Map of Micronesia IslandsPhoto from reefs.org
1. Summary of "Micronesian Dialects and the Overnight Voyage"
The study of Micronesia have been focused mainly through models. This model of ethnographic literature have come up with three concepts based on sailing: 1. The approximate limit to be considered an overnight voyage is 100miles. This means if one were to leave at dusk on one, they would arrive at the next island at dusk the very next day. 2. It is found that senior navigators are able to travel great distances, while junior navigators tend to stay within the 100mile radius. And last, 3. it is believed that these overnight voyages are randomly initiated. Using these voyages to often visit family and friends on different islands. (Marck 253) Due to this overnight sailing in the Micronesian area, Marck and many other scholars have found social interaction between islands have created what is called a mutual linguistic intelligibility. Also due to the these voyages, the social and economic culture of these islands have created similarities between them. (253) This model of overnight voyage is based the geography of Micronesia rather then the languages prehistory.
From the model derived there is one simple rule:
"If two islands are separated by a voyaging distance involving a single night at sea or less in traditional craft, their dialects will be mutually intelligible. The maximum distance is about 100 miles in Micronesia." (Marck 256)
Marck has found some exceptions to the rule, such as, Yapese and the Ngulu Trukic. However, overall the model shows that much of the linguistic patterns in the Micronesian language and dialects are due to these overnight voyages. (256)
2. Comments and Questions:
After reading this article by Jeffrey C. Marck I found it really interesting. I do believe that navigation between islands has a big impact on the way the Micronesian languages and dialects have developed overtime. It does make sense that because these islands are so small and not so far apart that they would interact with one another with overnight sailing. Also because these people seem to be very sea-bearing that they would have the capability to travel in between islands.
What I did find interesting though is if these people are very intelligible on navigating, especially on random notice (according to the model), why is it that there are there so many different languages? Wouldn't it make more sense that there would be different dialects, because they seem to have at one point traveled together from the same place and only separating perhaps because the islands were so small they could only hold so many people. Maybe at one time the weather was bad? Or there was a time of war? This could possibly cause the start of new languages. If you are more interested in about the languages of Micronesia here is a really good map and also more information on the individual languages.
Works Cited:
Ellis, Simon. "Transcripts of #reefs Talks." Where Reef Keeping Begins on the Internet. 2000. 27 Jan. 2008 <http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/s_ellis_032800.html>.
Marck, Jeffrey C. 1986. Micronesian dialects and the overnight voyage. Journal of the Polynesian Society 95(2):253–58.
7 comments:
I found this reading to be of particular interest to me because I'm from an island in Micronesia. Our islands are really small and fairly near each other, so often I would hear stories from my grandparents of how their parents would travel between islands often when they were younger. Because of this, they can speak fluently in many different Micronesian languages. I think that the Micronesians maintained similar dialects because of constant trading and interactions with one another. The islands there are so small so sometimes resources would become scarce and they would need to travel to a neighboring island for more supplies, thus communication was very important. Typhoons are another reason why there must be some form of similarity within their languages because often times islands would be evacuated in the event of a storm, requiring those inhabitants to settle on another group's island while the storm passes.
I also found the comment made by our Prof. in class to be interesting about how the Carolinians were able to understand another group's language, yet they would still reply in Carolinian and that group would understand. It's amazing.
The thing I found really interesting about the Marck reading was that it was while he was preparing a visual aid for his class that he had these insights about “social interaction” and “mutual linguistic intelligibility” of people within a 24 hour voyage from one another, and the roles of nonsenior navigators in the “social, economic and linguistic continuity” between those islands. I realize that it was based on previous scholarship in the “ethnographic literature on sailing technology,” but it is more specific in explaining the notion of dialect chains and their functions and limitations. I think it’s pretty cool that ideas and new ways of thinking about things can come from anywhere, even when we’re not actively seeking explanations.
After reading “Micronesian Dialects and the Overnight Voyage” by Marck, a question arose in my head that conflicted with past conclusions I’ve encountered before. The reading mentioned that “the sailing technology created a certain opportunity within the social system that manifested itself linguistically” in two ways. (Marck 253) The first way stated that if the two islands were within a day’s voyage of each other, then they’d maintain social interaction with each other, hence understanding and comprehending each other. The second way mentioned that if they were more then a day’s sail away, the results were basically a different existence of living. My thoughts were ‘was there ever any encounter between a senior navigator sailing more then a days voyage away and landing on an island absolutely different from his lifestyle?’ And if this has happened, did this navigator learn anything and bring it back with him to his island? Or did he teach his language to this remote island? Or did any significant impact happen where it maybe altered the culture and language of the islands and its people? The way I understood the reading was that there are many islands, and they all share a same language within there own group, and maybe a few islands understand each others own dialects that are within a day’s voyage away, but what about the islands that are so remote and farther to get to?
Marck, Jeffrey C. 1986. Micronesian dialects and the overnight voyage. Journal of the Polynesian Society 95(2):253–58.
I found the mutual linguistic intelligibility concept in the Marck article quite interesting.
In this day and age we probably wouldn't even give second thought to something like this in our daily life because travel has advanced so much so that trips don't last nearly as long and we tend to tune out to most others when traveling anyways. But without the kinds of entertainment we have now and stuck on a small outrigger for 24 hrs, I would suppose that all they could do is talk and learn each other's dialect/language.
Hey Kiri!
Great summary of the reading, and I really enjoyed reading the questions that you came up with after reading Marck’s article. My dad is from Guam, and all of his family still lives there. It is cool to know that at one time, my ancestors from that side of the family actually navigated between the islands on overnight voyages and shared the languages of their neighbours. Now that I think about it, the times that I have visited Guam in the past, I have heard my grandma conversing with people from surrounding islands, and the dialect changes. Guam has many typhoons so I am sure that the people there communicated with the surrounded islands for support and resources. But I do question how Marck can say that if the voyage can be made in 24 hours than there dialect will be mutually intelligible. How can we determine such a thing, and it is extremely accurate? It is a great study!
Thanks for the great summary, Kiri! I thought this reading was a really interesting way of explaining dialect chains, why some islands shared the same language, or had dialects of each other, and others didn't: it all depended on their basic geographic distances from each other, and on people's travel ability. I never thought of technology as being so directly influential on language, but I guess most people would not be able to make trips to faraway islands just for enjoyment in those days. One day's distance would make an island's people neighbors, and more than that would make them strangers.
Maybe one reason that it seems strange to me is because I'm too used to the idea of modern communication? These days people can talk to each other whether they live close together or on the opposite sides of the earth, and, like Tianna says, travel is a lot easier than it used to be. I think even a trip from Norway to Australia wouldn't take much more than a day's travel by airplane.
The Marck reading was fairly short, but I caught myself reading over a few things twice to understand the author. It is much more difficult for islanders to move across bodies of water, in comparison to travelers on large continents who are able to stop and spend the night, take a break. It would seem like such a hassle to visit family, etc. on different islands. Also considering storm risks involved, but that’s besides the point.
The illustration provided, figure 1 shows the reader how often and chances someone from island A would visit island B, C, etc. The “Simple Rule” allows linguists to see the frequent there may have been interactions between the islands.
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