[Linganth] Language & the Kula Ring

[Gaudio, Rudolf]

Good morning & thanks to the many kind people who replied to my query or forwarded it to others with expertise in the Trobriands and kula.

Michelle MacCarthy (c/o Eric Henry at St Mary’s U-Halifax) and Jason Haug (c/o Courtney Handman at UT-Austin) confirmed that the primary lingua franca of the region is Dobuan, but that other languages (e.g., Muyuw, Pana Misima, and English) are also used in kula transactions, depending on location. Michelle also pointed me towards this passage in Argonauts of the Western Pacific, which I had overlooked:

It is characteristic of the international position of the Dobuans that their language is spoken as a lingua franca all over the d’Entrecasteaux Archipelago, in the Amphletts, and as far north as the Trobriands. In the southern part of these latter islands, almost everyone speaks Dobuan, although in Dobu the language of the Trobriands or Kiriwinian is hardly spoken by anyone. This is a remarkable fact, which cannot be easily explained in terms of the present conditions, as the Trobrianders, if anything, are on a higher level of cultural development than Dobuans, are more numerous, and enjoy the same general prestige.

This is from p. 31 of the Routledge 2002 edition.

Cheers & good day to all!

-Rudi


On Sep 9, 2019, at 6:53 PM, Gaudio, Rudolf <Rudolf.Gaudio at purchase.edu<mailto:Rudolf.Gaudio at purchase.edu>> wrote:


Hello, all

I use excerpts from Malinowski’s work on the Kula ring regularly in my classes, and have long wanted to know more about the linguistic dimensions of Kula trading expeditions. Malinowski labels the language he learned Kiriwinian, which suggests it was only spoken on the island of Kiriwina. What about the other islands? I’ve tried to figure out the sociolinguistic situation in the Trobriand Islands (then and now) using widely available online sources, and have done a wee bit of searching through more academic sources, but I haven’t found anything that specifically describes what language(s) Malinowski’s Kiriwinian associates used when they visited or hosted people from different islands. Were all the languages of the region mutually intelligible? Was everyone multilingual? Were particular people employed as translators?

Any guidance you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Rudi


Rudolf P. Gaudio
Purchase College, State University of New York



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