Mühlhäusler, Peter

English

The Australian National University

7 . 4 . 1 . 3 .  ON REG I ONAL D I ALECTS I N  NEW GU I NEA P I DG I N  P et e r  Muh lhau s l e r  7 . 4 . 1 . 3 . 1 .  I N T RODUCTORY  R EMARKS  Diale cts  of  a language c an b e  defined as  codes o f  one  and t he s ame language which show a certain numb er of differences  when compared with each other . These  di fferen ce s  are not s o  great as to prevent oral communi cat ion between speakers from different dialect areas . Dialects  are ge ographical ly res t ricted t o  a part o f  the area oc cupied by t he language of  which they are dialects . Thi s  contrast s  w ith the noti on of sociole ct , a variety o f  a language wh ose difference from other varie t i es is determined by social factors . Dialects  often form a chain or L-complex in which e ach pair o f  adj a­cent diale cts  is mut ually i ntelli gib le although the dialects at t he opposite ends of  the chain may not be mutually intelligib le . Such dialect chains may range across language b oundaries . 7 . 4 . 1 . 3 . 2 .  T H E  Q U E S T I ON O F  P I DG I N  R E G I ONAL  D I AL E CTS  The quest ion as  to whether there are di alects of  New Guinea Pidgin in the sense j ust given has not b e en systemat i c ally s t udied and i s  there fore diffi cult t o  answer . Obvious ly one of  the main fact ors account ing for diale cts  of  languages such as English or German , name ly linguis tic  i s o lat i on , is  virtually ab s ent in Pidgin . Although Wurm and Laycock are clearly j us t i fied in writ ing grammars o f  Highlands and Lowlands Pidgin respect ively , the nat ure of the variat ions found in t he s e  t w o  ' dialect s ' i s  di fferent from the dialectal variat ions found i n  mos t  European languages .  A very important factor to bear in mind i s  that Pidgin i s  not t he first language for most of  its  users . Thi s  me ans on the one hand that 5 3 3  Mühlhäusler, P. "On Regional Dialects in New Guinea Pidgin". In Wurm, S.A. editor, New Guinea area languages and language study, Vol. 3, Language, culture, society, and the modern world. C-40:533-538. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C40.533 ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.5 34 P .  MtlHLHXuSLER one i s  likely to  find a numb er o f  substratum influences in any i diolect of Pidgin which re flect the grammat ical patt erns of the user ' s  first language . Howeve r ,  the degree to  which s uch s ubstratum influences appear in any individual speaker are det ermined by  social rather than geographical factors : his  education , membership of a church , profes sion , s e x ,  age , and many more , whi ch have been di s cussed i n  my contribution on sociolects i n  this volume ( chapt er  7 . 4 . 1 . 4 . 3 . ) .  This means that one i s  like ly to  find many varieties even w ithin a relat ively small geo­graphi cal area s uch as a village . On the other hand , the amount of s ub s tratum influence i s  limited by practical cons iderations s ince satis factory communicat ion w ith s peakers from di fferent language b ackgrounds i s  possible only as long as one ' s  Pidgin is  not too heavi ly coloured by  one ' s  own speech habi ts . In fact , the high regional mob i lity of many Pidgin speakers has led to the development o f  a fairly uniform Pidgin which is spoken everywhere in the country . S ub strat um i nfluences  in this variety are minimal . It  is o ften very difficult to  detect a fluent speaker ' s  regional origin . With poorer speakers of Pidgin this is s ometime s poss ible , espe c ially s ince cert ain regionally limited phonetic hab i t s , s uch as prenasalisat ion o f  s tops ,  are carried over into their pronunciat i on . In  spite of such diffi culties , a numb er of my Pidgin-speaking in­formants claimed to b e  ab le to distingui sh b e tween at least three regional dialects  of Pidgin :  Highlands , Lowlands , and I s lands Pidgi n .  I have  not tested the s e  c laims but I s uspect that even this rough classifi cat ion would be difficult t o  make in many cases . There are very few diagnostic words and construct ions which point to a cert ain region , and the s e  are on the way out . Variations , mainly due to  subs tratum influence , can b e  found in many parts  of grammar . Variat ion will be most pronounc ed in phonet ics . Syntactic variation i s  also widespread and at least some syntactic propert ies may be as sociated with regional varieties : High lands Pidgin is  charact eris ed by the large numb er of verb al aspect markers . In  cont rast to  other varieties of Pidgin these  aspect markers are virtually ob ligatory in Highlands Pidgin . The distribut ion of dire ct and indire ct obj e cts  accompanying certain verb s  distingui shes Islands Pidgin from the other varieties . However , this variation and , to a great er extent , the choi ce of lexical items may also b e  related to other non-geographi c factors . Some de cades ago regional di fferenc es seem t o  have been more pro­nounce d .  In this connect ion one can ment ion the old Pidgin spoken i n  Papua b e fore i t  was replaced b y  H ir i  Motu a s  a result of government 7 . 4 . 1 . 3 . ON REGIONAL DIALECTS IN NEW GUINEA PIDGIN 5 3 5  policy . A det ai led des cription showing its  c lose resembl ance t o  Biche lamar , can b e  found in Landtman 19 27 : 4 5 3 ff . Thi s  Pidgin ,  spoken on Kiwai I s land ,  is markedly di fferent from Pidgin s poke n in the previously German- controlled areas , most notab ly in that it lack s all influence from Tolai and German which is  so  characteri stic  o f  New Guine a Pidgi n .  In t he Trust Territory o f  New Guinea s ome regional varieties  are reported .  For instance , Townsend ( 19 6 8 : 5 4 )  found t hat the vocabulary spoken in the Aitape area in the We st Sepik Province contained a number of Malay words which were not in use e l s ewhere in the count ry . However , these words have now di sappeared from th e Pidgin spoken around Aitape  and are only remembered by  a few old  Pidgin- speakers . A look at s ome o f  the older wordlists of Pidgin such as Brennink­meyer 19 2 5 ,  Borchardt 19 3 0 ,  and Kuts cher 1 9 4 0  shows that many local words were used in the Pidgin spoken on Manus , New I reland , and es­pecially Rab au l .  Again ,  most o f  these words are e ither ob solete or have become accepted in the ' st andard ' vocabulary of Pidgin used in all part s of Papua New Guinea .  To  b as e  a word geography on  the s e  scattered examples s eems impos­s ible . Unfortunately no re liab l e  dat a are availab l e  on regional vari­ation on the dis course leve l ,  although this may be a promis ing fie ld ;  Highlanders , for ins t ance , appe ar to b etray their origin by t he way in whi ch the ir dis course is  s tructured more than by anything e l s e .  7 . 4 . 1 . 3 . 3 . C O N C L U S I O N  Unless  a more detailed analy s i s  o f  the facts reveals some out st anding features of regional diale cts  we are forced to give a negative answer to the ques t ion as to the presence of s uch diale cts in Pidgin . One o f  the main reasons for the ab sence o f  pronounced regional diale cts lies  in the nature of Pidgin it s e l f .  Thus , it  i s  a means o f  communi cation beyond ge ographic and linguistic b oundaries and is  used mainly for contacts outs ide a speaker ' s  first language community . There fore Pidgin s poken among speakers from different language b ack­grounds is the result of a compromi se . Highly marked grammatical categories have no p lace in good Pidgin . The high amount of regional mob i lity wh ich nece s s it ates t he use of Pidgin by a l arge number o f  speakers from di fferent language backgrounds together with t h e  con­tinuous pre s sure for intelligibility ac counts for the large amount of dialect levelling that has taken place and i s  still  taking place . Pidgin is a social rather than individual solut ion to the prob lem of communi­cat i on and any innovations have to b e  accepted by a large number of 5 36 P .  MUHLHAUSLER s pe akers from various areas b e fore t hey have a chance of becoming an integral part of Pidgi n .  In  addit ion to these factors one may adduce the temporal factor,  s ince the t ime it  takes for pronounced dialects to  develop i s  greater than the age of Pidgin . The time at which Pidgin came into be ing coinc ides with the  emergence o f  modern mass medi a .  The print ed word spread by the mis s ions and government and the spoken word transmitted over a numb er o f  radio s t ations helped to e l iminate deviant forms and had a further levelling e ffe ct on Pidgin . Provided there are no drastic  changes in the s o c ial and political patterns o f  Papua New Guinea it is  unlike ly that new dialects  will devel op . 7 . 4 . 1 . 3 .  ON REGIONAL DIALECTS IN NEW GUINEA PIDGIN B I B L I OGRAPH Y  BRENNINKMEYER ,  L .  192 5 Kleiner S chllis sel  zum Verst andnis des Tok-Boi . Typescript . BORCHARDT , K .  Kamanacham . 1 9 3 0  Anleitung zur Erlernung des Tok-Boi . Manus . Mimeographed . KUTSCHER ,  P .  19 4 0  Worterbuch Deut s ch-Pidgin-Englisch . Vunapope . Type script . LANDTMAN , G .  1 9 2 7  The K�wa� Papuan� 0 6  B���� h N ew Gu�nea . London : Macmi llan . LAYCOCK , D . C .  1 9 7 0  Mate��aL6 � n  New Gu�nea P�dg�n ( Co � tai and L owiand� ) .  P L ,  D- 5 .  TOWNSEND , G . W . L .  1 9 6 8  V�� t��ct 0 6 6�ce�.  Sydney : Paci fic Pub licat ions . WURM, S . A .  1 9 7 1  N ew Gu�nea H�ghiand� P�dg�n : Co u�� e Mate��ai� . P L , D- 3 .  5 3 7  Mühlhäusler, P. "On Regional Dialects in New Guinea Pidgin". In Wurm, S.A. editor, New Guinea area languages and language study, Vol. 3, Language, culture, society, and the modern world. C-40:533-538. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977.   DOI:10.15144/PL-C40.533 ©1977 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s).  Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL.  A sealang.net/CRCL initiative.

On Regional Dialects in New Guinea Pidgin

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On Regional Dialects in New Guinea Pidgin

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