Noaiwia

Abstract

This article focuses on the linguistic landscape of Noaiwia, one of thirteen villages located on Nguna Island off the north coast of Efate, Vanuatu. It contributes to the understanding of the linguistic landscape of a small village in a previously undocumented rural setting in the understudied islands of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Using a corpus of photographs and detailed qualitative interpretation of the visual and verbal signs found around the village, the analysis first highlights the near absence of the island’s indigenous language in the public space. An analysis of the signage found at the school further suggests the exclusive presence and high status of the English language. A contrastive analysis also shows a different linguistic landscape from the one found in Vanuatu’s capital city Port Vila. Finally, the article looks at the presence of the Chinese language on a water tank, a reflection of China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road programme in the Pacific. The results are discussed in relation to the status of indigenous languages and Bislama, the islands’ lingua franca, language policy in education in Vanuatu, and language ideology in a globalised world.