PhD Celebration: A Sociolinguistic study of Language Documentation of the Denggan Language (Banam Bay Malekula, Vanuatu)

In the country of Vanuatu, there are estimated to be as many as 138 different languages. Of those, there are still many languages which remain undocumented. Yet, with the move to integrate the vernacular local languages into the education system, speakers of these languages are developing orthography systems as a way of maintaining the vitality of their language in oral and written forms. My thesis is a result of a community orthography and language documentation project in Southeast Malekula, Vanuatu. It focuses on the language, Denggan, formerly known as Banam Bay Language or Burmbar (ISO code vrt-639-3) spoken by around 900-1000 speakers.

This seminar unpacks the language project that was at the centre of this thesis work, as well as the different directions my thesis took along the way. This includes examining what collaboration means when working within a community project in Vanuatu. I will present on my exploration of relevant Indigenous Pacific epistemologies and how the navigation between these epistemologies and Western academic traditions impacted my research journey. I will give an overview of the language documentation findings and the contributions of the first Denggan grammar sketch. I will also report on reflections around community collaborations and how I navigated the responsibilities between my commitments to the community and finishing my degree.