Yumi stori: How we can use the Melanesian methodology of tok stori/storian within, and outside of, community orthography workshops to better inform orthography decisions

Abstract

Creating an orthography with a community is often a part of language documentation projects, especially in Vanuatu where there has been a push from the education system for linguists to help aid the formation of a writing system for the different Vanuatu vernacular languages for school use. While there are helpful guidelines around facilitating the linguistic decision making in the creation of such orthographies, it can be helpful for budding linguists to have more real-life examples of how the logistics of these projects work. Orthography decision making can often take place in workshops or in a series of workshops, which can mean that community members who feel comfortable speaking in these formal settings contribute the most to the discussion. Yet people external to these workshops or community members who may be hesitant to speak up in these workshops may have their voices excluded from the decision-making process. Since tok stori as a methodology is already gaining traction as an appropriate and well-suited Melanesian methodology for Pacific research, this paper suggests that using stori/tok stori as a method of gathering opinions and perspective outside the official orthography workshops can build relationships between the linguist and the community and can open the decision-making process around the orthography creation to a wider range of community voices. I use my fieldwork creating a community orthography for Denggan language (previously Banam Bay Language) in SE Malekula as an example of how stori as a methodology can gather community perspectives during orthography creation from both inside and outside the official orthography workshops.