Daniel Macdonald and the "Compromise Literary Dialect" in Efate, Central Vanuatu.(Critical essay): An article from: Oceanic Linguistics
Book Details
Author(s)Nick Thieberger, Chris Ballard
PublisherUniversity of Hawaii Press
ISBN / ASINB001P96HD4
ISBN-13978B001P96HD4
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
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This digital document is an article from Oceanic Linguistics, published by University of Hawaii Press on December 1, 2008. The length of the article is 8211 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the author: Daniel Macdonald, a Presbyterian Church of Victoria missionary to the New Hebrides from 1872 to 1905, developed a particularly strong interest in language. A prodigious author, he published widely and at length on the languages of Efate, and especially those of the Havannah Harbour area where he was stationed. But if his work is recalled today, it is as something of a curio, both for his Insistence--archaic even for the times--on a link between ancient Semitic and Efate, and for his vigorous promotion of the use by the mission and its converts of a single, hybrid Efate language. This paper addresses and seeks to analyze what Macdonald himself called this "compromise literary dialect." By identifying distinctive features of the three main varieties of Efate languages known today (Nguna or Nakanamanga, South Efate, and Lelepa), we aim to move beyond the lexical comparisons that have been the sole means of gauging relationships among these languages thus far. This enables us to begin the process of investigating the claim of Captain Rason, British Deputy Commissioner for the New Hebrides during Macdonald's last years on Efate, that the "compromise literary dialect" was in fact a spoken dialect particular to the area of Havannah Harbour. We hope to reconsider and perhaps recuperate some of Macdonald's writing as a rare if often distorted window on indigenous life and language at a pivotal moment in the transformation of Efate communities.
Citation Details
Title: Daniel Macdonald and the "Compromise Literary Dialect" in Efate, Central Vanuatu.(Critical essay)
Author: Nick Thieberger
Publication:Oceanic Linguistics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2008
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Page: 365(18)
Article Type: Critical essay
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
From the author: Daniel Macdonald, a Presbyterian Church of Victoria missionary to the New Hebrides from 1872 to 1905, developed a particularly strong interest in language. A prodigious author, he published widely and at length on the languages of Efate, and especially those of the Havannah Harbour area where he was stationed. But if his work is recalled today, it is as something of a curio, both for his Insistence--archaic even for the times--on a link between ancient Semitic and Efate, and for his vigorous promotion of the use by the mission and its converts of a single, hybrid Efate language. This paper addresses and seeks to analyze what Macdonald himself called this "compromise literary dialect." By identifying distinctive features of the three main varieties of Efate languages known today (Nguna or Nakanamanga, South Efate, and Lelepa), we aim to move beyond the lexical comparisons that have been the sole means of gauging relationships among these languages thus far. This enables us to begin the process of investigating the claim of Captain Rason, British Deputy Commissioner for the New Hebrides during Macdonald's last years on Efate, that the "compromise literary dialect" was in fact a spoken dialect particular to the area of Havannah Harbour. We hope to reconsider and perhaps recuperate some of Macdonald's writing as a rare if often distorted window on indigenous life and language at a pivotal moment in the transformation of Efate communities.
Citation Details
Title: Daniel Macdonald and the "Compromise Literary Dialect" in Efate, Central Vanuatu.(Critical essay)
Author: Nick Thieberger
Publication:Oceanic Linguistics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2008
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Page: 365(18)
Article Type: Critical essay
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
