Article published in:
Creativity in LanguageEdited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Andrea Hollington, Nico Nassenstein and Anne Storch
[International Journal of Language and Culture 6:1] 2019
► pp. 83–94
Secret language and resistance to borrowing in Chini
Joseph Brooks | University of California Santa Barbara
In Chini, a language of northeastern New Guinea, speakers rely on principles of semantic extension including
metonymy, metaphor, and other types of association to create new terms using material from the vernacular. They do so in a special
sociolinguistically marked register referred to here as ‘secret language’, a linguistic practice not unheard of in New Guinea. The
same principles at work in secret language can also be seen in the creation of terms for new, modern concepts in the
sociolinguistically unmarked register of the language. There is additionally some degree of overlap between the two registers,
since what were originally secret language terms have entered into use in the unmarked register. This suggests that secret
language has been a resource for resistance to borrowing and brings into focus the larger point that any understanding of
borrowability should be rooted in the local sociolinguistic context, to the locally relevant ideologies at work and the particular
creative principles of language use that speakers employ.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background on Chini
- 2.1Cultural background
- 3.Secret language in Chini
- 4.Resistance to lexical borrowing in Chini
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
-
References
Published online: 01 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00017.bro
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00017.bro
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
Bashkow, Ira
Brooks, Joseph
2018 Documentation of Chini language and culture (Madang Province, Papua New Guinea). London: SOAS, Endangered Languages Archive. URL: https://elar.soas.ac.uk/Collection/MPI636676
Dobrin, Lise
Harrison, Simon
Herdt, Gilbert
Moravcsik, Edith
Robbins, Joel
Schieffelin, Bambi B.
Thomason, Sarah G. & Terrence Kaufman