Mapping Metalinguistic Knowledge in Dili, Timor-Leste

Melody Ann Ross 13th East-West Center

International Graduate Student Conference February 13-15, 2014

Overview •  Introduction •  Research Question

–  Where is Dili, ethnoling makeup –  History and effect on Dili’s Demographics

•  Lit Review –  Map tasks, perceptual dialectology –  The importance of speaker intuitions –  Sociolinguistics in Dili, what specifically

•  Methods •  Participants

–  language issues •  Results

–  Unique Lgs, Total Lgs, Word Counts –  Maps

•  Conclusions –  Future Research (ask for mother tongues!!) rankings?

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Dili Introduction

•  1400’s – Portuguese Colony •  1975 – Power shifts to Indonesia •  1999 – Power shifts to UN •  2002 – Independence •  2006 – Crisis •  2013 – UN ends mission

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Dili Introduction

•  Dili Demographics –  large youth population – highest dropout rates in the country

•  highest literacy rates

– wealthiest citizens – 74% of all migrants in the country settle in Dili

•  51% of this group is under the age of 30

•  Linguistically Diverse

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Introduction

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Lit Review

– John Hajek, University of Melbourne •  2000; Sociolinguistic Environment in East Timor:

Colonial Practice and Changing Language Ecologies

– Aone van Engelenhoven, Leiden University •  2006; Ita-nia Nasaun Oin-Ida, Ita-nia Dalen Sira

Oin-Seluk: Our Nation is One, Our Languages are Different

– Kerry Taylor-Leech, Griffith University •  2008; Language and identity in East Timor

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Lit Review

•  Dennis Preston, 1982 – From performance-based dialectology to

perceptual dialectology – Performance-based rely on professional

elicitation and analysis of observed behavior – Perceptual rely on opinions and experiences

of non-professionals – Why is this important?

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Lit Review

•  Currently, studies tend to focus on macro-areas in the West – Bucholtz, Mary, et al. (2007) “Hella Nor Cal or

Totally So Cal?: The Perceptual Dialectology of California”

– Fought, Carmen. (2002) “California Students’ Perceptions of, You Know, Regions and Dialects?”

– Purschke, Christoph. (2011) “Regional linguistic knowledge and perception: on the conceptualization of Hessian”

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Research Questions

•  Anecdotes suggesting that certain people tend to settle in certain places: – What are Dili resident’s perceptions of

language use in Dili? •  What factors influence perceptions of language

use in Dili?

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Methods

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Methods •  Distribution

– Student Training – Problems

•  map culture, labels •  group mentality •  infrastructure

•  Metadata entered in Excel for qualitative analysis in R –  total word counts, total language labels, unique

language labels, demographic groups, etc. •  Quadrat analysis

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Participants

12

F M

2030

4050

60Participant's Age

Mean of both groups=26

Years

F M

05

1015

2025

30

Participant's Years Lived in Dili

Mean of both groups=13

Years

3

5

19

7

2

8

5

10

3

2

2

1

9

Participants

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40yo; F; Baucau; 17 years in Dili

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24yo; F; Baucau; 2 years in Dili

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Mother tongues become like district identities for each person in East Timor and one feels proud to bring and preserve those languages there into the international world.

20yo; M; Dili; 20 years in Dili

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24yo; F; Baucau; 20 years in Dili

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Unique Languages (20)

18

31

1

113

3 0

91

30

4 6 13

69

12

182

198

5

35

0 1

82

54

32 25

0

50

100

150

200

250

Total Language Labels

Population (p=0.9)

19 0 50000 100000 150000

050

100

150

200

Actual Speaker Populations and Perceived Populations in Dili

2010 Census Language Population

Map

Lan

guag

e Fr

eque

ncy

Baikeno

Bekais

Bunak

EnglishChinese

Fataluku

Galolen

IdateIndonesianKairui

Kemak

Makalero

Makasae

Mambae

Midiki

Naueti

PortugueseRahesuk

TetunTerik

TokodedeWaima'a

Languages of One’s Own District

20

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Tota

l Num

ber o

f Lab

els

Own-District and Non-District Languages by District

Own-District Language

Non-District Language

Results - Mambae

21

Central Timor-Leste, 130,000 speakers

Results - Bunak

22

Mountain-Central Timor-Leste, 75,000 speakers

Results - Kemak

23

West Timor-Leste, 72,000 speakers

Results - Makasae

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Eastern Timor-Leste, 70,000 speakers

Results - Fataluku

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Far Eastern Timor-Leste, 30,000 speakers

Conclusions •  Maps show that respondents don’t believe certain

languages to be in certain areas •  Different groups (male, female, young, old, etc.)

did not show significant differences of opinion •  Maps show high linguistic and social awareness •  Labels show that respondents’ awareness of

languages roughly corresponds to their speaker populations (p=.9)

•  Speakers are more likely to identify languages from outside their districts that their ‘own’ languages

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References •  BUCHOLTZ, Mary, Nancy BERMUDEZ, Victor FUNG, Lisa EDWARDS, & Rosalva VARGAS. (2007)

“Hella Nor Cal or Totally So Cal?: The Perceptual Dialectology of California”, Journal of English Linguistics 35: 325-352.

•  DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE. (2010). “Highlights of the 2010 Census Main Results in Timor-Leste.” Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Dili.

•  EVANS, Betsy E. (2002) “Attitudes of Montreal Students Towards Varieties of French”, in Daniel Long and Dennis

•  Preston (eds.) Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 71-93. •  FOUGHT, Carmen. (2002) “California Students’ Perceptions of, You Know, Regions and Dialects?”, in

D. Long and D. Preston (eds.) Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benajmins, 117-136.

•  HAJEK, John. (2000) “Language planning and the sociolinguistic environment in East Timor: Colonial practice and changing language ecologies.” Current Issues in Language Planning 1:400–413.

•  INOUE, Fumio. (1999) “Classification of dialects by image”, in Dennis Preston (ed.) Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 161-176.

•  PRESTON, Dennis R. (1982) “Perceptual Dialectology: Mental maps of the United States dialects from a Hawaiian Perspective”, University of Hawai‘i Working Papers in Linguistics 14(2): 5-49.

•  PRESTON, Dennis R. (1989) Perceptual Dialectology. Dordrecht: Foris. •  PURSCHKE, Christoph. (2011) “Regional linguistic knowledge and perception: on the

conceptualization of Hessian”, Dialectologia special issue II, 91-118. •  TAYLOR-LEECH, Kerry. (2008). “Language and identity in East Timor: The discourses of nation

building.” Language problems and language planning, 32, 2, 153-180. •  VAN ENGELENHOVEN, Aone. (2006) “Ita-nia Nasaun Oin-Ida, Ita-nia Dalen Sira Oin-Seluk: Our

Nation is One, Our Languages are Different.”, in: Paulo Castro Seixas & Aone van Engelenhoven (eds) Diversidade Cultural na Construção da Nação e do Estado em Timor-Leste (pp. 106-131), Porto: Fernando Pessoa University Press.

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