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A Brief IntroductionPapua New Guinea (PNG) is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean on the island of New Guinea, directly north of Australia. It shares its island with Indonesia, which occupies the western half. Though much of PNG is unexplored, it has large rainforests and wetlands, extensive mountains, huge mineral and precious metal deposits, and active volcanoes populating the island. These conditions explain the isolated nature of the hundreds of indigenous cultural groups living on the island.
While early societies were based around hunting and gathering, agriculture quickly became the staple that it remains as today. European sailors first arrived in the late 1500s, and the English language came soon after. After Britain claimed it as a colony in 1883, Australia began to formally administer the country, which prevailed until 1975, when PNG achieved independence. PNG is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse places on earth, with over 800 languages spoken. The four official languages are English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and Papua New Guinean Sign Language. English is not widely spoken outside of government and business circles, despite being published in two daily national newspapers and spoken on several of the nation’s few radio networks. However, English is the dominant language in the PNG education system, which has primary, secondary, and higher education schools. At the primary level, there has been greater push to teach in local languages, but English is the language of education at the secondary and tertiary levels. Of the 6,672,429 people that live in PNG, only 13% live in urban areas. The majority of the population is Christian, with 96% practicing some form of Christianity (about 69% Protestant, 27% Catholic), and the remaining 3% practicing indigenous customs. They are a constitutional parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth Realm, and are so under the jurisdiction of the English monarchy. With a society so strongly influenced by English religion and media, no wonder English remains relevant in PNG society, despite being a language that a minority of the inhabitants speak. |
Papua New Guinea's Linguistic Statistics
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Fun fact: Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse nation on Earth. According to the Summer Institute of Linguistics, PNG has 839 living languages. The majority (about 77 percent), despite having less than 1,000 speakers, are thriving or developing. Twelve languages have gone extinct since 1956. Tok Pisin is the most widely spoken language, with 4 million L1 and L2 speakers. English is one of the lingua francas of the nation, with many people beginning to favor it over more traditional languages such as Hiri Motu, another official language of PNG (Ethnologue).
Papua New Guinea has four official languages: English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and most recently (May 2015) Papua New Guinean Sign Language. English is one of the institutionalized languages. It is only spoken by one to two percent of the population, but plays an important role in both the government and educational systems.
Papua New Guinea has four official languages: English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and most recently (May 2015) Papua New Guinean Sign Language. English is one of the institutionalized languages. It is only spoken by one to two percent of the population, but plays an important role in both the government and educational systems.
Papua New Guinea's Government
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Technically, the British monarchy is the head of the government, though the Prime Minister and Parliament have executive and legislative power respectively. The Governor-General of PNG represents the monarchy’s interests in the government. While not necessarily a dominating force in the nation, the presence of the English government paves the way for English to be one of the official languages in PNG. If the British government is present, so is their language. As long as PNG remains a Commonwealth realm, the use of English will continue to increase.
Corruption in the Government
The statistics to the left come from the Transparency Corruption Perception Index’s 2014 data on the levels of corruption of 175 governments in the world. PNG ranks 145, and receives a score of 25 (0 being the most corrupt, 100 being the least). The main issue the country faces is the government not using money and resources to benefit its citizens and instead reappropriating it for their personal benefit. Lack of sufficient funds is one of the key problems of the bilingual education system in the country. A total of 85 percent of the population still lives off of subsistence farming, and only 13 percent live in urban areas. Human trafficking is also a huge issue. The CIA World Factbook notes the prevalence of human trafficking in PNG: “No law enforcement or government officials were investigated in 2013, despite reports of complicity in human trafficking at the highest levels of government.” |