However, two villages placed English second and Dobu third. Some people in Kokauta also said they want their children to speak Tok Pisin.
Table 15 summarizes the responses to questions about people’s preferences regarding the language used for books and story telling.
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The responses are displayed as the number of villages reporting a preference out of the number of villages where the question was asked. For example, eight of nine
villages reported that they would like to read books in their own dialect. Table 15. Reported language preference for books and stories
Language preferences Local Dobu English
In what languages would you like to read books?
a
89 99
59 In what languages would you like to hear stories?
88 18
08
a
It seemed that the hypothetical nature of the first question led some people to not mention interest in having written materials in their own language, until it was clarified that the
question meant whether they would want to read such things if they existed. Overall, the responses summarized in table 15 indicate positive attitudes towards both local dialects and
Dobu. It appears that there is, however, a preference for the local dialects over Dobu, as only one village wanted to hear stories in Dobu.
In summary, current language attitudes of Galeya speakers indicate strong language vitality. They hold positive attitudes towards both Galeya and Dobu, although they seem to value the local dialect
more highly than Dobu. These attitudes suggest that they will keep speaking both languages in the future, likely maintaining the local dialect as their first language and continuing to use Dobu in the
church and for communication with outsiders.
3.4 Language change
Research conducted by Lithgow between 1964 and 1990 shows extensive change towards Dobu in the Galeya and Basima dialects. In order to further assess the vitality of Galeya, Basima, Ulua, and Gameta,
the survey team purposed to make an assessment, not just of language use whether people are using their own or another language, but also of whether the dialects in the chain are becoming more like
Dobu. Aitchison 1991:198 describes such change as language suicide that “[o]ccurs most commonly when two languages are fairly similar to one another. In this situation, it is extremely easy for the less
prestigious one to borrow vocabulary, constructions and sounds from the one with greater social approval. In the long run, it may obliterate itself entirely in the process.”
Research on this survey attempted to answer the following questions: 1
What is the relation of the Galeya, Basima, Ulua, and Gameta dialects to Dobu? 2
Have these dialects continued to become more like Dobu? 3 If such change has taken place, is it still continuing at the same rate?
3.4.1 Previous research
Lithgow 1992 carried out the following research, reported in his article “Language Change on Fergusson and Normanby Islands.”
• He took wordlists in the area and made cognate counts in 1964, 1982, and 1989–1990.
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The first question was not asked in one village, and the second question was not asked in two villages.
• In 1982 he recorded the percentage of vocabulary changes from local dialect to Dobu words, and
charted the areas of rapid, medium, and little change on a map of the area. •
In 1989 he calculated percentages of what he referred to as grammatical cognates.
•
In 1989–1990 he also gathered sociolinguistic data and noted that where moderate change was occurring, people were concerned about it, but they were not concerned in areas where there had
been massive change.
Table 16. Lithgow’s 1992 research results
Dialect 1964 cognates
with Dobu 1989 cognates
with Dobu 1989 grammar
cognates with Dobu
Percent of words replaced by Dobu
Basima 56
60 50
9 Sebutuya 60
79 55
22 The results from Lithgow’s research are shown in table 16. All figures are given in percentages. In all
cases, Lithgow found that the rate of change towards Dobu, percentage of cognates with Dobu, and degree of Dobu comprehension were higher in Sebutuya Galeya dialect than in Basima. When
examining the rate at which basic vocabulary was replaced by Dobu, Lithgow put the Sebutuya dialect in the category of massive change 22 percent, and the Basima northern dialect in the category of
moderate change 9 percent.
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Massive change is defined as over 19 percent change in vocabulary in twenty-five years, and moderate change is defined as 3 percent to 9 percent change. Lithgow also
reported that most of the languages in this area go through stages of adopting Dobu vocabulary so that in the first stage they use the Dobu words but identify them as foreign, in the second stage they are
uncertain which of the two words is their own, and in the third stage the Dobu word is considered their own.
3.4.2 Current measurements of language change
