New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

, a part of the

French Republic France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, uses

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

as its official language, following the constitutional law 92-554 (June 1992). The thirty

New Caledonian languages The thirty New Caledonian languages form a branch of the Southern Oceanic languages. Their speakers are known as Kanaks. One language is extinct, one is critically endangered, 4 are severely endangered, 5 are endangered, and another 5 are vulner ...

form a branch of the

Southern Oceanic languages The Southern Oceanic languages are a linkage of Oceanic languages spoken in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was proposed by Lynch, Ross, and Crowley in 2002 and supported by later studies. They consider it to be a linkage rather than a language gr ...

. They are spoken mainly by the indigenous

Kanaks The Kanak ( French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. According to the 2019 census, the Kanak make up 41.2% of New Caledonia's ...

of the islands.

Languages present at the time of colonisation

At the time of colonization, native speakers used their native language to communicate, and, in case of need, they used

Bislama Bislama (; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language and one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (citizens who live in Port Vila and Luganville) ...

, an Anglo-Melanesian language whose lexical basis is essentially

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. This language allowed them to communicate with shopkeepers or with the other

Melanesian Melanesian is the adjectival form of Melanesia. It may refer to: * Melanesians * Melanesian mythology * Melanesian languages In linguistics, Melanesian is an obsolete term referring to the Austronesian languages of Melanesia: that is, the Oceani ...

populations. Those native languages have been favoured by some of the missionaries to evangelize the population, the Catholic missionaries preferred the usage of

. Thus, there were three languages used: French, English, and Bislama. In 1853, a decree imposed the teaching of French in every school of the colony, and in 1863, only the teaching of French was allowed because the colonizers did not want the other languages to compete with French.Jacques Leclerc, L’aménagement Linguistique dans le Monde http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/pacifique/ncal.htm

Present day

is constituted of numerous populations, but the vast majority is represented by Kanaks or Europeans. Nowadays, there are about 30

Melanesian languages In linguistics, Melanesian is an obsolete term referring to the Austronesian languages of Melanesia: that is, the Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, or Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages apart from Polynesian and Micronesian. A typi ...

present, and also other languages peculiar to the immigrant populations ( Javanese,

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, Filipino and others). Those populations have immigrated to

during the nickel rush. The native languages of

are part of the Austronesian family. This family extends from the island of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and covers almost all of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Native languages

The forty native languages of New Caledonia form two branches of the

, part of the Austronesian family; West Uvean is Polynesian. Their speakers are known as

. The most important are:

Drehu Drehu (; also known as Dehu, Lifou, Lifu, qene drehu) is an Austronesian language mostly spoken on Lifou Island, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. It has about twelve-thousand fluent speakers and the status of a French regional language. This sta ...

, Nengone, Paicî, Ajië, and

Xârâcùù Xârâcùù (), or Kanala, is an Oceanic language spoken in New Caledonia. It has about 5,000 speakers. Xârâcùù is most commonly spoken in the south Central area of New Caledonia in and around the city of Canala and the municipalities of Cana ...

. The other languages are spoken by a few hundred to couple thousand people and are endangered. Many Kanaks do not know their native languages very well because of the wide usage of

French

New Caledonians of French and European descent generally speak French as their native language. Kanaks also speak a variety of French, ''New Caledonian French'', which is characterized by some phonetic particularities and specific grammatical constructions derived from native languages. In the early colonial era, there had been a

French pidgin A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the ...

used in New Caledonia as a contact language, especially along the east coast, alongside

, and today there is a local French creole known as Tayo that may descend from it.

Foreign languages

Because New Caledonia's main industry is

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

and most of the island's tourism is from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

is also spoken in New Caledonia, however it is only widely spoken inside

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, a ...

and by those in the tourism industry. The most commonly taught foreign languages are English and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Legal status

being a part of

, its official language is

, following the constitutional law 92-554 (June 1992). This law is applicable to every field (justice, tribunals, administration, schools...). At the level of legislation and justice, on some occasions they may have recourse to a

language (in spoken conversation, for example). A series of decrees and clauses allow the usage of Melanesian languages in education in some cases. The more important law to that purpose is the "Loi d’orientation d’Outre-Mer" (law 2000-1207, December 2000) which stipulates that we have to respect these native languages which are a part of New Caledonian culture.

Education

Secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

is under State authority (as opposed to nursery and primary school, which are under Provincial authority), therefore, the language in application is

. Some schools give optional native languages lessons, but it is still very rare. Nevertheless, four languages are proposed at the baccalaureate: Ajië, Drehu, Nengone and Paicî. There has been controversy about the educational system, as it has been claimed, that the programs are not adjusted to the population. As a

French overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

is almost exclusively under the administrative control of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the educative level and the textbooks are tailored to European students. Moreover,

is only a second language for significant minority of New Caledonians. This situation has been described as a major cause for the high rate of

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

and academic failure by New Caledonian students. The success rate at the

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

is very low. Some have advocated to increase the importance of native languages as a teaching medium in school, while reducing the status

to that of a second language.Isabelle Bril, En Pays Kanak, 286-7 Critics have pointed out, that proposal denies reality as French is the predominant native language among New Caledonian students.

References

{{Oceania topic, Languages of