7. Language Endangerment and Globalisation in the Pacific

Endangered Languages and Languages in Danger

“…7 It overlooks the fractionalization of many 5. We should not ignore Tryon's (2006) observation that large proportions of Pacific islanders migrating to the city or joining foreign diasporas are shifting to their national expanded pidgins or to the European colonial language, especially in the metropoles, as their vernaculars. Equally noteworthy are the reasons, also articulated by Tryon, why they have been shifting languages.…”

“…Did enslavement in general impact the vitality of some languages in the history of mankind? Related to this is the diaspora phenomenon of especially the Polynesian and Micronesian islands to which Tryon (2006) perceptively draws attention. Often as many people as, and sometimes more than, those remaining on the islands now live outside and lose competence in their heritage languages.…”

La micrologie de l'identité archipélique: Étude psycho-philosophique de l'identité dans les littératures francophones contemporaines de la Caraïbe, de l'océan Indien et de l'Océanie = A szigetvilági identitás mikrológiája : az identitás pszicho-filozófiai vizsgálata a Karib-tenger, az Indiai- és a Csendes-óceán kortárs frankofón irodalmaiban

“…1064 Ibid., p. 148-150. une identification. Nous sommes témoins d'un transport discursif 1166 qui crée un espace d'alternance constante, d'une intersubjectivité permanente qui encadre la genèse de la personnalité de Matamimi et la présente comme phénomène inhérent à l'univers mental de l'auteure-narratrice du texte. La configuration polyscopique du texte 1167 , la multiplication de lieux physiques et mentaux, la pluralité de tonalités et de points de vue créent une énonciation changeante, mouvante, un éclatement du sujet, de l'identité.…”

Le Tofi ne'i Vale Tuulima: Perceptions of Samoan Students, Teachers and Parents on the Place of the Samoan Language in New Zealand Today

“…UNESCO has predicted that many of the languages spoken today worldwide (estimated at 6000), are in danger of dyingthat 90 percent of these will become extinct by the next century (World Commission on Culture and Development 1996, as cited in UNESCO, 2008, p. 1). Looking more specifically at Pacific languages, I found that the Pacific is perhaps the most linguistically diverse region in the world, with over 1200 languages, but that it was widely believed that a considerable proportion of these languages would not survive the next century (Tryon, 2006). The recent case in Australia (2008) of the formal apology to the "Stolen Generation" of Aborigine people had also reinforced very clearly that language is at the heart of cultural identity.…”

“…Zealand (Tryon, 2006). The majority of Samoans today in New Zealand are New Zealand-born (60 percent), young, and many are like me, the children of intermarriage (Statistics, 2006).…”