The Fascination of the Norfolk Language

I was born on Norfolk Island the year before the Second World War broke out. My mother, a Sydneysider by birth, wanted to return to her family, so we went to Sydney while the war continued and my father went off to fight the war in New Guinea. Now, after almost a life's absence and returned to Norfolk, I appreciate the joys and the sorrows of present life on this small island. One such joy for me is in studying and learning to speak the Norfolk language, "Norf'k", starting as most do with such universal Norfolk Island greetings as "Watawieh?" or "Watawieh yu?", bringing forth such responses as "Ai gude, thaenk yu", or "Ai se cooshoo".

Norf'k language is, of course, derived from the Pitcairn Island language ("Pitkern") – which has its own origins in eighteenth-century English and Tahitian which came together in the wake of the Bounty mutiny – and in some surprising influences from elsewhere as well. Norf'k is essentially a spoken language rather than a written one, and when written is entirely phonetic (that is, it is written as it is pronounced in speech). This can give rise to much debate about proper word spellings as different people or families on Norfolk may have slightly different pronunciations for the same word or phrase: and indeed differences also in how to record the different pronunciation sounds in writing. Only in recent years has significant effort been put into trying to standardise spellings and pronunciations for Norf'k, so this is really a work in progress. (And I make no claim here for any sanctioned legitimacy in the way I'm spelling Norf'k words!)

As I remember from my childhood, Norf'k was traditionally spoken in a slow, lilting tone, gentle and musical, rather as how traditional west-country English people might converse. Nowadays one hears these deeply redolent tones less frequently, as the usage of English has become more dominant. (And we might recall that the speaking of Norf'k was banned in Norfolk Island schools, on pain of punishment, up until the 1970s. It was finally introduced into the NICS curriculum in the mid-1980s, with teacher Fay Bataille and librarian Trish Magri to the fore.)

As one might expect, traditional Norf'k has had as its central concerns the down-to-earth, practical aspects of daily life on the island – planting, harvesting, cooking, visiting, fishing, growing up, falling in love. So common Norf'k words include those such as "plunt" (to plant), "tayte" (sweet potato), "mudda" (green banana dumplings), "rumma" (to gather seafoods by night), "moo-oo" (a rush used for weaving hats and baskets), and the names for individual fish species such as "p'ove" (wrasse) and "ofey" (trevally). (With the advent of computers, mobile phones and other modern paraphernalia, Norf'k has absorbed many descriptive words from English, commonly with their original or phonetic spellings, but with Norfolk cadence in the speaking.)

One of the really interesting things about Norf'k words is the way in which it reveals its Polynesian, and especially Tahitian, heritage. Norf'k includes Tahitian words such as "tow" (to settle, perch), "whawhaha" (conceited), "pulloo" (berley for fishing), "tye-tye" (tasteless), and "oo-why" (puberty). Surprisingly over 50 Norf'k words can be traced back to West Indian creole from St.Kitts, including such common Norf'k words such as "moosa" (almost), and less-common ones such as "boolooloo" (sweetheart). The explanation for this is that one of the Bounty mutineers, Ned Young, spent many of his early years as a midshipman from St Kitts.

Another characteristic of Polynesian languages which Norf'k shares, is syllable doubling as a matter of emphasis, or sometimes even in providing new meaning. Examples are "pilly" (to glue, stick together) and "pilly-pilly" (to unite); "mitty" (to kiss) and "mitty-mitty" (to canoodle). And we might also recall here that whereas the English alphabet has 26 letters, Norf'k has around 20, te reo Maori 15 letters, and Tahitian even less at 13.

A further Polynesian characteristic of Norf'k is the use of dual pronouns. Norf'k contains the usual list of basic personal pronouns as in English "ai, yu, hi, shi, wi, yorlye, dem" (I, you (s.), he, she, we, you (pl.), they), and possessive pronouns "mais, yus, his, her, auwas, yorlyis, dems" (my, your (s.), his, her, our, your (pl.), their). However like many other Pacific languages such as Maori and Tahitian, Norf'k also has what are called dual pronouns such as "himii" (you and I), "miienhem" (he and I), "yutuu" (you two), with possessive forms such as "himiis", "miienhis", "yutuus".

In all this there are in Norf'k – as in most languages – word traps, quirks and eccentricities, which I particularly like. "Cussed" in English may mean cursed, or obstinate, but in Norf'k means mischievous; "ketch-up" doesn't signal tomato sauce but eye-catching (as a young woman might be). "Hubboo" is the word for pregnant, but "up-a-tree" would equally be understood. Memorable sayings or doings of a few individuals have, over the years, given them a slice of immortality in such phrases as "Dar thing fe Chat's", referring to Charles Henry Evans (b. 1886), one of whose notable sayings was "He ell sii dar guude he ell see roun ar kornaa!" (He'll see so good he'll see round a corner). There are many day-to-day expressions that convey Norfolk humour and which have served – as language itself does – to bind the community in solidarity. The origins of the Norfolk community are also touchingly recalled in the reference to winds from the east as "Dar wind frum hoem" (the wind from home).

Let us give the final words here to Archie Bigg, Norfolk's unofficial Poet Laureate, recently and sadly deceased, from his poem "Morla el do":

Bin tek me lorng time, but I se learn through da years,

Life se full up fe smile, en sometime gutta tears,

Hettay one rule fe halp you get through,

Wuthing you kar do des day, waal morla el do."

- Chris Nobbs

Norfolk Islanders Shirley Harrison (née Buffett), Beryl Nobbs-Palmer and Alice Buffett have made signal contributions to the study and knowledge of the Norfolk language. The doyen of scholars of the Pitcairn and Norfolk languages is Professor Peter Muhlhausler of Adelaide University, whose scholarship over more than half a century has greatly enhanced this understanding. Archie Bigg, Rachel Nebauer-Borg and Louise Tavener amongst others have written poems and stories and plays in Norf'k. Gaye Evans and Rhonda Griffiths teach Norf'k at NICS, and the Council of Elders is currently working on a Language Revitalisation Strategy. Paul Harrington and Suzanne Evans have recently opened a Norf'k language website: http://language.norfk.info/. My own wonderful tutor has been the Robin Butterfield. Resources include:

Bigg, Archie, 1998. Morla el Do: A Collection of Norfolk Poems. NI: Photopress International.

Bigg, Archie, 2003. Kids and pines and nursery rhymes, NI: Photopress International.

Buffett, Alice Inez, 1999. Speak Norfolk Today: An Encyclopedia of the Norfolk Island Language. Himii Publishing, Norfolk Island. (Reprinted 2011).

Harrison, Shirley, 1972. The Language of Norfolk Island: MA Hons Thesis. Macquarie University Library.

Harrison, Shirley, 1985. Variation in present-day Norfolk speech: Ph.D Thesis. Macquarie University Library.

Muhlhausler, Peter, 2020. Pitkern-Norf'k: The Language of Pitcairn Island and Norfolk Island. Boston/Berlin, De Gruyter.

Muhlhausler, Peter, 2021. Language Culture Spelling: Strengthening and Reviving the Norf'k Language. Agenda and Working Papers, Workshop hosted by NI Central School and NI Council of Elders, 12-13 June 2021.

Nebauer-Borg, Rachel, 2011. Stidaun short letl: A selection of short stories and verse in the Norfolk language, NI: Adlehau Publishers.

Nobbs-Palmer, Beryl, 1987. A Dictionary of Norfolk Words and Usages. (4th edition, undated), Norfolk Island Sunshine Club.