New Perspectives on Endangered Languages. Bridging gaps ...

a matter of particular pride for eleven-year old T., to be able to correct her
classificatory mothers and grandmothers whenever they let slip a Tok Pisin
word. No matter how much Tok Pisin she uses herself, she is a language
revivalist in the making.
There are further indications that speakers value Manambu and are
not prepared to just let it go. An important group of these are the urban
Manambu returning to the villages where they were born.
5. Back to grassroots: the impact of the urban Manambu
A number of cultural and economic trends in modern-day Papua <strong>New</strong>
Guinea could also be favourable to slowing down the process of impending
language shift, and improving the perspective for language survival.
Manambu is spoken by 200 or so people in urban communities,
including Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, Wewak and also Kokopo. Within the
urban communities, Manambu is employed as a sort of 'secret language' and
an in-group means of communication emblematic in itself. Many of the
urban Manambu have made their way into what they call the 'white man's
world': they include the former Chief of Staff of the Army, a number of
lieutenant-colonels and colonels, public servants of high rank, and a number
of High Commissioners and Embassy staff, who have worked in many
countries, from <strong>New</strong> Zealand to the Philippines. These are village-born
people who had received some of their 'training' in totemic terms and
Manambu lore from their fathers and mothers before they left the villages to
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