During my linguistic studies at the Australian National University, and subsequent field work, I had visited several language areas adjacent to the Kewa and gathered information on the Gulf area, south of the Kewa, although the information was sparse.
On one occasion I was in the very south of the Kewa area at a government station at Erave. I was staying with some missionaries who worked on South Kewa, and I had visited the government office to examine some maps and other reports. One of the officers told me that there was a man in jail that spoke a language that no one seemed to understand. I was immediately interested and asked if I could try and elicit some language data from him. I was allowed to spend a couple of hours with the man and with the help of some national workers, my Kewa dialect data, and the trade language, Tok Pisin, I took a word list and decided that it was a language spoken to the southeast of Kewa, with the name of Polopa (later called Folopa).
I went back to the village where Joice and I and Karol were living and, over the next several months, finished writing my dissertation. But I never forgot about the new language I had discovered, and it was to become important later in my work.
My studies on the Kewa language had finished, so I applied to ANU for a post-doctorate fellowship to survey the whole southern Gulf area. It was granted and after a short furlough I outlined a plan for the survey. It would be a big job, and I would need a lot of help.
I contacted and visited several people who were familiar with the Gulf and languages. One was Reverend Bert Brown of the (then) London Missionary Society (LMS), who had worked in the area for decades and spoke several of the languages. He agreed to write up what he knew about the languages, draw some rough maps, and help in any way possible. He later wrote a chapter for the book I edited, called “The Linguistic Situation in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas” (ANU Press, 1973, 597pp).
With the financial support of ANU and the SIL Research fund, I was able to hire the SIL small Hughs 300C helicopter for 10 days. We visited very remote areas throughout the Gulf and adjacent areas, eventually collecting data on over 50 languages.
In addition to Dr Brown of the LMS, I enlisted help from my ANU and SIL colleagues: Professor SA Wurm, who was an expert on the Kiwai area; Dr Bert Voorhoeve, who had survey experience in both PNG and what was then Irian Jaya; Dr Tom Dutton, who had worked in several areas of PNG and was a colleague of mine at ANU; Dr Danuel Shaw, who worked in the area near the Strickland gorge and river; George Macdonald, who, it turned out, was studying a language remotely related to the Folopa, which I mentioned earlier; Dick Lloyd, of SIL who was familiar with languages of the Angan group; and Jim Parlier, who assisted by taking word lists and with our radio communications. Except for Jim, each person wrote a chapter for the book.
We visited several areas that were unknown linguistically, eliciting data by means of the trade languages, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu, or by men who were familiar with one or more languages in the general area.
By helicopter, I went back to the Folopa area and language that I had discovered earlier, this time into the very heart of the jungle. I told the helicopter pilot that if I could find a man who knew Tok Pisin, I would stay the night, and he could come back for me the next day. The first man to greet me spoke perfect Tok Pisin, so I waved to the pilot to leave. Later I asked the man where he had learned Pidgin (Tok Pisin) and he replied, “In jail.” “What were you in jail for?” He continued, “I killed a man.” However, the people were very helpful, and I got excellent data. Later Joice and I talked to a young SIL couple who had just arrived in PNG. We told them about the Polopa and they eventually lived there many years and completed the translation of the NT.
It was, of course, what I hoped for: that these small and largely unknown languages would someday have God’s word in their own tongue.
The helicopter pilot was able to maneuver the small aircraft down valleys, follow small rivers, and land in places near where we saw houses or people. On one occasion, the people at a small group of houses thought that we were going to take one of their men to the capital city of Port Moresby (Hundreds of miles away), a mystical place that held fame and fortune. They gave him new shorts, some money and waited for us to take him. “What are we going to do?” the pilot asked. “Take him for a ride around the area and when you return, I will have finished gathering data.” We did and the bewildered man did not get a ride to Port Moresby, although he got a view of his area that no one else ever had.
For several years after the survey was completed and the results shared with colleagues, or published for the outside world, our book was the primary resource about the languages of the Gulf area. God had given me a vision for the area through my university studies. Several translation couples have completed New Testaments for these small language groups, and the work is continuing.
My vision grew out of a study program, and I believe God was in it.
Karl Franklin
