currently under consideration is successfully implemented, it is to be hoped that increasing numbers of younger people will become literate in their own languages, along with English, French and Bislama as at present. Some of the smaller vernaculars of Vanuatu would certainly be vulnerable if there was a substantial increase in the extent of urban drift, if increased numbers of outsiders married into these communities, if there were major demographic devastation due to disease, or if communities were made discontiguous by degradation of the physical environment. In most cases, however, these represent worst-case scenarios rather than certainties. In any case, it must be remem-

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bered that human beings are not giant pandas. Pandas are presumably unaware of their endangered status and so do not take steps in response to their situation, while human beings are able to make choices within a range of options that are available to them, and that includes which language (or languages) they are going to speak. Given that numerous factors interrelate in a variety of complex ways in any linguistic ecology, it is of course extremely difficult, even impossible, to make absolutely certain predictions about what the future will hold for the languages of Vanuatu. Some have predicted the worst in terms of the loss of possibly all of the local languages, though those who have expressed the loudest views have almost without exception had no direct contact with any of these languages spoken within these local communities, and they are typically quite unaware of both the kinds of linguistic choices that are made in Vanuatu’s different societies, and of the kinds of attitudes that Ni-Vanuatu hold to their own languages, to Bislama, and to the two metropolitan languages. Despite my guarded optimism, I do not want my words to be interpreted as meaning that the status quo should be allowed to prevail. I regard the almost complete lack of response from any government to repeated calls for action to actively support languages other than English or French since independence in 1980 with considerable concern. In 1984, in response to a workshop organised jointly by the University of the South Pacific and the Ministry of Education, and run by John Lynch (then of the University of Papua New Guinea), with the aim of producing a writing system and a set of introductory curriculum materials in the Whitesands language of Tanna, the Office of the Prime Minister at the time responded that the resulting recommendations for a pilot vernacular education project ‘be followed up in order to realise them soonest’. This initial enthusiasm appears to have immediately been completely forgotten. Recent moves to incorporate local languages into the formal education system as part of the Education Master Plan offer some hope, but if this project is carried out hurriedly and without proper attention to detail and without appropriately trained staff – and such a scenario is not impossible to envisage – it is likely that local communities will be completely turned off any possibility for vernacular early education for some generations to come. Another concern is that to date, very few Ni-Vanuatu have received the kind of training in linguistic issues at a sufficiently advanced level to allow the kind of debate that is needed at a national level to assist in the formulation of a national consensus about what is, or is not, desirable in terms of language policy. Ideally, this account of the language planning situation in Vanuatu should have been written by a Ni-Vanuatu who is involved in such activities. However, as this monograph has shown, language planning has had such a low priority in this highly diverse country that there is no centrally organised or publicly mandated and recognised language planning agency or language policy. Those language planning activities which do take place are so diffuse in terms of the institutions and range of activities involved that no Ni-Vanuatu have ever been encouraged to seek higher academic degrees in this area.41 For this reason, this account has been written by an outsider primarily as a reference document for other outsiders.

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Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the following for the information that they have provided, or helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work: Richard B. Baldauf Jr., Robert Early, Robert Kaplan, John Lynch, Anne Naupa, Jean-Pierre Nirua. Final responsibility for all conclusions, of course, rests with the author. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Terry Crowley, Department of General & Applied Linguistics, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand (e-mail [email protected]). Notes 1. The prefix ni- derives from a widely distributed preposition in local vernaculars that means ‘of’. 2. A traditional non-addictive narcotic that is now becoming trendy among westerners as a natural health product. 3. There is a more widely quoted figure of 105 languages (e.g. Tryon, 1976), though Lynch and Crowley (in press) argue that the evidence for such a high figure is at the moment somewhat inconclusive. In fact, the latter source cites 81 actively spoken languages on the apparently mistaken assumption that Litzlitz is still actively spoekn. 4. ‘The Republic shall protect the different local languages, which are part of the national heritage, and may declare one of them as a national language’ (The Constitution of Vanuatu, Article 3:2.). 5. Formerly, the Gilbert Islands, which were part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands. 6. ‘We, we, we are happy to say that We, we, we are people of Vanuatu.’ 7. While the war had little effect on the vernaculars of Vanuatu, it did have major cultural and political effects. In particular, Ni-Vanuatu for the first time saw African American troups performing duties that they had previously assumed could only be performed by Europeans, planting seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of colonial control in their own country by the British and the French. The seemingly unlimited resources of the Americans also led to the growth of the John Frum ‘cargo cult’ on Tanna, which is still active today. This movement is based on the idea that when a person known by this name returns, vast amounts of material wealth – which has until now been hoarded illicitly by Europeans – will come spewing forth from the local volcano. 8. By ‘relatively recent’, I mean since around 1300 AD, as the remaining languages of the country result from much earlier migrations. 9. The census questionnaires in the 1989 and 1999 censuses were distributed to enumerators in Bislama. In rural areas, where enumerators were generally chosen from local areas where they spoke the local language, the questions were typically administered through the vernacular. Where the enumerator did not speak the local language, the questions were normally asked in Bislama. With the very small – and predominantly urban – expatriate population, enumerators were presumably chosen for their ability to administer the census questions in English or French if the need arose. 10. The John Frum movement referred to in note 7 also involves syncretism between traditional spirituality, a millennial interpretation of Christianity and modern materialism. 11. In the Christian tradition, of course, the association of eggs with Easter is a direct continuation of very old fertility celebrations. 12. Many of these writing systems were imperfect in a variety of ways, and more recent work has sometimes involved improvements to these older spelling systems. 13. Located about halfway between Vanuatu and New Zealand, this is now politically part of Australia.

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14. In fact, Mota-speaking graduates came from a number of islands in the south-eastern parts of the Solomon Islands as well. 15. At most, a sermon will be delivered in Erromangan on the basis of a few headings written on a sheet of paper, most likely in Bislama, possibly in English, but probably not in Erromangan. 16. Quite apart from the widely distributed Nyu Laef hymnals, 20,000 copies of the Baebol long Bislama were produced in 1996. That allows for an average of one Bislama Bible for every ten people in the country. 17. There is a regular Mass in English in town for a small number of anglophone Catholics, though a significant proportion of those attending are likely to be expatriates from Australia, New Zealand, other Pacific Islands or from further afield. For the most part, Ni-Vanuatu find it very difficult to conceive of an expatriate Catholic whose first language is anything but French. 18. The plan as it is currently formulated allows local communities either to adopt initial vernacular literacy or to retain the existing system that operates only through metropolitan languages. There is, however, an inherent difficulty with this kind of choice as the acceptance of universal eight years of primary education is tied to accepting initial vernacular literacy, which would be tantamount to having two ‘universal’ systems of education. 19. There are several ‘international’ schools, which cater predominantly for the children of expatriates, where Spanish and Japanese have reportedly been offered as electives. 20. In fact, even since before independence, the main francophone-dominated political grouping, known officially as Union des Partis Modérés, is generally referred to publicly (even by its own leaders) as UMP, which stands for the English title Union of Moderate Parties. 21. Another possible explanation for this is that francophones, automatically being speakers of Bislama, receive a substantive ‘leg-up’ to English because of the readily perceived similarities between English and Bislama as languages. 22. French speakers from Canada and other parts of the French-speaking world obviously do have characteristic accents, but the linguistic models in Vanuatu have been almost exclusively metropolitan French. 23. In fact, about the only times that one regularly encounters anglophone Ni-Vanuatu speaking to each other in English outside the classroom when there are no expatriates present is when under heavy influence of alcohol. 24. The increased density of the telephone network around the country, however, does seem to have brought about some reduction in the number of service messages broadcast over the radio. 25. ‘I hear that a senior secretary in the diocese of Vanuatu who is directly involved with official matters to the bishop has got his housekeeper from Torba pregnant.’ 26. In the past, English and French programming has alternated every other day, or there has been an equal split between the two languages on each individual day. 27. It should be noted, however, that the kind of Bislama that typically appears in political messages is often heavily laden with English. 28. Despite the proximity of Fiji, there has never been any substantial flow of people of Indian origin to Vanuatu. 29. In fact, in the past, when staff in that department attempted to work with staff in other government departments to develop written norms and to develop terminology in Bislama – under the auspices of the Komiti blong Bislama (see below) – Language Services staff were dissuaded by their administrative superiors from attending meetings and were told that this was ‘not their job’. 30. ‘I often listen to the Bislama news on Radio New Hebrides but sometimes I do not understand properly because the readers use many English words which I do not know the meaning of. I am an educated person in town but I am concerned about our parents in the islands who I believe do not understand the Bislama news on the radio. I say this because recently one of our elders at home asked me about the meaning of the word ‘affectem’ which he had heard on the Bislama news on the radio.’ 31. Alternatively, of course, people may be coming to understand more of such items than

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32. 33. 34.

35. 36.

37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

was formerly the case either through constant exposure or through greater exposure to English in the formal education system. For instance, Paramount Chiefs Malvatumauri (1983) spells the word repablik on the cover of this booklet. This term derives from a widely used word in local languages meaning ‘stone’. It is unclear whether this was due simply to political inertia, or if post-independence governments were reluctant to sanction an independent body which could monitor their activities. Since the appointment of the first ombudsman, a long series of reports has been issued which are critical of the activities of many senior people in government. Unfortunately, this association has been moribund since 1996. The same criticism can also be levelled at the University of the South Pacific, though there is perhaps more of an acceptance that the tradition of academic freedom in a university context gives expatriate academics greater freedom to participate in public debate than non-academics. When the Vanuatu government was headed by the anglophone Fr Walter Lini in the 1980s, he presented his formal speech on behalf of his nation to members of the association in Bislama, with interpretation provided into French. ‘What language(s) do you know? Say what languages you know? Any local language? Bislama? English? French? Any other language from another country?’ The remaining Erromangan language is alive and well, with its speakers now experiencing normal demographic increase, and the language has about 1900 speakers. These languages are lexically, phonologically and structurally fairly similar to each other, making this kind of learning a viable proposition. In fact, the number of Ni-Vanuatu with any tertiary qualifications in linguistics is no more than a handful.

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Crowley, T. (1984) Pacific languages: Directions for the future. Language Planning Newsletter 10(4), 1–2. Crowley, T. (1989a) Language issues and national development in Vanuatu. In I. Fodor and C. Hagège (eds) Language Reform: History and Future, Vol. IV (pp. 111–139). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Crowley, T. (1989b) English in Vanuatu. In K-A. Watson-Gegeo (ed.) English in the South Pacific. Special issue of World Englishes 8(1), 37–46. Crowley, T. (1990a) Beach-la-Mar to Bislama: The Emergence of a National Language in Vanuatu. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Oxford Studies in Language Contact] Crowley, T. (1990b) An Illustrated Bislama-English and English-Bislama Dictionary. Port Vila: Pacific Languages Unit (University of the South Pacific). Crowley, T. (1994) Linguistic demography: Interpreting the 1989 census results in Vanuatu. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 15, 1–16. Crowley, T. (1995a) Melanesian languages: Do they have a future? Oceanic Linguistics 34(2), 327–344. Crowley, T. (1995b) A New Bislama Dictionary. Suva and Port Vila: Institute of Pacific Studies and Pacific Languages Unit (University of the South Pacific). Crowley, T. (1996a) Bislama: Orthographic and attitudinal evolution. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 27, 119–146. Crowley, T. (1996b) Yumi toktok Bislama mo yumi tokbaot Bislama: Teaching Bislama in Bislama. In F. Mugler and J. Lynch (eds) Pacific Languages in Education (pp. 259–272). Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies (University of the South Pacific). Crowley, T. (1997a) Navyan Ovoteme Nelocompne Ire [The Voice of Erromangans Today]. Hamilton (New Zealand): Department of General and Applied Linguistics (University of Waikato) and Vanuatu Cultural Centre. Crowley, T. (1997b) What happened to Erromango’s languages? Journal of the Polynesian Society 106(1), 33–63. Crowley, T. (1998) A salvage sketch of Näti (Southwest Malakula, Vanuatu). In D. Tryon (ed.) Papers in Austronesian Linguistics (pp. 101–148). Pacific Linguistics, Series A, No. 92. Canberra: The Australian National University. Crowley, T. and Lynch, J. (1985) Language Development in Melanesia. Suva: University of the South Pacific and University of Papua New Guinea. Crowley, T. and Mael, J. (eds) (1984) Tunuen Telamun Tenout Voum [Traditional Stories of Paama]. Port-Vila (Vanuatu): University of the South Pacific Centre Université du Pacifique Sud. Dixon, R.M.W. (1991) The endangered languages of Australia, Indonesia and Oceania. In R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck (eds) Endangered Languages (pp. 229–255). Oxford: Berg. Early, R. (1994) A Grammar of Lewo, Vanuatu. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Canberra: The Australian National University. Early, R. (1999) Double trouble, and three is a crowd: Languages and education and official languages in Vanuatu. Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development 20, 13–33. Gonzales, A. (1998) The language planning situation in the Philippines. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 19, 487–525. Grimes, B.F. (ed.) (1996) Ethnologue: Languages of the World (13th Edition). Dallas (Texas): Summer Institute of Linguistics [A Web version is available at http://www.wil.org/ ethnologue/countries/vanu.html.] Haiman, J. (1979) Hua: A Papuan language of New Guinea. In T. Shopen (ed.) Languages and Their Status (pp. 35–89). Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Publishers, Inc. Hale, K, Krauss, M., Watahomigie, L.J., Yamamoto, A.Y., Craig, C., Jeanne, L.M. and England, N.C. (1992) Endangered languages. Language 68, 1–42. Kalpokas, D. (1980) Education. In (no author) Vanuatu 228–241. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. Ligo, G. (1981) Language in broadcasting. Unpublished paper presented at the Vanuatu Language Planning Conference. Vila. July 13–17.

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