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Pasifika English in New Zealand

Pasifika English in New Zealand. Allan Bell & Andy Gibson Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication, AUT University, Auckland, NZ. NWAV, Philadelphia, USA October 2007. Background to Pasifika Englishes. History of New Zealand English dialect contact language contact with Maori

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Pasifika English in New Zealand

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  1. Pasifika English in New Zealand Allan Bell & Andy Gibson Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication,AUT University, Auckland, NZ NWAV, Philadelphia, USA October 2007

  2. Background to Pasifika Englishes • History of New Zealand English dialect contact language contact with Maori > Maori ethnolect • Southwest Pacific exploration and annexation, 18th-19th century colonial and postcolonial history creation of creoles

  3. English - Pasifika contact in NZ • Pasifika peoples’ immigration to New Zealand from Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue from 1950s • Sociopolitical/linguistic situation G1 ‘Gastarbeiter’ status, under-class English language for G2 advancement diglossic relation Pasifika language/English shift to English in 2nd and 3rd generations distinguishable ethnolect of English

  4. Theoretical approaches to language contact • Contact linguistics Thomason 2001, Winford 2003 ‘imperfect learning’ Second Language Acquisition strategies > interlanguage individual > group ‘substratum/adstratum’ L1 influence/transfer

  5. Schneider 2007: ‘Dynamic Model’ of evolution of colonial Englishes 5 historical phases: 1 Foundation c1840-80 in New Zealand 2 Exonormative stabilization 1870-1940 3 Nativization ` 1900-80 4 Endonormative stabilization 1970 - present 5 Differentiation 1950 - present Edgar W Schneider, 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  6. The linguistic features • DH as in Variants: stop d * the, their, that affricate ddh * fricative dh * Linguistic factors: preceding phonetic environment stress lexical item • TH as in three, both, monthVariants: stop t affricate tth * fronting f fricative th * Environments: preceding and following phonetics stress * = not in Pasifika substrate lexical item

  7. Previous research • Affrication of DH and TH in Maori English (Bell 2000) • TH fronting to f in young Pakeha English (Campbell & Gordon 1996; Wood 2003) • NZ Pasifika English: • Infrequent DH stopping (5%) (reading passage) • Frequent TH fronting (40%) (Starks and Reffell 2006; Starks, Christie & Thompson 2007) • Performed Pasifika English (bro’Town) - DH stopping 80% for L2 speaker, 8 and 50% for L1 speakers - TH fronting 95% for L2 speaker, 55 and 85 for L1 speakers (Gibson & Bell 2006)

  8. The study • 120 interviews with 4 ethnic groups in Manukau, Auckland: Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Cook Islands • 27-page questionnaire on language maintenance and shift • Detailed data elicited on demographics, family, upbringing, language proficiency, usage, attitudes • Formal information-oriented interviews Original Team: Donna Starks, Melenaite Taumoefolau, Karen Davis, Allan Bell Plus large team of interviewers, analysts, elders, advisors

  9. The data • Interviews conducted in language of informant’s choice • 30 English-language interviews, mostly younger speakers (age 15-25) • Interviews averaged 1 -1½ hours long • Analyzed half-hour excerpts from 5 young Samoans and 5 young Niueans • Andy Gibson co-coded, quantified

  10. Excerpt 1 – ‘Tai’ There’s something in their accent that - that you know that um … they’re like Pacif– Pacif– oh Pacific Islanders. Yeah, I don’t know, oh just ... Yeah, oh I know the difference between a - like a English person, oh like a palagi person just talking to me in English and a Pacific Island person that’s talking to me in English, I can tell the difference.

  11. DH – Overall results

  12. DH – Linguistic factorspercentage of stopping (d + ddh)

  13. DH – Preceding environment x stress

  14. DH – Ethnicity and Sex

  15. TH – Overall results

  16. TH – Syllable position

  17. TH - Ethnicity

  18. Case Study – “Tai” • 18-year-old NZ-born man • Samoan L1, largely fluent - full comprehension - slightly lower speaking ability • English L2 fully fluent - started speaking English age 4 • Household has always been Samoan • Samoan and English used equally at home • Mixes with Samoans elsewhere every day • Attends Samoan church 3 times a week

  19. Tai – DH, TH and R variables • Post-pausal DH 17/18 tokens stopped • TH fronting or stopping 3/3 fronted in syllable codas 6/21 stopped in onsets • Postvocalic R 5/17 tokens of r (after NURSE vowel) • Absence of Linking R 20/21 tokens zero

  20. Excerpt 2 (dh and th bolded) That was like for both my parents, like speak only Samoan to both my parents. But then um, um then my Mum, then my Mum, then we started speaking Engl- when we got older, this was when we were young, we were allow- only allowed to speak Samoan when we were young but when we got older, like they understood, my Mum understood, we can speak um, like we can speak English and Samoan to her, she will understand. But not to the Dad, not to the old man. Only Samoan to the old man.

  21. Clustering of ethnolectal forms • 9/10 tokens of DH stopped (fully) • 2/2 tokens of TH fronted • Rising tones • Syllable timing • Reduction of medial R (parents) • Vocalisation of L • In earlier excerpt - fronted, rounded GOAT vowel (know) - postvocalic R (person) - sandhi absence (a English person)

  22. Conclusions 1 - Linguistic • Adstrate forms of DH and TH prevalent for some speakers question of relation to general vernacular presence • Promoted by phonology of Polynesian languages • Parallels to earlier research on Pasifika and Maori Englishes • Quantitatively high levels of particular adstrate variables > cluster qualitatively in certain stretches of talk > co-occur with other ethnolectal variables

  23. Conclusions 2 - Processes • Pasifika Englishes define Schneider’s ‘Differentiation’ stage for NZE, and its four phases • ‘The acquisition of native speakers by a dialect’ • Role of Thomason’s ‘imperfect learning’ • Process from SLA forms for individuals to group interlanguage to ethnolect • Generational differences G1 vs G2 indicated by bro’Town animated comedy analysis • Issue of input from pre-immigration Englishes in home islands

  24. Conclusions 3 - Implications • Importance of Pasifika Englishes in development of NZ English especially youth language • International parallels of minority > majority youth language hiphop link • Relationship of ethnolect development to L1 language loss • Use interview data from this study to tease out relation of ethnolect to contact issues for L1: demographics, attitudes, identity value

  25. References • Bell, Allan. 2000. Maori and Pakeha English: a case study. In Bell and Kuiper (eds) New Zealand English: 221-248 Wellington: Victoria University Press. Amsterdam: Benjamins. • Campbell, Elizabeth and Elizabeth Gordon. 1996. ‘What do you fink?’ Is New Zealand English losing its ‘th’? New Zealand English Journal 10: 40-46. • Foulkes, Paul. 1997. Rule inversion in a British English dialect - a sociolinguistic investigation of [r]-sandhi in Newcastle upon the Tyne. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4(1) - A Selection of Papers from NWAVE 25. 259-270. • Gibson, Andy & Allan Bell, 2006. Talking Pasifika in New Zealand: the case of bro’Town. Paper presented to NWAV Conference, Cleveland, Ohio. • Hay, Jennifer and Andrea Sudbury (2005).    How rhoticity became /r/-sandhi.  In Language 81.4, pp 799-823. • Holmes, Janet. 1997. Maori and Pakeha English: some New Zealand social dialect data. Language in Society 26(1): 65-101 • Kennedy, Marianna. 2006. Variation in the Pronunciation of English by New Zealand School Children. MA Thesis. Victoria University of Wellington. • Schneider, Edgar W, 2003. The dynamics of New Englishes: from identity construction to dialect birth. Language 79/2: 233-81. • Schneider, Edgar W, 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Starks, Donna, Jane Christie and Laura Thompson, 2007 . Niuean English: initial insights into an emerging variety. English World-Wide 28/2: 133-46. • Starks, Donna and Hayley Reffell. 2005. “Pronouncing your Rs in New Zealand English: A study of Pasifika and Maori students”. New Zealand English Journal 19: 36-48. • Starks, Donna and Hayley Reffell. 2006. Reading ‘TH’: Vernacular variants in Pasifika Englishes in South Auckland. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10(3): 382-392. • Thomason, Sarah G, 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. • Thomason, Sarah Grey and Terence Kaufmann, 1988. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: California University Press. • Winford, Donald, 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

  26. Addresses allan.bell@aut.ac.nz andy.gibson@aut.ac.nz www.aut.ac.nz/research/research_institutes/icdc

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