A little aside about languages

 

 

More than 800 indigenous languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea at present. Unfortunately,  many of them from small and remote groups are being lost as people move from rural to urban areas and bring up their children where other languages are spoken.  

 

Since 1883, when Papua, in the south, was annexed by the government of Australia for the British Empire, and 1884 when New Guinea in the north was colonized by the Germans, two lingua francas developed for trade: Hiri Motu in Papua, and Tok Pisin in New Guinea. Since 1918, when New Guinea became a trust territory of Australia under the United Nations, English has been the official language of government, education and commerce. The Tok Pisin term for a local language is Tok Ples.

 

 In 1963 when we first arrived in New Guinea, Tok Pisin was just being introduced to the area where Maring was the Tok Ples. Tok Pisin was used by the colonial patrol officers (kiap) who came through once a year to conduct the administration census.  It was used by the occasional medical officers and agricultural officers (didiman) who came through the area with information about cash crops such as coffee and peanuts. The Anglican missionaries used it in their educational efforts.  It was our means of communication as we gradually built up our understanding of Maring, the local Tok Ples. 

 

In 1968 when we returned briefly, we found that the first local men who had gone out in response to labor recruiters for two year stints of work at coastal plantations had returned and were introducing Tok Pisin into the heart of local daily life. While at the coast, they had had to learn Tok Pisin in order to communicate not only with plantation staff, but also with the workers recruited from many other areas of New Guinea.   

 

By the time we returned in 2014, local people of all ages were speaking Tok Pisin fluently, and several who had been educated outside also spoke English.

 

As for me, some familiar phrases and favorite words quickly returned to my mind and my tongue, but I was brought up short when called upon to make official speeches. Oratory had always been a masculine realm, and in the 1960s it was my husband, Marek, who had always risen to the occasion.  This time, it was up to me.  

 

Words and expressions in both Tok Pisin and Tok Ples rose up from my memory as I lived through the swiftly passing days in Gundai.  My favorite has always been  wundi-yanga, the Maring expression equivalent to "wonderful," "fantastic," "awesome," ...  depending upon one's generation.  This word expressed perfectly my joyful enthusiasm at being back in the world of the Simbai Valley.  

 

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