PROJECTS OF THE IUA
39. Languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific area
This project has as its aim the detailed linguistic, sociolinguistic, historical and interdisciplinary study of those aspects of the language situation in the Pacific area proper and regions adjacent to it in the west and east which have resulted from contacts and interaction between speakers of different languages representing different cultures. Of special interest in this are the nature, development, use and the varying roles of trade languages and lingue franche in pre- and post-European contact periods, and the numerous pidgin and creole languages based on local languages and on various European languages (as well as bi- and multilingualism). The results of this project are laid down in compendium volumes of which the first, a Handbook of Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin), appeared in 1985 and three further volumes dealing with New Guinea Pidgin, Police Motu (an indigenous-language based pidgin language of southern Papua New Guinea) and Bislama (of Vanuatu) in 1986-87. The UAI has designated the series Pacific Linguistics which is published through the Department of Linguistics of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, of the Australian National University, Canberra, as official outlet for publications emanating from this project. A large atlas of the languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific Hemisphere, published in 1997 constitutes a part of this project and is to contain about 280 multi-coloured and black-and-white maps and well over 1000 pages of appropriate text materials. There has been strong involvement of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University in this Atlas, especially through its Department of Linguistics.
For the moment, an Atlas of Endangered Languages in Latin America is in preparation.
The project was adopted by the UAI in 1982 on the initiative of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the British Academy as a Category C project.
Directed by the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Directors : S.A. Wurm and P. Mühlhäusler 1982-2001, M. Crevels et Willem Adelaar 2001-2002, M. Crevels 2002-