16.433, Review: Historical Ling/Socioling: Tryon & Charpentier

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-433. Sat Feb 12 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.433, Review: Historical Ling/Socioling: Tryon & Charpentier

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Collberg, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomi at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Collberg at collberg at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 07-Feb-2005
From: Hans Schmidt < 1.schmidt at gmx.de >
Subject: Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and development 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 03:31:11
From: Hans Schmidt < 1.schmidt at gmx.de >
Subject: Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, Growth and development 
 

AUTHORS: Tryon, Darrell T.; Charpentier, Jean-Michel
TITLE: Pacific Pidgins and Creoles
SUBTITLE: Origins, Growth and Development
SERIES: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 132
PUBLISHER: Mouton de Gruyter
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2873.html


Hans Schmidt, Abteilung fuer Indonesische und Suedseesprachen, 
Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universitaet Hamburg

OVERVIEW

Chapter 1 is an Introduction to the topic as well as an Introduction of 
the two authors of this volume and their long acquaintance with the 
Pacific, especially Vanuatu. Chapters 3 and 10 were written by Jean-Michel 
Charpentier, researcher at the LACITO (Laboratoire de Langues et 
Civilisations à Tradition Orale) and CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche 
Scientifique), Paris, France. Chapters 4 to 9 mainly by Darrell T. Tryon, 
Professor at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian 
National University, Canberra, the remaining chapters jointly.

Chapter 2 is a short overview of nine present-day Pacific Pidgin 
languages: the three Melanesian Pidgins, Hawaiian and Nauruan Pidgin 
English, Broken and Australian Kriol, Pitcairn-Norfolk and the Ngatik 
Men's language. They all have English as their lexifier; some of them have 
become creolised. Their current status and number of speakers is given, 
though not divided into first- and second-language speakers. The two 
Australian varieties are not treated elsewhere in the book. At the end a 
Bonin Islands Pidgin and Palmerston English are briefly mentioned, but 
then declared to be "beyond the scope of this book, which has as its 
primary focus the English-lexifier pidgins and creoles of Melanesia and 
its close neighbours." Footnote 34 on page 149 extends this 
taboo: "Hawaiian pidgin and pidgin Hawaiian are not treated in this study 
as they are marginal ..." - Is that fair to the customer? The book's title 
promises a treatise on "Pacific Pidgins and Creoles" and not only 
the "Melanesian" ones.

In Chapter 3, Charpentier outlines previous theories of pidgin development 
in the Pacific. A brief summary of Bickerton's "extreme universalist 
theory" known as the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis is followed by the 
presentation of the ideas of "partisans of the preponderance of substrate 
influence": Mühlhäusler, Clark, Keesing, and Crowley. There is also a 
section on Tom Dutton and Jakelin Troy whose work on Queensland Canefields 
English (QCE) and New South Wales Pidgin (NSW) is presented as "the 
missing link" in the genesis of Pacific Pidgins.

The following six chapters are arranged as three pairs: one relating the 
history of contacts and the following one the language situation for a 
given period of time. Contacts mean those between Europeans and Pacific 
Islanders and Islander to Islander.

The first two "deal with the period 1788-1863, that is, from the first 
European settlement of Sydney until the beginning of the Plantation period 
in Queensland and the Pacific Islands, 1863." The next two with the period 
1863-1906, that is, until the end of labour recruiting. The third time 
frame is 1906-1975, "from the approximate founding of the British and 
French colonies in Melanesia until the time when they became independent 
sovereign states."

Chapter 4 is entitled "Early days: History of the contacts 1788-1863. 
First the "Australian scene" is covered, detailing the growing interaction 
between European invaders and Australian Aborigines. The second part is 
devoted to maritime links between Australia and the South Pacific Islands. 
Evidence is cited for shipping links between Sydney and the Pacific, esp. 
Tahiti and Pohnpei.

In Chapter 5 we find an assessment of the language situation during the 
same period (1788-1863). Again, the first section deals with Australia. 
There is a sample of NSW Pidgin and a glossary of places and dates of 
earliest recorded usage taken from Troy 1994. Examples of Pidgin from the 
New Hebrides, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Ngatik, Tahiti and the Marquesas, the 
Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia are quoted from early 19th century 
literature on the Pacific. The last section is taken up by a Pacific 
Pidgin glossary for the period, based mainly on Baker & Mühlhäusler 1996, 
also listing places and dates of earliest recorded usage.

The next two chapters cover the period 1863-1906. Chapter 6 describes the 
history of contacts on the plantations overseas (in Queensland, Fiji, 
Samoa, New Caledonia, Hawaii and French Polynesia) and "at home", i.e. in 
the three Melanesian countries of origin of the labourers. There are ten 
tables listing the place of origin of the plantation labourers in various 
countries, four tables listing the destinations of recruits from the three 
Melanesian countries.

Chapter 7 is entitled "Jargon to pidgin: The language situation 1863-
1906". Examples of 19th century NSW Pidgin are contrasted with samples 
from Melanesia and other Pacific areas. In the second part of this 
chapter, the authors present transcripts of interviews recorded in the 
1960s with the two last speakers of Queensland Canefields English (QCE) 
and aged speakers of Bislama, presumably as specimens of Pidgins of the 
period 1863-1906. 35 features are listed which differentiate this archaic 
Bislama from modern speech, and 25 out of the 35 are also found in QCE. 
The conclusion is that "there was a common Pacific Pidgin pool, with 
variant forms (such as laik/olsem, onli/nomo) which gradually 
differentiated into the three sister dialects Bislama, Solomons Pijin and 
Tok Pisin."

The next two chapters cover the period 1906-1975. Chapter 8 describes the 
History of contacts during the "Colonial days, 1906-1975". It is limited 
to Melanesia, half of it devoted to the New Hebrides Condominium. Labour 
recruiting shifted from overseas plantations to local ones. Tables are 
given to show the destinations of recruits, the islands of origin of the 
labourers on British and French plantations, even the size and the owner's 
name of each plantation. Similar statistics of indentured labour are 
presented for New Guinea and Papua and the Solomons including ten maps 
giving the location of the plantations.

After the Second World War, urbanisation became the main force to bring 
people speaking different languages together.

Chapter 9 is entitled "Differentiation: The language situation 1906-1975" 
and begins with a brief overview of the "overall language situation at the 
beginning of the 20th century."

In the section on the New Hebrides, we find a discussion of the various 
source languages of the Bislama lexicon. It "went on to add a significant 
number of borrowings from local Vanuatu vernaculars and French as the 
[20th] century progressed." This is followed by Bislama utterances quoted 
from different sources of that period, often reflecting the attitude of 
the [white] writer towards the language. It is interesting to note that 
Bislama was also the lingua franca between French and British planters in 
the Condominium. In shorter sections Tok Pisin and Solomons Pijin are 
treated similarly.

Finally some "differential elements" of the Pidgin varieties of the three 
Melanesian colonies are presented: lexical differences and also 
grammatical ones (although the authors had stated in footnote 69 on p.366 
that "No commentary on the morphology and syntax of Bislama, Solomon Pijin 
or Tok Pisin is provided ..."). The authors conclude that Melanesian 
pidgins "had a long shared history in the 19th century" and their 
differentiation really started at the end of the recruiting period.

Charpentier contributed Chapter 10 entitled "Today's world: 1975 to the 
present". Here the role of the three Melanesian Pidgin varieties in 
politics and education of each country is described, two thirds of the 
chapter being devoted to Vanuatu's Bislama, one fifth to Papua New 
Guinea's [PNG] Tok Pisin, the rest to Solomons Pijin.

The final chapter presents the overall conclusions on five pages: "the 
unity of all English-lexifier Pacific Pidgins, all historically related in 
one way or another ..." The summary includes a short sketch of "the 
developmental path of English-lexifier Pacific pidgins and creoles" and 
the difficulties are mentioned of assigning labels to their predecessors 
such as "unstable jargon" or "stable pidgin". The "central role played by 
[the port of] Sydney in the development of Pacific Pidgins" is stressed. 
For the future, an "ever increasing creolisation and expansion" of the 
Melanesian pidgins is predicted.

Appended are Vanuatu's Constitution of 1980 in Bislama, 30 maps, a list of 
References and an Index.

GENERAL COMMENTS

This book provides a historical account of the development of Melanesian 
Pidgin English, esp. Bislama of Vanuatu. I learned a lot about its history 
and enjoyed reading it, e.g. a quote of Vanuatu's Prime Minister Walter 
Lini (on p. 433): "The only reason to teach Bislama in schools would be to 
read it and write it. This would require standardisation, and it would 
take the life out of it." Or indirectly (on p. 423): "Walter [Lini] does 
not care about the Constitution. Once he is in power, he will not be 
bothered with it!" I also liked their comment (on page 470) that "... 
overseas NGOs ... are often more concerned about proselytism than the 
protection of local cultures."

Aside from a historical treatise I had also expected a linguistic analysis 
or comparison of Pacific Pidgins. Tryon and Charpentier (T&C) "...have 
attempted ... to demonstrate the unity of all English-lexifier Pacific 
Pidgins ..." (page 479) and do so mainly by relating the "long shared 
history [of the Melanesian pidgins] in the 19th century". It is laudable 
that they brought the findings of Troy and Dutton about the influence of 
the port of Sydney and the plantations in Queensland on Pacific Pidgins to 
the attention of a broader audience. Figure 9 on page 376 (taken from 
Mühlhäusler 1985) sums up the various influences on Tok Pisin. I would 
have liked to see many more like this one.

I appreciated that the authors introduce themselves and their connection 
with Melanesia right at the start of the book. Though it is a pity that 
the second author did not include the "numerous articles and book 
chapters" in this book's References which "he has published on Pacific 
pidgins and creoles" (page 2) except Charpentier 1979a, 1982b and 1997.

But why didn't they introduce the topic equally carefully? The reader is 
showered with technical terms like "trade language, contact language, 
early pidgin vs. expanded pidgin, stable vs. unstable pidgin, jargon, 
jargonised English, substandard variety of English, early Bislama or 
sandalwood English, Queensland pidgin vs. Queensland Canefields English," 
etc. One has to read a long way until a definition is offered, if at all. 
I found a definition of Tok Masta on p.382 and one of "stabilised pidgin" 
in footnote 72 on p. 375. Other definitions I found rather confusing, like 
Tok Pisin being called "a development of the trade jargons and Sandalwood 
English ..." (p.457) and Solomons Pijin a "contact vernacular" and not a 
vernacular (p.474). Elsewhere they speak of a "local vernacular" - what 
then is a simple "vernacular"? On page 413 the local languages (as opposed 
to Pidgin) are called "ancestral languages".

T&C call a Pidgin "not stabilised" while and because it has competing 
forms (homonyms?) - Should we call English not stabilised because it also 
has competing forms?

Table 25 on page 301 lists the names of the owners and the size of French 
plantations in the New Hebrides - what is that good for? Tables 
26+27+29+30+36 are similar - is all that detail really necessary? When 
there are long lists of plantations in the text and their geographical 
location is given on several maps, I would presume that their location or 
ownership had an impact on the pidgin spoken there but the authors did not 
elaborate on that. In general; I would have preferred to find the maps 
close to the text they refer to instead of in an appendix at the end of 
the book.

In a work of over 500 pages on Pacific Pidgins, I would have expected 
tables with other statistics. I am curious about the growth of the number 
of first and second-language speakers of these Pidgins/Creoles (only 
figures for PNG 1977 quoted on p. 455) and the changes in the degree of 
urbanisation, for instance. This point is briefly touched on page 480 
("After about 1975, plantation life in Island Melanesia wound right down, 
accompanied by significant migration from rural to urban areas."), but 
again there are no figures to illustrate this statement. Similarly "an 
opposition between the pidgin spoken in urban centers and that of the 
islands and territory beyond, the rural zone" is claimed on page 480, but 
I would have liked to see evidence of it.

On page 462, some PNG newspapers are listed, but only their titles, not 
their contents or size nor the circulation. What about other media? 
According to T&C, "Bislama is already written on a daily basis in certain 
sectors (radio, agriculture)." (page 450). But even if people like me 
cannot read the radio, to what extent is Pidgin spoken or sung on the 
radio or TV? How does that compare to the vernaculars and English/French?

How large is the market for books and journals in Pidgin? On page 435 we 
hear about "the abundance of publications which further helped the 
national coverage achieved by Bislama" - but nowhere in the book did I 
find any titles of these abundant publications except for the Bible.

As a reviewer I read a book more consciously and conscientiously which is 
a good exercise. This book offered me numerous occasions that made me stop 
and think: Pidgin is used as an inter-ethnic language (p.455) or for 
intertribal communication in PNG (p.334); it is used for intercultural 
communication (p.2) or inter-group communication (p.412), nationwide 
communication (p.444) or even daily inter-communication (is there such a 
word?) in Vanuatu (p.448); and Asian and Pacific immigrants in Hawaii use 
it for their inter-ethnic communication (p.14).

When discussing the choice of a national language, T&C ask (on page 
459): "In particular, should an Austronesian or Papuan language be 
chosen?" - I doubt that any indigenous person in PNG ever asked that 
question. One should not project the fundamental difference between the 
Austronesian and Papuan (or rather non- Austronesian) language families 
onto their speakers whose cultures cannot be kept apart along the same 
lines.

First they relate someone's prediction before independence (on page 460) 
that "Tok Pisin ... would founder because of the special nature of Papua." 
[as opposed to the Territory of New Guinea] and on the same page they 
assure us: "Even though it [Tok Pisin] had an Austronesian language as its 
main lexical source, it remained associated with the Papuan world ..." - 
On page 471 it is even "a Papuan universe."

On page 471 they state: "Of the three major Melanesian pidgins it [Tok 
Pisin] is the one which is the most cut off from the Austronesian 
substratum ..." - In what way? Earlier (on page 460) they had admitted 
that "it [Tok Pisin] had an Austronesian language as its main lexical 
source." And isn't Tok Pisin the variety with the largest identified 
portion of its lexicon taken from an Austronesian language (Tolai)?

What about West New Guinea? Has Tok Pisin entered Irian Jaya? Is any other 
kind of pidgin spoken there, e.g. Pidgin Indonesian or Pidgin Javanese? Is 
it true that English instead of Tok Pisin is the lingua franca in the 
Trobriands?

I found somewhat unfortunate choices of terminology: "a deep Melanesian 
culture" (on page 424) - what does that mean? Are there shallow cultures?

"The size of the languages and cultures ..." (on page 470) - How do they 
measure it? By number of speakers or lexemes? The height of pyramids 
compared to totem poles?

Page 456 "... and the language of Australia, English." - I wonder how 
Australian Aborigines like that.

Page 7: I doubt that those ni-Vanuatu whose mother tongue is a Polynesian 
outlier language would like to be called "migrants."

Page 351: "... there were some 32,000 indigenous New Hebrideans involved 
as labour on British and French plantations ..." - What a nice way of 
putting it.

Page 406: "... and the not less pseudo-Anglophones." = what does that mean?

Page 452: "To propose that Bislama become the sole official language for 
budgetary reasons, rather than using English, French and Bislama, would be 
too expensive in terms of the cost of translation required." - Awkward 
wording since the proponents wanted to save money by doing away with 
translation.

Page 484: "... all the peoples of Island Melanesia ..." - as opposed 
to "mainland Melanesia" (the island of New Guinea)?

SPECIFIC COMMENTS & OTHER COMMENTS
[To read the whole comments, please open the database version of this
review which you can access by searching for this review on:
http://www.linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/search-review1.html
---eds.]


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Hans Schmidt, Abteilung fuer Indonesische und Suedseesprachen, Asien-
Afrika-Institut, Universitaet Hamburg, taught from 2000 to 2002 at the 
University of the South Pacific, Emalus Campus in Port Vila, Vanuatu.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-433