Cover not available

Commentary published In: Multilingualism and Language Contact in Asia-Pacific
Edited by Shobha Satyanath
[Asia-Pacific Language Variation 11:1/2] 2025
► pp. 31–40

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
Commentary

Talk across the Pacific

Developments in understanding traditional and modern multilingualism

 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
 | Australian National University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Australian National University.

Published online: 13 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.00023.bar
Article outline
  • 1.Linguistic diversity and multilingual ecology in the Pacific
  • 2.Traditional multilingualism
  • 3.Movement in the Pacific
  • 4.Language acquisition
  • 5.Creoles
  • 6.Challenges and Opportunities
  • References
References (43)
References
Anderbeck, Karl (2015). Portraits of language vitality in the languages of Indonesia. In I Wayan Arka, Ni Luh Nyoman Seri Malini, & Ida Ayu Made Puspani (Eds.), Language documentation and cultural practices in the Austronesian world: Papers from ICAL 12 (pp. 19–47). Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arnold, Laura, & Gasser, Emily (in press). Austronesian-Papuan contact in northwest New Guinea. To appear in Nicholas Evans & Sebastian Fedden (Eds.), Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages. Oxford University Press.
Barth, Danielle (2010–). Matukar Panau Language Documentation [Data set]. PARADISEC. Collection DGB1 at [URL] [Open Access].
(2019). Variation in Matukar Panau kinship terminology. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 5(2), 138–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022–). Tok Pisin corpus [Data set]. PARADISEC. Collection 3PAC1 at [URL]. [URL]
Barth, Danielle, & Ross, Malcolm (2024). Clause chaining in Matukar Panau (Oceanic, Papua New Guinea). In Hannah S. Sarvasy & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (Eds.), Clause chaining in the languages of the world (pp. 277–286). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blust, Robert (2013). The Austronesian languages. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. [URL]
Clark, Ross (1979). In search of Beach-la-mar: Towards a history of Pacific Pidgin English. Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand, 221, 3–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davey, Kira, & Barth, Danielle (2023). Directional constructions in Matukar Panau: A Bayesian approach to assessing variation. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 9(2), 156–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Di Garbo, Francesca, Kashima, Eri, Napoleão de Souza, Ricardo, & Sinnemäki, Kaius (2020). Concepts and methods for integrating language typology and sociolinguistics. Atti del Workshop della Società di Linguistica Italiana, 51, 143–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Bethywn (2023–). Solomon Islands Pijin corpus [Data set]. PARADISEC. Collection 3PAC2 at [URL]. [URL]
Evans, Nicholas (2019). Linguistic divergence under contact. In Michela Cennamo, Claudia Frabrizio, & Renato Parlato (Eds.), Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27–31 July 2015 (pp. 563–592). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, David (2024). Multilingualism. In Alexander Adelaar & Antoinette Schapper (Eds.), The Oxford guide to the Malayo-Polynesian languages of Southeast Asia (pp. 205–223). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammarström, Harald, & Nordhoff, Sebastian (2012). The languages of Melanesia: Quantifying the level of coverage. In Nicholas Evans & Marian Klamer (Eds.), Melanesian languages on the edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st century (pp. 13–33). University of Hawai’i Press. [URL]
Hodge, Gabrielle, Barth, Danielle, & Reed, Lauren W. (2023). Auslan and Matukar Panau: A modality-agnostic look at quotatives. In Danielle Barth & Nicholas Evans (Eds.), Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus (SCOPIC) (pp. 85–125). University of Hawai’i Press. [URL]
Jourdan, Christine, & Angeli, Johanne (2014). Pijin and shifting language ideologies in urban Solomon Islands. Language in Society, 43(3), 265–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kidd, Evan, & Garcia, Rowena (2022). How diverse is child language acquisition research? First Language, 42(6), 703–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kik, Alfred, Adamec, Martin, Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y., Bajzekova, Jarmila, Baro, Nigel, Bowern, Claire, Colwell, Robert K., Drozd, Pavel, Duda, Pavel, Ibalim, Sentiko, Jorge, Leonardo R., Mogina, Jane, Ruli, Ben, Sam, Katerina, Sarvasy, Hannah, Saulei, Simon, Weiblen, Geroge D., Zrzavy, Jan, & Novotny, Vojtech (2021). Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world’s most linguistically diverse nation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(22), e2100096118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lüpke, Friederike (2016). Uncovering small-scale multilingualism. Critical Multilingualism Studies, 4(2), 35–74.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mansfield, John (2025). Linguistic diversification and rates of change: Insights from a diverse sample of sociolinguistic studies. Language and Linguistics Compass, 19(6), e70022. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maxwell-Smith, Zara (2022). Speech recognition in low resource and code-mixed education settings: YouTube for Indonesian language learning [Poster paper]. Proceedings of SST 2022: The 18th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association.
Maxwell-Smith, Zara, Foley, Benjamin, González Ochoa, Simón, & Suominen, Hanna (2020). Applications of natural language processing in bilingual language teaching: An Indonesian-English case study. In Jill Burstein, Ekaterina Kochmar, Claudia Leacock, Nitin Madnani, Ildikó Pilán, Helen Yannakoudakis, & Torsten Zesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (pp. 124–134). Association for Computational Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merlan, Francesca, & Rumsey, Alan (2015). Language ecology, language policy and pedagogical practice in a Papua New Guinea Highland Community. Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea, 33(1), 82–96.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam (2016). Borrowing from Bislama into Nkep (East Santo, Vanuatu): Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 34(1), 77–94. ISSN: 0023-1959.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Writing a linguistic symphony: Analyzing variation while doing language documentation. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 62(4), 525–549. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Unnatural bedfellows? The sociolinguistic analysis of variation and language documentation. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 49(2), 229–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Passmore, Sam, San Roque, Lila, Gillespie, Kirsty, Nath, Saurabh Kumar, Davey, Kira, Mullan, Keira, Cawley, Tim, Biggs, Jessica, Billington, Rosey, Evans, Bethwyn, Thieberger, Nick, Evans, Nicholas, & Barth, Danielle (2025). English-based acoustic models perform well in the forced alignment of two English-based Pacific Creoles. Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers), 31172–31183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reed, Lauren W. (2022). Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea. Language in Society, 51(4), 627–661. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reed, Lauren W., & Rumsey, Alan (2020). Sign languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In Adam Kendon (Ed.), Sign language in Papua New Guinea: A primary sign language from the upper lagaip valley, Enga province (pp. 141–184). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ridge, Eleanor (2025). National norms supporting small-scale multilingualism: Vatlongos communities in Vanuatu. In Jeroen Darquennes, Joseph C. Salmons & Wim Vandenbussche (Eds.), Language contact: An international handbook (Vol. 2, pp. 245–266). De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowland, Caroline F., & Kidd, Evan (2019). Key issues and future directions: How do children acquire language? In Peter Hagoort (Ed.), Human Language (pp. 181–186). MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saad, George, Arnold, Laura, & Peddie, Emma (2025). Late Vernacular Production in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Glossa Contact 1(1), 1–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schapper, Antoinette (2020). Linguistic Melanesia. In Evangelia Adamou & Yaron Matras (Eds.), Routledge handbook of language contact (pp. 480–502). Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, Cindy (2018). Ideologies, practices, and their effect on dialect vitality: A case study from Vanuatu. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(1), 60–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schokkin, Dineke (2017). Contact-induced change in an Oceanic language: The Paluai–Tok Pisin case. Journal of Language Contact, 101, 76–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Variable realisation of verb-final /n/ in Idi. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 7(1), 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thieberger, Nick (2023–). Bislama corpus [Data set]. PARADISEC. Collection 3PAC3 at [URL].
(2025, October 15). Large language models for small languages. Endangered Languages and Cultures. [URL]
Tucker, G. Richard (1998). A global perspective on multilingualism and multilingual education. In Jasone Cenoz & Fred Genesee (Eds.), Beyond bilingualism: Multilingualism and multilingual education (pp. 3–15). Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wurm, Stephen A. (1979). New Guinea and neighboring areas: A sociolinguistic laboratory. De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue