3.1.2 Internal and external community attitudes
There was a difference between what the community said they wanted and how they acted. In Sisimagum, when asked what they think when they hear their children use Tok Pisin, the response given
was, “It isn’t good. We are not in agreement with this.”
13
However, this same community also reported using Tok Pisin almost exclusively when they spoke with their children. The communities all reported
that they would like their children to learn Awar and use it. To some degree, they all reported feeling angst about the current shift toward Tok Pisin. These internal attitudes toward the language were
mirrored in the external attitudes. Outsiders have little motivation to learn the language and perceive that the Awar people themselves are unmotivated to maintain the language.
Awar is not used in any school. None of the teachers at the primary school in Sisimagum are Awar speakers. When asked if it would be helpful for the teachers to know Awar the headmaster asked, “Why?
None of the children know their tok ples.”
14
There are no functioning elementary schools in the Awar villages. There is one starting up in Awar village, but the teacher says he will do everything in English
using Tok Pisin to help explain. The teachers living in Sisimagum, all of whom are not from Awar, have not learned Awar; nor has
there been any pressure for them to learn Awar, according to the headmaster. He did report that some of the teacher’s own children have learned a little Awar, but “just a couple of phrases.”
15
From the perspective of teachers, the only outsiders living in the Awar area, the community does not seem eager
to help outsiders learn their language. There are two churches in Awar, a Roman Catholic Church in Sisimagum and a Seventh Day
Adventist Church SDA in Nubia. Church leaders from both congregations report using Awar for some songs and occasionally while praying. When asked specifically about the need for a translation of the
Bible in Awar, the SDA pastor said that it would be well used and help people use their language again. The prayer leader of the Roman Catholic Church responded that Tok Pisin is too dominant and a
translation into Awar would not be worth the effort.
3.1.3 Language use of immigrants
Table 5 gives the data on immigrants in the Awar communities. Most of the immigrants consist of women who married Awar men. They come from all over PNG, but relatively few come from the
surrounding language groups. As can be seen in the table, immigrants are a large part of the Awar community. Their language use patterns, specifically what they teach their children, have a significant
impact on the overall sociolinguistic situation.
Table 5. Immigrants in Awar
Village Name
Estimated 2013
population Number of
Immigrants Percentage of
population
Awar 601
30 5.0
Nubia 317
32 10.1
Sisimagum 235
26 11.1
Total 1153
88 7.6
13
“i no gutpela. Mipela i no wanbel long dispela.”
14
Though this was said in English, he used a Tok Pisin phrase. “Tok ples” means literally the language of the village, or vernacular.
15
This was said in English.
Most immigrant parents report that their children are not able to use the Awar language with anyone else, including other children, middle aged men and women, and older men and women. In
Nubia only three immigrants reported that their children were able to speak Awar at all, only two in Sisimagum, and eight in Awar. Children of immigrants are not likely to use Awar. They are a significant
percentage of the population, making their language use impactful to the larger community.
When it comes to stated opinions, all three communities reported that it is not good that immigrants do not learn their language. Though this is the stated opinion, it does not change the fact that
immigrants are not learning their language and, more importantly from a language vitality perspective, that their children are not. The people of Nubia took the blame for this situation on themselves, saying,
“It is our mistake that we do not teach them immigrants our language.”
16
3.1.4 Contact with urban centers
All three communities reported a high frequency of travel into Madang. The villages are situated on the main road in the area and it is costs K20
17
for a trip into town on a locally owned public motor vehicle PMV. Most PMVs leave the area late at night and arrive at Madang in the morning giving the people
time to shop and sell their goods before the PMV heads back out to the Awar area in the late afternoon. People reported going to Madang between four and ten times annually. They sell their goods
cocoa, fish, sago, and beetle-nut and they buy town goods rice, clothing, school supplies. They also reported that everyone men, women, and children in the community goes to Madang. While in Madang
they report using Tok Pisin exclusively even with other people from Awar. This contact with Madang is having a negative effect on the vitality of the language because it is exposing every generation to another
domain dominated by Tok Pisin.
3.1.5 Economic factors
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