Documentation of the Bebeli Language, Papua New Guinea

FAIN: FN-230211-15

Hiroko Sato
University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI 96822-2216)

Bebeli is one of the highly endangered Austronesian languages in the West New Britain region. Tok Pisin, a lingua franca in Papua New Guinea, is the dominant language in all domains among all generations of the Bebeli community. Children are not learning Bebeli anymore, and their parents do not teach it to them. There are about 780 speakers left. The last fluent speakers are in their 70s or older; those who are younger than 40 hardly understand the language. This situation is likely to continue or grow worse due to the area’s increasing accessibility and growing oil palm industry, which brings more contact with speakers of other languages. The main goals of the project are (1) to continue building a Bebeli corpus of annotated recordings, emphasizing culturally significant texts, and (2) to produce a comprehensive grammar and a topical dictionary of the language. The research will be conducted in two ways. First, the University of Hawai’i will serve as a base, and collaborative research will be conducted with several professors in the Linguistics Department there. Second, field research will be carried out on one extended field trip in the Bebeli area. The focus of the fieldwork will be on collecting a large amount of texts and annotating them as well as eliciting linguistic data. The data will be deposited with Kaipuleohone, the University of Hawai’i Digital Ethnographic Archive for permanent archiving. (Edited by staff)

Associated Products

Hiroko Sato Collection - Bebeli Documentation (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Hiroko Sato Collection - Bebeli Documentation
Author: Hiroko Sato
Abstract: This is a collection of Bebeli language and its related languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. The collection includes audio and video recordings and photographs.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/34526
Access Model: open access

An Assessment of Language Vitality in Bebeli, an Endangered Language in Papua New Guinea (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: An Assessment of Language Vitality in Bebeli, an Endangered Language in Papua New Guinea
Abstract: Papua New Guinea (PNG) shows very great linguistic diversity, and a number of languages in the country are endangered. There are 47 languages spoken on New Britain Island, and most of them are both undocumented and at risk of loss. Bebeli is the most severely endangered language spoken in the West New Britain region of PNG. The language has been replaced in nearly every domain by Tok Pisin, and younger generations are not learning the language anymore. While I estimate the number of speakers at about 780, including those who may use the language very little, there are only four remaining fluent speakers with solid knowledge of the language and traditional concepts. This talk is a preliminary report on the process of language loss and the assessment of the language vitality of Bebeli, based on interviews and experimental methods that include comprehension and production tasks. In this talk, I first describe the causes of Bebeli’s loss, and discuss the current situation of language proficiency and use. I then demonstrate how the language is being lost, based on the results of assessment tests of language vitality. Finally, I examine speakers’ perceptions of their own language proficiency.
Author: Hiroko Sato
Date: 10/26/2016
Location: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Primary URL: http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/Biocultural-Initiative_Sato.pdf
Primary URL Description: This is a biocultural initiative speaker series held by co-sponsored, East-West Center and Center for Pacific Islands Studies at University of Hawaii.

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