Cover not available
Article published In:
Written Language & Literacy
Vol. 18:1 (2015) ► pp.175–199

Community consensus and social identity in alphabet development

The relationship between Kala and Jabêm

In the Huon Gulf area of Papua New Guinea, the indigenous language Jabêm was one of the languages of first contact for Lutheran German Missionaries, circa 1900. As a result, Jabêm became a language of the church and, later, a language of education. In both domains, written materials were commonly produced and generations of children were schooled in Jabêm rather than their own mother tongues. This paper discusses the relationship between Jabêm and Kala, an indigenous language spoken in six villages along the Huon Gulf Coast. Kala was without a standard orthography until recent collaborations between members of the communities and researchers from UBC Okanagan. This paper, therefore, also describes the development of the Kala standardized orthography and examines the distinct influences Jabêm has in both spoken and written domains. For instance, Jabêm’s role as a written authority retains positive connotation, which influenced the newly created Kala orthography.

Keywords: Jabêm, Kala, indigenous languages, Papua New Guinea, orthography, orthography development
Published online: 12 February 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.18.1.08sch
References
Aboriginal Language Task Force Report
(2005) Towards a new beginning: A foundational report for a strategy to revitalize First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultures. Report to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, June 2005.Google Scholar
Basso, Keith
(1974) The ethnography of writing. In Richard Bauman & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 425–432. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bender, Margaret
(2002) Signs of Cherokee culture: Sequoyah’s syllabary in eastern Cherokee life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bird, Steven
(2001) Orthography and identity in Cameroon. Written Language and Literacy 4(2): 131–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, Joel
(1997) Book review of Heinrich Zahn. 1996. Mission and music: Jabem traditional music and the development of Lutheran hymnody. Oceanic Linguistics 36(2): 420–424. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2001) The elusive shape of realis/irrealis in Jabêm. In Joel Bradshaw & Kenneth L. Rehg (eds.), Issues in Austronesian morphology, 75–85. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
(2010) Bukawa’s suprasegmental journey: A review of Eckermann (2007). Oceanic Linguistics 49(2): 580–590.Google Scholar
Budd, Peter & Mary Raymond
(2007) Community-oriented outcomes of language documentation in Melanesia. In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond & David Nathan (eds.), Proceedings of conference on language documentation and linguistic theory, 51–57. London: SOAS.Google Scholar
Cahill, Michael
(2011) Non-linguistic factors in orthographies. Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Jan. 6–9, 2011. Symposium on developing orthographies for unwritten languages. Accessed at: [URL].
Collier, Ken & Margaret Collier
(1975) A tentative phonemic statement of the Apoze dialect, Kela language. Workpapers in Papua New Guinea Languages 131: 129–161.Google Scholar
Dempwolff, Otto
(1939).Grammatik der Jabêm-Sprache auf Neuguinea. Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde, vol. 501. Hamburg: Friederichsen de Gruyter.Google Scholar
DeVolder, Chara, Christine Schreyer & John Wagner
(eds.) (2012) Kala kaŋa bi ŋa kapia – Diksineri bilong tok ples Kala (Kala dictionary). Kelowna: Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice.Google Scholar
Dobrin, Lise
(2008) From linguistic elicitation to eliciting the linguist: Lessons in community empowerment from Melanesia. Language 84(2): 300–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Easton, Catherine
(2003) Alphabet design workshops in Papua New Guinea: A Community-based approach to orthography development. [URL], accessed January 8th, 2012.
Eckermann, William
(2007) A descriptive grammar of the Bukawa language of the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Faraclas, Nicholas
(1996) New developments in literacy in Papua New Guinea languages. In John Lynch & Fa’afo Pat (eds.), Oceanic Studies: Proceedings of the first international conference on Oceanic Linguistics, 353–365. Canberra: Australian National University (Pacific Linguistics, series C, no. 133).Google Scholar
Hinton, Leanne
(2000) New writing systems. In Leanne Hinton & Kenneth Hale (eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice, 239–250. San Diego: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holzknecht, Susanne
(1989) The Markham languages of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hymes, Dell
(1974) Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Morris
(1994) Organized phonology data of Kela. Unpublished manuscript. SIL Ukarumpa.Google Scholar
King, Jeanette
(2000) Te Kōhanga Reo: Māori language revitalization. In Leanne Hinton & Kenneth Hale (eds.), The green book of language revitalization in practice, 119–128. San Diego: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kulick, Don
(1992) Language shift and cultural reproduction: Socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Litteral, Robert
(2000) Four decades of language policy in Papua New Guinea: The move towards the vernacular. Radical Pedagogy 2(2). [URL], accessed January 21, 2012.Google Scholar
(2001) Language development in Papua New Guinea. Radical Pedagogy 3(1). [URL], accessed January 21, 2012.Google Scholar
Longenecker, Kenneth, Dei Abel, Reuben Boruru, Tusi Nandang, Gabu Reuben, Christine Schreyer & John Wagner
(2012) Monitoring village fish resources (Lukautim ples pis na risos bilong en; Koto kana i ŋe ambola ma gele golotome): A School-based fishery project. Pacific Biological Survey Contribution 2012–0061. 25.Google Scholar
Lynch, John; Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley
(2002) The Oceanic languages. Richmond: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Mueller, Eberhard
(1985) Melanesian fish book: Fishes, fishing methods, fishing grounds, mariculture and coastal conservation. Madang: Kristen Pres. Inc.Google Scholar
Nettle, David & Suzanne Romaine
(2000) Vanishing voices: The extinction of the world’s languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paris, Hannah
(2012) Sociolinguistic effects of church languages in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. International Journal for the Sociology of Language 2012(214): 39–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ross, Malcolm
(1988) Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. (Pacific Linguistics C-98). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1996) Mission and church languages in Papua New Guinea. In Stephen A. Wurm, Peter Mühlausler & Darrell T. Tryon (eds.), Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, 595–617. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009) Tonogenesis in the North Huon Gulf chain. Accessed at: [URL], March 25th 2011. Originally published as: Ross, Malcom (1993). Tonogenesis in the North Huon Gulf. In Jerold A. Edmondson & Kenneth J. Gregerson (eds.), Tonality in Austronesian languages, 133–153. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication No. 24. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
San Roque, Lila
(2010) Ill-advised, enlightened, obstructive and essential: Diverging views on vernacular language education in Papua New Guinea. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference, in the panel Vernacular Education in Melanesia and North America. New Orleans, LA, USA. November 18th, 2010. DOI logo
Schreyer, Christine
(2009) Reserves and resources: Local rhetoric on land, language and identity amongst the Taku River Tlingit and Loon River Cree First Nations. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Sebba, Mark
(2007) Spelling and society: The culture and politics of orthography around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Streicher, J.F
(1937) German-Jabêm dictionary. Mimeo, 245.Google Scholar
(1982) Jabêm–English dictionary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Terrill, Angela & Michael Dunn
(2003) Orthographic design in the Solomon Islands: The social, historical, and linguistic situation of Touo (Baniata). Written Language and Literacy 6(2): 177–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Thomas
(2003) Place names and the language of subsistence in southeast Alaska. In Joe Blythe & Robert McKenna Brown (eds.), Maintaining the links: Language, identity, and the land. Proceedings of the seventh conference presented by the Foundation for Endangered Languages, 29–35. Bath, UK: The Foundation for Endangered Languages.Google Scholar
Thurston, William R
(1987) Processes of change in the languages of northwestern New Britain. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wagner, John
(2002) Commons in transition: An analysis of social and ecological change in a coastal rainforest environment in Papua New Guinea. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Anthropology, McGill University. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
(2008) Patterns of language use among Kala speakers of Papua New Guinea. Unpublished Manuscript. Kelowna: British Columbia, Canada.Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn A. & Bambi B. Schieffelin
(1994) Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology 231: 55–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zahn, Heinrich
(1917) Wörterbuch der Jabêm-Sprache: Jabêm-Deutsch. Logaweng, New Guinea: Mimeo, 690.Google Scholar
(1940) Lehrbuch der Jabêmsprache (Deutsch-Neuguinea) (Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprache, Supplement 21). Berlin: Reimer.Google Scholar