Plantation languages in Fiji

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to present a sociolinguistic description of language contact on Fiji's platntations from 1865 to 1920, and to describe language varieties

which resulted from this contact. This information is examined in light of various theoretical questions concerning contact varieties such as pidgins, creoles, and koines. The introduction presents these aims and some of the theoretical questions involved. It also gives a sociolinguistic sketch of Fiji, outlines the organization of the thesis, discusses the sources of data, and presents the transcription used for linguistic examples. As outlined in the introduction, the main body of the thesis is divided into four parts. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) consists of theoretical and historical background information. Chapter 1 talks about langauge contact on plantations in the worldwide context and various scenarios for the development of pidgin and creole languages. Chapter 2 describes language contact in Fiji prior to the plantation era Part II (Chapters 3 to 5) concerns the languages of the first plantation labourers in Fiji, the Fijians and the imported Pacific Islanders, who worked on the small sugarcane, cotton, and copra plantations which were first established in the 1860s. Chapter 3 details the recruiting of Fijians and Pacific Islanders to work in the plantations, the origins of these labourers, and their linguistic backgrounds. Chapter 4 examines the roles of Fijian and Melanesian Pidgin English as plantation languages, and discusses why Fijian was the more important. Chapter 5 describes Pidgin Fijian , which was actually the main plantation language. Part III (Chapters 6 to 8) deals with the languages of the indentured labourers from India, first imported in 1879, who worked mainly on larger sugarcane plantations owned by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company content to those (CSR). The chapters of this part of Part II. Chapter 6 details

the origins and linguistic backgrounds of the Indian labourers. Chapter 7 examines the roles of Pidgin Fijian and Hindustani as plantation languages. Chapter 8 describes Pidgin Hindustani, which arose on the larger plantations. Part IV (Chapters 9 to 12) describes the linguistic legacy of the plantations. Chapter 9 discusses the process of koineization and the development of Fiji Hindustani, the language of the descendants of the Indian plantation labourers. Chapter 10 looks at the languages of the descendants of the Pacific Islands labourers. Chapter 11 covers the current pidgin languages in Fiji which are descendants of plantation pidgins. Finally, Chapter 12 summarizes some of the information brought to light in this work which is relevant to theoretical issues in pidgin and creole studies. Several short appendices are included which contain the following: a list of informants (Appendix A), details of research undertaken for this study to determine the origins of the Pacific Islands labourers who came to Fiji (Appendix B), anecdotal evidence about language use (Appendices C and E), lists and examples of loanwords (Appendices D, F, and G), and short texts of Pidgin Fijian and Pidgin Hindustani (Appendix H).