coconuts and cacao beans. People speak Tok Pisin when selling coconuts, cacao beans and oil palm fruits.
A small proportion of the Bebeli population has left the area to work elsewhere. At the time of the survey, seventeen Bebeli men and four Bebeli women were living outside of the language area in order
to work. See Table 5 for a breakdown of the number of work emigrants by village and destination. Approximately one percent of the adult Bebeli population
25
has left the Bebeli area to work. Table 5. Work emigrants
Morokea Mosa Banaule Mens
totals Morokea Banaule Womens
totals Grand
totals
Moresby 2
2 2
6 1
1 7
Kavieng 5
5 5
Lae 2
2 2
2 4
Wabag 1
1 1
Goroka 1
1 1
Rabaul 1
1 1
Sepik 1
1 1
Chimbu 1
1 1
Totals by Village
9 2
6 17
1 3
4 21
4.1.4 Health services
Bebeli speakers from all three villages have easy access to health care facilities, where they speak Tok Pisin with health care workers. People from Morokea use the large Kimbe General Hospital, which is
approximately a ten-minute walk from the village. Five of Kimbe General Hospital’s staff members are from Morokea; however, they speak Tok Pisin with other people from Morokea at the hospital. Mosa has
its own aid post, staffed by a Mamusi woman, who speaks Tok Pisin with her patients. Banaule also has an aid post, with one worker from Banaule and one from Bali Island. Both speak Tok Pisin with people
visiting the aid post, although Bebeli people can speak some Bebeli with the Banaule man. When illnesses or injuries are too serious for local health facilities, people go to larger health centres.
Those from Banaule go to Waloka and then Kimbe General Hospital, those from Mosa go to Kimbe General Hospital and those from Morokea go to Rabaul. Bebeli people visiting all of these facilities use
Tok Pisin to interact with health care workers. People in Mosa and Banaule reported that health workers sometimes visit their villages to give
immunizations, raise awareness about health issues and do check-ups for children and pregnant women. These visiting health workers use Tok Pisin.
4.1.5 Summary of contact with other languages
The Bebeli people’s extensive contact with people from other language groups is a strong negative indicator of ethnolinguistic vitality. The relatively high percentage of immigrants to the Bebeli area and
the fact that only about half of them can speak Bebeli are both negative indicators of vitality. Bebeli people have easy access to Kimbe town and often interact with speakers of other languages there. The
Bebeli-speaking people can meet some of their economic needs using their own vernacular, but they still
25
Percentage of Bebeli people who have emigrated to work elsewhere = work emigrants Bebeli population, projected to 2009 adult percentage of population + emigrants – immigrants = 21 3163.587 + 240 – 53
= .0102
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
