Cover not available
Part of
Education in Languages of Lesser Power: Asia-Pacific Perspectives
Edited by Craig Alan Volker and Fred E. Anderson
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 35] 2015
► pp. 223–241

From despised jargon to language of education

Recent developments in the teaching of Norf'k (Norfolk Island, South Pacific)

| University of Adelaide

This paper describes the changing views and practices of the school vis-à-vis the Norf’k language, the mixed Tahitian, English, St Kitts Creole language spoken by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, who brought the language from Pitcairn to Norfolk Island in 1856. For more than a century, education was the principal instrument of assimilating Norfolk Islanders to mainstream Australian norms. Once a means of eradicating the Norf’k language, Norfolk Island’s Central School has become central in the revival of the language. This paper examines the constraints and opportunities of using public education in this process. Integrating formal teaching with activities such as language camps is seen as the best way of making limited financial and human resources deliver optimum outcomes.

Published online: 5 February 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.35.13muh
References
Anon.
1932 Now all yolye: The quaint speech of Norfolk Is. The Pacific Islands Monthly 1: 11.Google Scholar
Buffett, A. & Laycock, D.C
1988 Speak Norfolk Today. Norfolk Island: Himii Publishing.Google Scholar
Eira, C., Magdalena, M. & Mühlhäusler, P
2003 Draft Dictionary of the Norfolk Language. Adelaide: The University of Adelaide.Google Scholar
Eira C., Magdalena, M. & Mühlhäusler, P
2004 Draft School Grammar of the Norfolk Language. Adelaide: The University of Adelaide.Google Scholar
Harrison, S
1972 The Language of Norfolk Island. Honours thesis, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
1985 The social setting of Norfolk speech. English World-Wide 6(1): 131–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoare, M
1999 Norfolk Island: An Outline of its History 1774 - 1981. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Laycock, D.C
1989 The status of Pitcairn-Norfolk: Creole, dialect or cant? In Status and Function of Languages, U. Ammon (ed.), 608–629. Berlin: De Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990 The interpretation of variation in Pitcairn-Norfolk. In Development and Diversity: Language Variation across Time and Space. A Festschrift for Charles-James N. Bailey, J.A. Edmonson, C. Feagin & P. Mühlhäusler (eds), 621–627.Arlington TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics & University of Texas at Arlington.Google Scholar
Mercer, B
2006 An Island Education: A History of the Norfolk Island Public School, Sesquiscentenary edn. Norfolk Island: P. & C. Association.Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, P
2002 A language plan for Norfolk Island. In Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance, D. & M. Bradley (eds), 167–181. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2003 Acts of identity in the history of the Pitcairn/Norfolk language. In Plurilinguisme – Mehrsprachigkeit – Plurilingualism, L. Mondada & S. Pekarek Doehler (eds), 29–38. Tübingen: Francke.Google Scholar
2007 The Pitkern-Norf’k language and education. English World-Wide 28(3): 215–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norfolk Island Government.
n.d. The Legislative Assembly of Norfolk Island. [URL] (3 June 2013).
O’Collins, M
2002 An Uneasy Relationship: Norfolk Island and the Commonwealth of Australia. Canberra: Pandanus Books.Google Scholar
Ross, A.S.C. & Moverley, A.W
1964 The Pitcairnese Language. London: Andre Deutsch.Google Scholar
Sebba, M
2007 Spelling and Society. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Maitz, Péter & Craig Alan Volker
2017. Documenting Unserdeutsch. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32:2 ► pp. 365 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.