LANGUAGE IN SUVA - Language use and Literacy in an Urban Pacific Community - Thor May 1990 LANGUAGE IN SUVA Language use and Literacy in an Urban Pacific Community* Thor May Suva, Fiji, 1990-2006 Abstract : This paper is a preliminary report on a sociolinguistic field survey. It records the beliefs which 834 permanent residents of Suva, Fiji had about their own language and literacy skills in 1988-89. The interview subjects were selected from five census enumeration districts with populations ranging from 430 to 1200, and chosen for having a roughly equal ethnic composition of Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Bilingual interviewers (linguistics students) invited and assisted subjects to complete an extensive questionnaire, and offer unstructured comments. The collated and analysed outcome gives a complex and sometimes surprising picture of urban language change. Table of Contents introduction // demography // interview subjects // interviewers // the data // languages spoken at work/school and at home (Q6 & Q7) // table A: Suva language domains // languages across the generations (Q8 & Q9) // table B: languages across the generations in Suva // qualitative measures : language skill levels // table C: number of speakers at skill levels as a percentage of the total sample // table D: language levels of unskilled manual workers // table E: language levels of skilled service workers //respondent age distribution correlated with language skill levels // gender and language skills // table F: male language skills // table G: female language skills // table H: languages of literacy in Suva // the number of letters written in Suva per year // table I: frequency distribution for letter writing in Suva // table J: languages of letter writing in Suva // references // // appendix A : questionnaire for the residents of Suva City, Fiji // questions // acknowledgements and background notes Introduction This is a preliminary report on a sociolinguistic survey. It records the beliefs which 834 permanent residents of Suva, Fiji have about their own language and literacy skills. The survey is not an objective measure of language abilities. To that extent the survey is more sociological than linguistic. The study was considered worthwhile for a number of reasons : 1. Beliefs about language are critical in shaping behaviour in personal, social, political and educational environments. 2. By acquiring some kind of "map" of a community's beliefs about its own language activities we can find the realistic limits of language policy 1