The Significance of Wantok

Wantok is the only newspaper in Papua New Guinea that is written in Tok Pisin.

There is no alternative. The language Wantok uses is highly influential and instrumental in shaping Tok Pisin, especially since it “is often read out to great numbers of people” and therefore “also influences spoken Tok Pisin” (Romaine, 1992a: 51). It has been mentioned that, according to the Asian Development Bank, the literacy rate for 2005 in Papua New Guinea was 52%.⁹⁰ Although the aim of the restructuring reform in the 1990s was to ensure that all children would be able to attend an elementary school, the percentage of drop-outs is high, with a retention rate of less than 65% (Avalos, 1992: 310). Furthermore, “many children in PNG leave school functionally illiterate” (O’Donoghue, 1994: 208). It is probable that the rate of illiteracy is even higher amongst older people living in villages. They represent the target group to whom Wantok is read out.

It may be problematic to postulate a single variety being used by Wantok. Details such as age, gender or education of the respective author of an article were not available and could therefore not be taken into consideration. Furthermore, the existing Tok Pisin lects are not strictly separable from one another; there is a smooth transition. Yet on the whole, there is a discernible variety used in Wantok, which is clearly located at the urban end of the continuum. Evidence for this claim is provided in chapter 4.

90 See <http://www.adb.org/Documents/Periodicals/ADB_Review/2005/vol37-3/sharing-insights.asp>; 09 Sept. 2005). This figure is supported by Kale/Marimyas (2003: 1).

3.1.1 The Foundation of Wantok

Wantok literally means someone sharing the same language (compare English ‘one talk’) and implies being a friend. Founded in 1969 by the late Father Frank Mihalic, the first issue of Wantok Niuspepa was released in 1970. It had and still has a great influence on the way Tok Pisin is written. Father Mihalic published a style book containing criteria to be followed in Wantok. His 1971² revised version of the Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin is still deemed to be the de facto norm for Tok Pisin (cf. Romaine, 1992a: 49), although the lexicon has meanwhile become outdated. Mihalic was aware of the responsibility of the Wantok newspaper:

It is imperative for us at Wantok to write and spell correct Tok Pisin because unofficially we are considered the norm for usage and spelling throughout the country. Whether we like it or not, we are setting the standards for Tok Pisin writing, simply because no one else writes and prints as much materials as we do in Tok Pisin. And what we write is spread all over the country.

(Mihalic, 1986: 2, quoted in Romaine, 1992a: 51).

In the first issue (August 5, 1970), the aims of Wantok are made clear:

Tok Pisin em i tok bilong yu … inap nau i gat kain kain tok i save kamap long tok pisin. Tasol husat inap ritim? Em i hapkas tok pisin tasol. Man i hatwok long ritim. Dispela niuspepa Wantok em bai i spik olsem wantok tru bilong yu, em i no tanim tok pisin. Nogat. Em i tok olsem yu yet yu tok.

‘Tok Pisin is your language. Meanwhile there are all sorts of words coming into Tok Pisin. But who can read them? It is only a half-caste Tok Pisin. It is difficult to read. This newspaper, Wantok, will speak as a true wantok [friend] of yours. It won’t transform Tok Pisin. No. It speaks as you yourself speak.’⁹¹

(Quoted in Romaine, 1992a: 50)

It became a weekly newspaper and, according to Romaine (ibid.: 50), it is perhaps the most important periodical published in PNG. Robie states that it “became an icon of national development” (Robie, 2008: 104ff.). Wantok is still the only newspaper currently written in Tok Pisin. It is published by Word Publishing, which is owned

91 The translation is mine, although it is very similar to the one given by Romaine (1992a: 50).

by the “Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and United Churches of PNG” (Eggins, 2008:

207).

One other factor was taken into consideration by Mihalic:

One of the things we are going to have to settle before we even start printing is the smokeability of the paper we are using. That will help to sell papers. People here have the custom of rolling their home-grown tobacco into cigarettes with newsprint. They don't like the usual thin tissue paper for roll-your-owns. It burns too fast. They like newsprint–but not every kind–it must burn a certain way and produce a white ash. So we are experimenting among our staff with various samples from the paper manufacturers. We want to make sure that we have the best smoking paper in the country. Then we can advertise it that way. And well [sic] we'll have to print a warning on the front page stating: PLEASE READ THIS PAPER BEFORE YOU SMOKE IT. Maybe someday we'll get into the Guinness Book of Records as the most smoked newspaper in the world.

(<http://www.svd-ca.com/mihalic.htm>; 13 July 2008;

According to the specifications of the Society of the Divine Word, available on the internet, Wantok has “a circulation of 30,000 with an average of eight people reading each copy” (<http://www.svd-ca.com/mihalic.htm>; 13 July 2008). This figure is probably a little optimistic; Sebba (1997: 18) records “an audited circulation of 15,177”, citing the newspaper’s masthead. The paper’s own website, which is relatively new,⁹² provides the information that more than 12,000 issues are printed weekly, added to which are 4,000 copies that are “distributed and delivered Free Of Charge to schools, hospitals, Provincial Governments, Mining communities, church groups and NGO’s in PNG. 1, 500 papers are delivered through paid subscriptions nationally and internationally and 6,500 is [sic] sold to the public”

(<http://www.wantokpng.org/>; 18 Oct. 2009). Barring the subheading visible in the image below, the website is entirely in English.

92 The website did not exist when the corpus compilation began in 2006. A concrete date for the launch of the website was not found. The ‘Credits’ section by the editor John Burton, however, was posted in June 2003.

Figure 7: The Wantok Header (<http://www.wantokpng.org/>; 18 Oct. 2009)

It is stated on the Wantok website that its aim is “to try and standardize tok pisin and to reach as wide an audience as possible” (ibid.).

3.1.2 The Variety Used in Wantok

As expounded in chapter 2, there is a continuum of lects in Papua New Guinea, ranging from rural varieties of Tok Pisin to heavily anglicised forms spoken in towns. While a rural variety is for instance used for the Buk Baibel (the Tok Pisin Bible), Wantok Niuspepa is obviously influenced by English. Unlike Lothmann (2006), I do not believe that the Buk Baibel has a notably inhibiting effect on the mounting anglicisation of Tok Pisin. Lothmann himself acknowledges the progressive alienation from the Christian religion (250f., 263, 323), the pervasive anglicisation in Papua New Guinea (181, 245f., 265, 271), and that Wantok can be seen as a counterbalance to the Buk Baibel (285f.). Although the significance of the Bible is indisputable, the importance of the media can also not be denied. It is true that Mihalic aligned the second edition of his dictionary and grammar of Tok Pisin, which also served as the basis for his style book for Wantok, to the New Testament:

In the second edition spellings were revised to conform with usage in the Nupela Testamen. It was decided to standardise the Tok Pisin orthography using the north coast dialect as a ‘high Pidgin’ because Madang Pidgin was held to be the least affected by Anglicisation.

(Cass, 1999: <http://www.waccglobal.org/en/19994-language-and- the-right-to-communicate/800-Tok-Pisin-and-Tok-Ples-as-languages-of-identification-in-Papua-New-Guinea.html>; 18 Oct. 2009)

The style of language used by Wantok must inevitably differ from the style used in the Bible. While the contents of the Bible remain static, newspaper language is subject to contemporary developments. The variety used in the Buk Baibel represents the rural end of the creole continuum, whereas Wantok uses an urban variety. One

cannot expect a medium reporting on current events in a creole language to use a variety of over 30 years ago. English is the main language of education and is associated with prestige by many locals. Tok Pisin, on the other hand, has still not been officially standardised and is in a constant flux. Addressing contemporary issues therefore necessitates the ‘invention’ of new words, although at least they are largely adapted to conform to Tok Pisin pronunciation and spelling. The corpus analysis evidences this.