The college of St. Barnabas on Norfolk Island and its languages: An early example of missionary language planning

This article discusses the difficulties of devising and implementing workable mission language policies in one of the world’s linguistically most diverse regions. In spite of ample funding and the involvement of professional linguists, the ambitious project of making Mota the lingua franca of the so...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language & communication 2010-10, Vol.30 (4), p.225-239
Main Author: Muhlhausler, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Culture
Language policy
Lingua franca
Linguistics
Melanesia
Missionaries
Mota
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Summary:This article discusses the difficulties of devising and implementing workable mission language policies in one of the world’s linguistically most diverse regions. In spite of ample funding and the involvement of professional linguists, the ambitious project of making Mota the lingua franca of the south-western Pacific was a failure. One of the principal reasons for this was that the Melanesian missionaries saw intercommunication as a technical problem and failed to consider the social and cultural factors that determine the success or failure of any language plan.
ISSN:0271-5309
1873-3395
DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2010.02.001