Academic warns English language replacing Samoan
An academic who is in the process of launching a Samoan language dictionary on the web says there are signs in Samoa itself that English could become the more dominant language in time to come.
Transcript
An academic who is in the process of launching a Samoan language dictionary on the web says there are signs in Samoa itself that English could become the more dominant language in time to come.
The programme director of Samoan Studies at Victoria University, Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin, has already loaded more than 300,000 words onto international website Sketch Engine, alongside other world languages.
Galumalemana told Bridget Tunnicliffe one million words will be collated with the assistance of other scholars over the next few months.
GALUMALEMANA ALFRED HUNKIN: It will be an opportunity for people to refer to it for meanings of words. It'll be, firstly, composed entirely in the Samoan language. It's called a monolingual version of a dictionary. Meanwhile, we'll be working with a group of other people to work on the bilingual version of it, the English-Samoan version.
BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: And, long term, what is your overall aim for this website?
GAH: The long-term aim is, firstly, to have easy access by the Samoan community globally, because there's a lot of people who are very hungry for the language resources which they can use to learn, but also for references and translation. Over and above that, it's an opportunity to make sure that the language doesn't die. Being a small world language, so to speak, it's a very, very small minority language where you compare it to the big, big languages. So it's another way of having it there available for generations to come.
BT: So you have described the Samoan language as being a threatened language. Would you also apply that to within Samoa, or are you just talking in a global sense?
GAH: It's partly a global sense, but it's also a warning light, so to speak, for the Samoan community in Samoa. Because of the power of English over the last 100 plus years you'll find a whole lot of young people walking around the streets in American Samoa, and Apia in independent Samoa, not talking Samoan but talking English. That's a phenomena that's been happening over a period of time and those are signs or signals that there's a transition going on from Samoan to English.
BT: If the trend doesn't change, are we talking in a couple of generations we could see English becoming the dominant language in Samoa?
GAH: I'm not confident to predict that finality, but definitely if the trend is not arrested... And I'm glad the Independent State of Samoa has actually recognised the challenge and is taking moves to try to counter that by setting up a language commission. And I gather that they're beginning to put into place some mechanisms, meaning ways to get people to use the Samoan language formally within government circles to give it that status that it requires. Now, I know that in American Samoa they're taking some steps now in the education system to make Samoan as vital and important to use alongside English in the school. That's the new policy beginning by the new Director of Education and Governor.
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