their vernacular exhibit higher levels of usage, and their vernaculars are likely to endure longer than in villages where education or commerce are the main focus.
North Watut villages are influenced by immigrants and by the desire for education. In Uruf and Mafanazo there seems to be a slow shift toward Tok Pisin. The same factors are at work in Onom, but
residents continue to use much vernacular.
5.2 Community language use as reported by teachers and church leaders
As part of our vernacular vitality assessment, we want to compare insiders’ perspectives on community language use with outsiders’ perspectives. We identified teachers and pastors as key outsiders we could
interview during the survey. We interviewed 13 teachers in six communities, though it turned out that eight of the teachers are originally from the local area. We interviewed only one pastor. The data from
these interviews cannot be considered a purely outsider perspective. The interviews do, however, give a second opinion about the sociolinguistic situation in the respective communities. In general, the
interviews confirm community reports throughout the survey area that a mix of Tok Pisin and vernacular is used by children. Data from interviews suggest that both Tok Pisin and the vernacular play important
roles in children’s linguistic repertoires in the survey area.
The outside teacher in Mafanazo reports that children in the community speak both the vernacular and Tok Pisin by the time they begin elementary school. The local teacher in Dungutung says his
children are fluent in the vernacular and are more comfortable speaking it than they are Tok Pisin. He says children in the community know how to speak the vernacular by the time they enter the elementary
school, and they learn to read and write the vernacular in school. A local Madzim teacher says the same about Madzim.
In Bencheng, we interviewed four primary school teachers. The local teacher reported that children generally speak the vernacular by the time they start elementary school, though they are still expanding
their knowledge of the language since they are only about six years old. He said most children use the vernacular while playing at school and as a secret means of communicating when outside teachers are
around. The outside teachers concurred with these statements.
At no time did any of the teachers suggest that Tok Pisin is the primary language used by local children or that Tok Pisin satisfies their communication needs. The local primary school teacher in
Bencheng said that certain Tok Pisin words have replaced their vernacular equivalents. “If I say one of these words in the vernacular,” he explained, “the children do not understand.” On the other hand, when
he is teaching a difficult concept or the children are confused, he provides an explanation in the vernacular because otherwise the children have trouble grasping it. Information presented to the
children in Tok Pisin is thus harder for them to absorb.
The pastor interviewed in Marauna had lived there for two years. His children were slowly learning the vernacular and liked to use a mix of Tok Pisin and the vernacular with friends in the village. The
Marauna community had translated songs he taught them from Tok Pisin to the vernacular. The perceptions related to us during teacher and pastor interviews suggest that the Watut
vernaculars currently have strong vitality. It is difficult to extrapolate an estimated future vitality from the data. It does not seem probable that Tok Pisin will soon replace the local vernaculars. Nor does it
seem likely that Tok Pisin will be relegated to limited domains in Watut communities. Instead, it seems that a mixture of Tok Pisin and vernacular will be the clearest means of communication among members
of the Watut communities in the future.
5.2.1 Summary of reported and observed language use
Reports of community insiders and outsiders and our own observations conclusively show that a mix of Tok Pisin and vernacular language is used by every Watut language community. Reports of teachers and
pastors tend to emphasize the importance of the vernacular for communication more than large group community reports.
In South Watut, half of our data come from Dangal, which has lower use of the vernacular than the other communities surveyed. We believe the vitality of the vernacular is strong in the other South Watut
communities, based on our data from Wawas. In Middle Watut, with the exception of Marauna, the vernacular is used to such an extent that we conclude it has strong vitality. In North Watut, we also
conclude that the vitality is strong, based on current use. But we also note that Tok Pisin is used by all communities at times when we might expect the vernacular to be used. Based on language use data, we
feel that the Watut communities would need to make a deliberate effort to continue using their vernaculars in most or all domains for the current levels of vitality to be sustained.
5.3 Opportunity for contact with other languages
