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Article published In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 40:2 (2025) ► pp.262–301

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Pacific transformations of the ‘Country of Babel’

The legacy of a colonial language myth in nationalist discourses on Hawai‘i Creole and Tok Pisin

ORCiD logo with link | University of Bern | University College Dublin
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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 University College Dublin.

Published online: 18 January 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00132.neu
Abstract
The story of Babel has been used for centuries to prompt negative evaluations of linguistic diversity. It has been instrumentalised in debates about English, to attest linguistic purity and propagate the standard variety. In (post)colonial discourses, Babel came to project imperialist language ideologies and hierarchies onto new contexts. This paper demonstrates how Babel, as a recurring theme in debates on Hawai‘i Creole and Tok Pisin, has undergone transformation, having been employed in seemingly contradictory ways, variably used to legitimise or delegitimise the creoles. These competing, diametrically opposed lines of argumentation reflect different concepts of community and nation. Yet, as I propose here, Babel remains consistent in its core function: It serves as a topos, invoking ostensibly common knowledge about the dangers of (unmonitored) linguistic heterogenisation. Thus, regardless of its ideological force to challenge or maintain the (post)colonial status quo, it perpetuates a basic imperialist understanding of the nation as monolingual.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Key concepts
    • 2.1Language ideologies and myths
    • 2.2Nation building, standardisation and monolingualism
  • 3.The role of Babel in nationalist and imperialist discourses
    • 3.1The story of Babel
    • 3.2Babel and English
    • 3.3Babel as a topos
  • 4.Colonial and postcolonial transformations
    • 4.1Data
    • 4.2Babel and Hawai‘i Creole
    • 4.3Babel and Tok Pisin
    • 4.4Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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