Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Kiribati Language reflects changes which have already taken place in
the culture today. While changes in a language are inevitable, speakers of
the language show different attitudes towards these changes. With the
introduction of Western ideas and behaviours, new words have to be
borrowed or invented to accommodate these foreign concepts.
WRITING SYSTEMS
The Kiribati language was first put down in writing by Rev. Hiram Bingham,
Jr. of the Protestant mission based in Hawaii who arrived in the Gilberts in
1857 and, much later, by priests of the Sacred Heart Mission which was
first established in the Gilberts in 1888. Even though none of them were
trained in linguistics, they successfully accomplished their task of
translating the Bible into the local vernacular, although not without some
difficulty. They used different spellings in their respective versions and also
translated some words differently.
Another case of the difficulties in translation of the Bible is seen in St. Mark
2.:11 "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thine house". Bingham translated this as "I taku nako im, Tei rake, ao
tabeka am kainiweve ao nako n am auti". Kainiwene is a compound word
having the meaning of "an object to lie on", possibly invented to refer to
the Western introduction of beds. Mr. Eastman, another missionary after
Bingham, changed the word in the translation from kainiwene to kiem,
which means "mat" in English. A mat was (and still is) more commonly
used by I-Kiribati than a bed.
The Protestants spelled the name of Jesus as Iesu while the Catholics
opted for Ietu. Such differences in spelling were resolved in later years
when the Catholics agreed in general to conform to Bingham's language
usages.
Linguists and others have invented signs by which they can indicate
different sounds in written form, but usually this can be done in many
ways. For example, long vowel sounds may be distinguished from short
vowels by simply doubling the vowel or by adding a diacritic mark over the
single vowel sign (a/aa or a/a). Also, the nasal sound "ng" as distinguished
from the nasal "n" may be represented as ng or as n with the diacritic
added. Other more complex sound differences can be written in similarly
distinctive ways. In Kiribati, the aa and ng are more acceptable forms,
whereas a and n a known by island readers but are not widely observed in
writing practice.
With the changes taking place in Kiribati culture and the need to provide a
standardised vocabulary for new ideas which are being assimilated, the
Government has realised the importance of having a Language Board to
ensure that I-Kiribati would be able to keep up with new ideas and
technology from developed countries without discarding the fundamental
component of their culture, that is, their language, as some unfortunate
peoples in the Pacific Basin have done.
The Kiribati Language Board was officially set up in the mid-1970s within
the Ministry of Education, Training and Culture. According to the Board's
own constitution, its functions are to standardise the orthography and
grammar of the Kiribati language, to compose and update a dictionary and
to work towards development of a Kiribati literature. The Ministry of
Education selects the Board's Chairman, appoints its members and
allocates a modest sum annually for the Board's operations.
Board members number thirteen and are nominated from the Ministry, the
Civil Service, the principal churches and the Tungavalu Society (now
renamed Te Rikia n Tungaru). The northern and southern islands of the
Gilberts both have a representative in recognition of the strong dialect
differences between the two areas. Board recommendations on language
matters are made to the Minister who, if he approves, forwards them to
the Cabinet for final decisions.
The Board has had varied success in its attempts to standardise the local
vernacular. In general the nation's schools, both public and private, have
been co-operative in adopting changes. The national newspaper, Te
Uekera, in its news reporting has implemented Board recommendations
when approved by the Cabinet but not otherwise. Until recently, public
hearings on language changes were not held regularly.
Some examples will illustrate the nature of the Board's problems in dealing
with linguistic change. The English term "Commonwealth" is expressed in
the Kiribati language as Kaomanuareta. This may be confusing because
the last part of the word, "-reta", is similar to the Kiribati way of saying the
English noun "letter". Again, the English word "minister" has two meanings
in Kiribati which often leads to misunderstanding, that is, minister as a
member of the clergy and minister as a government official. Everyone
uses minita when referring to either individual and depends on the context
to indicate which meaning is intended. Recently, there have been
attempts to substitute Minitita for government minister and to reserve
minita for the churchman, but popular usage has not changed noticeably.
The local equivalent of "missionary" is expressed as mitinare.
The Board has also faced a problem which has resulted from the creation
of Kiribati as an independent state. Before 1979 our culture, language and
nationality were officially identified as "Gilbertese", after the name of the
main group of our islands. With Independence, there were feelings among
those in the new government that a local word should be used in place of
Gilbertese. Tungaru is the traditional name for the Gilbert Islands, but the
new state also includes the Line and Phoenix groups to the east, and these
were never viewed as part of Tungaru. So the local rendition of "Gilberts",
that is, Kiribati, was adopted to provide a compromised equivalent of the
former colonial entity.
The young people see things differently from their elders. To them, the use
of English in written form, and to some extent in oral communication, is
more convenient. Obviously the younger generation is getting the upper
hand in this conflict. Probably the changing world gives them some
advantage over their more traditional elders.
There is one school, Rurubao Primary School in Bairiki, that was first
established years ago for the children of expatriates who came to the
islands to work for the Government. The teachers at Rurubao are mostly I-
Matang or white people, and the fees charged for schooling are extremely
high. Entry into Rurubao is by examination. Today the school accepts some
Kiribati children who are considered to be sufficiently competent in
English.
After the Government took responsibility for Primary education, first from
the Protestant Church in the early 1950s and later from the Catholic
Church in the late 1970s, language policy varied. A strong push from the
Government in the 1960s attempted to give more emphasis to English as
a preparation of I-Kiribati for a more active role in Western-oriented
economic and governmental activities. More recently, however, the trend
is towards a reasonable mix of Kiribati and English and more attention to
Kiribati culture in the curriculum. Classroom materials for the latter are
produced by Kiribati trainees in the Tarawa Teachers College. These
students are also trained in Vernacular Studies. A standardised curriculum
is applied in all Primary schools at the present time.
As children continue their studies at the Secondary school level, the
emphasis is definitely given to English. All subjects are taught in that
language, except in a course on Kiribati Studies where the vernacular is
used for all instruction. Children generally find it hard to deal with the
English language when they first go to high school. The exception occurs
among those who come from Primary schools in South Tarawa, Banaba
and Nauru where they have been exposed to a more urbanised and
English-speaking environment.
Churches in Kiribati often conduct their services in the local language and
some of these are broadcast on the radio. Hymns are always sung in the
vernacular, although most were originally composed in Latin or English.
One church in South Tarawa does not have a qualified local minister and
therefore an expatriate is recruited to serve in that capacity. Although the
services are consequently conducted in English, an interpreter translates
the minister's sermons.
KIRIBATI LITERATURE
As yet, one cannot draw firm conclusions about the influence which
publications in Kiribati language may have had on the orthography or
selling practices, since there are not near enough materials published in
the vernacular to provide models for the way people write their language.
In the outer islands, the Kiribati language is not in any immediate danger
of being lost as a consequence of influences from foreign countries nor is it
faced with serious linguistic problems as a result of introduced
technologies from developed and industrial nations. In South Tarawa,
however, the situation appears to be more critical, for here is where I-
Kiribati are in more direct contact with Western culture. Hopefully, I-
Kiribati will be able to adjust to the changing environment to become more
aware of the increasing threat to their language and culture. Precautions
are necessary to counteract undesirable impact on the language.
The Kiribati Language Board now seems well prepared to initiate actions
that may help to minimise problems affecting the language in times to
come. One of the principal problems identified at this stage is
standardisation of the Kiribati orthography and structure.
Such differences exist not only between the two abovementioned islands
and the rest of Kiribati but they also occur more generally between the
northern and southern groups on the Gilberts. An example of this diversity
is clearly shown in the send-person singular pronoun which is pronounced
ngke in the north and ngkoe in the south. Even between islands in the
same group one will find differences in speech but these are less obvious
to the untrained ear.
The Board has been very systematic in reaching its decisions but it needs
to exercise caution in anticipating both positive and negative effects that
implementation may have on the language generally. Its present method
of conducting public hearings on a given issue may well disadvantage the
minority whose dialect and cultural values are as important to them as are
others to the majority. While these are only some of the problems
confronting the Board, there is as yet no overriding concern that any large-
scale destruction of the Kiribati language is imminent.