Mining and language change in the Lihir Islands

Gold mining has taken place on the Lihir Islands in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since 1995. Lihir community leaders argue that mining has had a detrimental effect on their indigenous language due to the in-migration of people from other parts of PNG, who speak the PNG official language of Tok Pisin amongst themselves and Lihir people with whom they live and work. This paper presents some preliminary observations on language change in Lihir by examining in-migration and language practices in the Islands, drawing upon interviews with Lihir people. The paper also engages with Lihir song in order to reflect upon language change and possible modes of preservation