interact often with non-Bebeli speakers. Bebeli speakers’ interactions with non-Bebeli speaking people in Kimbe, commercial or otherwise, are both negative indicators of ethnolinguistic vitality. Health services,
which are only available in Tok Pisin, also have a negative impact on the vitality of Bebeli.
4.2 Language use
Language use is an important factor in determining language vitality. Language use is the second of Landweer’s three ethnolinguistic vitality themes, encompassing both domains of language use and code
switching Landweer 2006:214-217. The more domains in which the language is used and the less code switching that occurs, the stronger the vitality of the language is likely to be.
4.2.1 Children’s reported language use
Children in every Bebeli village speak Tok Pisin as their primary language. They can also understand Bebeli, and children in Morokea and Banaule can reportedly speak a little Bebeli. Children in Morokea
can understand some easy words in English, and children in Banaule can understand English if they have been to school. However, people in Banaule reported that Tok Pisin is their children’s mother tongue,
and respondents in Morokea said that Tok Pisin is like their children’s food, indicating that it is the language they live by. When asked which languages children use when they are speaking to their
grandparents, parents, siblings and friends, and when they are angry, respondents in all three villages said that children use only Tok Pisin in all of those situations. The vigorous use of Tok Pisin by children
indicates a low vitality for the Bebeli language. In Banaule it was reported that children can speak Bebeli by the time they are about eight years old,
but that they are not fluent until they are fifteen or sixteen. Respondents in the other two villages said that children do not speak Bebeli until they are teenagers, and do not speak it fluently until they are at
least twenty. About seventy percent of children with an immigrant parent were reported to be able to speak Bebeli. Children of 87 of 145 sixty percent of these immigrants are from Banaule, while children
of only 58 forty percent are from Morokea and Mosa combined. Some other children of immigrants were also reported to understand Bebeli but without being able to speak it. Children with one Bola
parent were reported to understand Bola. Children in Mosa reportedly mix a little Bebeli with Tok Pisin, and those in Morokea and Banaule
mix a lot of Bebeli with Tok Pisin. Respondents in all three villages said that they do not like the fact that children speak more Tok Pisin than Bebeli because their language will be lost and then they will
lose their traditional customs. They indicated, however, that intermarriage would make it difficult to reverse this trend.
4.2.2 Children’s observed language use
