Description of Language Use in the Samoan Community in the United States
Introduction
The Samoan community in Hawaii and the United States mainland originated from two countries in the southern part of the Far East. The two countries are American Samoa, which is an independent republic, and the Western Samoa, which was administered by New Zealand until 1962 (Dassanowsky and Lehman 3). The Samoan people massively migrated from their homeland in the later parts of the twentieth century in search for educational and employment opportunities. Currently, there are more Samoans in America that the entire population of Western Samoa. The Samoans, in their native land, had a rich and deep cultural system. The Samoans in America still practice certain aspects of this rich and deep culture. One of the major challenges that face the Samoan population in the America is language differences. The group’s use of English differs slightly from the use of the language by Native Americans. The recent history of Samoa and the Samoan people largely influences their use of the English language while in America; the differences in language use are manifest in lexical, syntactic, morphological, inter-speaker, and intra-speaker variations. This paper explores these variations in the English language as used by the Samoan community in the United States by first describing the recent history of the interactions between Samoans and the outside world to set a precedence.
Samoa’s interaction with the outside world
The original inhabitants of the islands that make up the Samoan archipelago arrived in Samoa and neighboring Tonga between 500 and 600 BC and colonized these islands (Dassanowsky and Lehman 1). These individuals trace their origin to Malaysia. The original inhabitants of these islands lived a secluded life that was different from that of the world outside them. They began a rich cultural heritage. In their culture, the man was the head of the family. A few family heads made an extended family unit. The men in the family unit made decisions that the other members of the family were to abide with. The families were typically large and the women bore many children. A chief led each group of neighboring families. Apart from their social life, these people practiced a unique form of pottery and were fishermen. They used wooden vessels with iron fittings for transport and fishing. For a long time, the outside world did not know of the existence of Samoa and the people of Samoa knew very little about the happenings of the world away from them.
The earliest recorded contact of the Samoans with the outside world is by the work of explorers. Roggeveen was in Samoa around 1722; he reported that the Samoans were healthy and sturdy seamen who made high-quality vessels. Years after Roggeveen visit, Louis Antoine de Bougainville from France visited the islands; however, his experience was different as part of his crew were killed by Samoans (Dassanowsky and Lehman 2). In fact, it is the Frenchman’s visit to the islands that bred the popular view in the West that Samoans were hostile and violent people. In later years, Samoa’s position made it a perfect place for military, especially navy expeditions. This reason increased the interest of the developed countries at the beginning of the twentieth century in Samoa. Among the Western countries who showed interest in Samoa were the USA, the UK, France, Spain, and Germany. However, the USA had, by far, the greatest dominance in the area; the US navy administered American Samoa for a long time.
The presence of the USA militants impacted on the natives in many ways. The natives soon copied the ways of life of the US militants. As Roggeveen reported on his arrival in Samoa, the people of the island were naked; they thus started using formal dress as an influence by the US navy who resided on the island. In a short time, the inhabitants of the islands were brewing bear the western way and were preparing food as the Americans did. However, the influence of the military’s presence was limited. In the mid-twentieth century, as J. F. Kennedy instructed the navy to get the navy to get Samoa going, New Zealand was planning on giving the Western part of Samoa their independence. As a way to get Samoa to take off, the US government sent an assorted group of volunteers; this groups called themselves the ‘peace corps’ (Dassanowsky and Lehman 4). Most of the Peace Corps were teachers. While in Samoa, the Peace Corps interacted with the citizens much more than the military did hence influence the Samoan’s more.
Apart from their ways of life, one of the most important areas that American presence in Samoa impacted was on the language of the local inhabitants. As a study by Murray and Wesselhoeft found, the local inhabitants have numerous words in their current language that are directly as a result of the influence of Americans (110). The presence of Americans on their land triggered the Samoans to develop new vocabulary. Before the American effects, the Samoan language was a highly efficient language that utilized very little vocabulary to effectively communicate. The natives thus developed new vocabulary and modified their previous vocabulary to accommodate the sociocultural impacts that their good visitors had on them. The language’s lexicon has kept growing following the impacts of European missionaries and explorers and American military’s presence since 1889 (Dassanowsky and Lehman 4). Among the English loan words that the Samoan language adopted are words for beer, coffee, condom, marine, carrot, newspaper, baptist, benzene, box, spaghetti, and suit.
Key Characteristics of the Samoan Language
Apart from its tendency to borrow from other languages owing its relative poverty of vocabulary, the Samoan language has several other distinguishing features. Phonologically, the language is a complex language. The language has considerably limited wording in speech; the wording is surprisingly even more limited in writing. This limitation in writing is because similar words in the language can have more than one pronunciation with different meanings (Dassanowsky and Lehman 4). For instance, the language utilizes all the five vowels; each vowel has a long form or a diphthong and a short form. In writing, a macron sign differentiates the long from the short vowels. The pronunciation of the vowel gives the word a whole different meaning.
The utilization of consonants varies with the occasion. In colloquial instances, it is okay to merge certain consonants to make a single sound. Further, the presence or absence of a glottal stop not only impacts on the pronunciation of Samoan words but also their meaning as well. Stress patterns in Samoan are complex and do not follow particular rules or a certain pattern like the case of English. Furthermore, the stress patterns are not dependent on the parts of speech a word belongs to. In sentences, speakers emphasize the last word of the sentence and often raise their voice at this point. Most Samoan words are either monosyllabic or disyllabic. Polysyllabic words are mostly either compound or foreign words. Prosody in Samoan sentences varies with the occasion and the speaker’s intention.
The morphology of the Samoan language is also distinct from that of the English language. The use of articles in the two languages, however, follows almost similar rules. The language also has elaborate tenses in its verbs. Further, unlike English, even the simplest forms of verbs can mean the same thing as nouns.
In Samoan, distinct words represent gender. Different words describe individuals of different ages and different social ranks. Regarding number, the removal of an article or the use of a number before an article is used to represent plural. In a few words, internal reduplication in verbs represents plurality. Establishment of possession is another area where the Samoan language is unique (Dassanowsky and Lehman 4). The possessive pronouns in the language have two forms; however, the rules governing the use of the forms are complex. The language uses adjectives extensively; while some are primitive, most adjectives in the language result from modification of other parts of speech.
Syntactically, the Samoan language employs four different word orders. The Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) order is the most common. SVO, OVS, and VOS are also possible. Further, the language has relatively simple negation strategies; a speaker negates a word or phrase by placing a morpheme or particle that means ‘not’ before it. Some verbs are, however, exempt from negation, while others have negative connotations.
Regarding language use, the register greatly impacts on the Samoan language. Here, the aspect of a formal versus a colloquial register comes in. The pronunciations of some words vary while in a formal set-up. Further, the Samoan culture greatly regarded oratory. Oratory also utilizes a special register. In traditional set-ups, the occasion of the oration determined the range of vocabulary utilized (Duranti 200).
Despite the key differences in language use, the Samoan language is one uniform language. There is no evidence of bilingualism or the existence of multiple dialects of the language. Even though the lexica of various regions may vary slightly, the differences are not significant. Duranti and Reynolds, however, found significant differences in the language use of Samoans in Samoa and those living in Southern California (93). The Samoan settlers in California, for instance, had routinely adopted the naming words for parents –dad and mum – in their Samoan discourse. Further, these individuals used certain Samoan words that are absent in the standard Samoan phonological register and showed numerous instances of code-switching. These differences are, however, not enough to conclude that a Southern Californian dialect of Samoan exists. Since the few variations in the Samoan language are mainly due to regional differences, there is no communal diglossia in Samoan.
These key features of the Samoan language have a strong impact on their capabilities in the second language. In America, for instance, the differences in the use of Samoan language and English confer the difficulties that the Samoan learners of the English language face. However, recent studies show that proficiency in the first language can help to eliminate these difficulties (Toloa et al. 514). Of the major impacts that the Samoan language will have on the English language use of Samoans in America is the accent. The presence or absence of a Samoan accent in an English speaker of Samoan origin is dependent on the interaction of many other factors. These socio-demographic factors confer inter-speaker variations among Samoan speakers of English in America.
Inter-speaker and intra-speaker variations among English speakers of Samoan origin in America
Among the most significant differences in the way members of the American Samoan community use the English language are dependent on the individual’s place of birth. A majority of the Samoan community in America in current times are American citizens by birth. As such, these individuals have been part of the American education system which utilizes English since they started schooling. However, part of the older population are immigrants from Samoa. Considering the low education standards in Samoa in the past, these individuals have low proficiency in the English language. Furthermore, Samoan accent while speaking English has a heavier impact on the direct immigrants from Samoa when compared to the younger generation who were born in Samoa. Individuals who have spoken Samoan since they were born are likely to suffer greater interference of their first language in English. The differences in grammar, morphologic, and syntactic rules in the two languages impact greatly on the second language hence numerous mistakes in speaking the second language and the heavy accent.
Additionally, the age of Samoan English speakers directly influences their language use in English. The age of the speaker influences their speech register. The younger generation of Samoans have seamlessly joined the contemporary young American society which is fascinated by Netflix, European soccer, the basketball league, and American football; their use of the English language, therefore, does not differ significantly from that of other American youth except for slight impacts on the accent. As Scull posits, these youth are likely to forget the details and rhetoric that comprise the Samoan culture and only practice the fancy and superficial things like dances (9). Furthermore, as the proficiency of individuals of Samoan origin in the Samoan language decreases with each generation born on American soil, so does their cultural orientation towards the Samoan culture blunt. Language is an important aspect of a culture as it is the tool for representing, transmitting, and creating social order and cultural world views (Duranti and Ochs 2). On the other side, the olden Samoan generation still holds to the cultures of oratory and formal speech registers. These age group transfer this situational rules to English. For these reasons, their use of English differs significantly from that of other American adults.
Moreover, the socioeconomic status of a person is an important determinant of their behavior and language use. In the traditional Samoan society, the large size of the families meant that the families had individuals of assorted statuses. In those societies, individuals of lower statuses worked for those of higher statuses. In meetings, for example, chiefs and orators would remain relatively stationary while untitled individuals would fetch various things to them (Ochs 82). In the same way, these high-status individuals showed little interest in the events occurring around them. In the same way, they used a limited number of words. Individuals of higher socioeconomic status spoke mainly using formal and oratorical intonations and wording (Ochs 82). These socioeconomic dynamics also greatly influence the way Samoans in America utilize the English language. Samoans of higher socioeconomic statuses tend to speak fewer words and predominantly utilize formal language. On the other side, those of lower socioeconomic statuses tend to use colloquial language more and tend to use more words in their speech. In fact, Ochs posits that these socioeconomic and status difference even influence how caregivers handle Samoan children; with a higher status, a Samoan child is exposed to much less interaction with people and their caregivers tend to use fewer and more formal words while interacting with the child. Thus, a Samoan child born in a family of a higher status tends to grow up using formal language and using fewer words hence impacting on their use of the English language.
Gender is another factor that influences language use among Samoans. In the traditional Samoan culture, females were subordinate to men. Mostly, it is men who held leadership positions and made key decisions on behalf of the household. For this reason, the men tended to use fewer words while the women used more words and were more informal. This differences are also evident in the way the members of this community utilize the English language. Despite the cultural differences in America, the men are still the ultimate leaders in Samoan households and tend to use formal language. Most Samoan women in America do not have regular occupation hence they spent most of their time in informal settings; this explains the high level of informality in their utilization of English. Among the key characteristics of features of language use of Samoan women in informal settings is code-switching. In code-switching, the speaker replaces English words with their Samoan equivalents in the process of speech (Duranti and Reynolds 93).
At an intra-personal level, the cultural practices of Samoa tend to influence how one uses the English language on different occasions. For instance, while attending Samoan traditional cultural practices, one is likely to utilize formal language and language that is congruent with oration in Samoan. Further, Samoans tend to use a formal English whenever they are in a place where a majority of the audience are either older or have a higher socioeconomic rank to the speaker. However, when one is interacting with individuals of a similar age and socioeconomic rank as them, they tend to use informal and colloquial language with many short forms and contemporary American English words; it is also in this situations that Samoan youth would curse like any other American youth do.
Further, like any other individuals, emotion greatly influences language use by individual Samoans in America. Samoan, being a rhetoric and intensely cultural community, attach great value to emotion. As Ochs and Schieffelin put it, language has a heart and the state of the heart greatly impacts on how one uses the language (17). When one is annoyed, they are likely to be more informal and to use a rapid prosody with a different pattern of word emphasis and intonation. Feelings of great joy also tend to increase the informality in speech. Feelings of disappointment or sadness, however, tend to do the opposite; sad individuals are likely to speak at a slower rate and to be formal in their choice of words and pronunciations.
Additionally, apart from the situation, the characteristics of the audience determine a Samoan’s utilization of English. For instance, students of Samoan origin in America have consistently found life difficult because of the stereotypes associated with Samoans in the USA. Other learners perceive Samoans as physical, athletic, lazy, strong, proud, and dangerous (Borrero et al. 49). Other people see Samoan females as timid and enslaved by the respect that their culture demands. For this reasons, while interacting with learners of other origins, Samoans often choose their words consciously to undo these stereotypes that make life unfavorable for them. However, when speaking to fellow Samoans, the learners tend to speak freely and to utilize a version of English that is heavily corrupted by Samoan vocabulary. Additionally, it is in such situations that bilingual Samoan youth might choose to change the lingua to Samoan.
Despite the variations in the community’s utilization of the English language, they speak a similar language. In other words, there is no evidence of communal diglossia among Samoan English speakers in America. Further, there is no evidence of distinct dialects in the way this community uses the English language.
Conclusion
The Samoan language is a unique language with unique grammar and morphological rules. English has greatly influenced the lexicon of the language in the recent past with the persistent presence of the US military and Peace Corps in Samoa. The distinct features of the Samoan language impact on the way the Samoan people utilize their second languages like English for those who have settled in the USA. Further, the rich culture and history of the Samoan people influence their utilization of their second languages. The Samoan community’s utilization of the English language is dependent of the age, gender, and socioeconomic status on the speaker and the characteristics of the audience that they are addressing; the occasion is also a key determinant of language use.
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