Monolingual Mania: Current Trends in Pacific Dictionary Making
Early, Robert (May 2004). Monolingual Mania: Current Trends in Pacific Dictionary Making.
- Has attachment: File:U6NRPP2Z.pdf
Abstract: Within the Pacific, there is an enormous regional variation in language situations. Throughout the more recently settled scattered islands and atolls of Polynesia and Micronesia, there is a tendency for one language to be spoken by dispersed speech communities, whose spread often corresponds with modem political entities (e.g. To n g a ) . On the other hand, the larger islands of Melanesia are known for the high density of languages that they support relative to geographical area and to population (e.g. Vanuatu, with around loo languages spoken by a population of 200,000; no language greater than about 8000 speakers). Since the time of significant European contact, beginning about 200 years ago, the best described languages have been those of the Central Pacific, namely Fijian and the Polynesian languages. In most cases these vernacular languages have become established national languages, including being vehicles of a comparatively rich culture of literacy, whereby in addition to their role in the religious domain, they are used as mediums of instruction to higher levels in the education system, and in the production of newspapers and many other kinds of printed material.
The task of documenting these languages was willingly undertaken by many colonial administrators and missionaries, and many of the standard grammars and substantial bilingual dictionaries they produced are still respected as representing the best of the scholarship of the time....
