The integration of languages and society
This chapter discusses traditional small-scale multilingualism in Southern New Guinea (SNG), in connection with the expression of possession in one of the languages spoken here: Idi. SNG is a high diversity region with many languages and families attested, and individuals tend to be highly multilingual. Throughout the area, patterns of language contact are grounded in established cultural practices of intermarriage. A system of symmetrical sister exchange produces many linguistically exogamous marriages. Children from such marriages usually acquire both their father’s (their primary or “emblematic” language of identification) and their mother’s language. Other languages are picked up from other family members and as people travel within the region or further afield for education, work or church activities. Practices of receptive multilingualism are widely reported. Idi has two types of possessive pronoun, termed “close” and “distant” possessive. Which type of possessive is used appears to be driven partly by semantics, based on alienability, and partly by pragmatics. The chapter looks specifically at how Idi speakers use possessives in the context of discussing the languages they speak. The linguistic landscape of the region is reflected in Idi, in the ways that possessive forms are used to refer to the different languages speakers acquire during their lifetime.