Na Paranga, the Treasure My Father Left Me

In this video, Dr. Alpheaus Graham Zobule talks about his relationship to his native language, #Luqa, a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by approximately 3,900 people in the southern half of the island of Ranongga, in the Solomons Islands.
Alpheaus Zobule comes from Saevuke and Lale villages on Ranongga. He holds a PhD in theology (Union Seminary, VA, USA) and is currently undertaking a second PhD in linguistics (Australian National University), titled ‘Developing and documenting a system for using the Luqa vernacular as its own grammatical metalanguage, and its use by Luqa speakers to study and analyze their own language in the Solomon Islands’. In collaboration with other Luqa speakers, he developed a Luqa-language vocabulary for linguistic concepts and an eight-volume monolingual pedagogical grammar. Alphaeus Zobule is also the founder and executive director of Kulu Language Institute, named after the two languages spoken on Ranongga (Kubokota and Luqa).
Today, approximately 20 percent of the island’s population has studied writing and reading in Kubokota or Luqa, and a growing number of young people have undertaken an intensive series of courses focusing on the grammatical structures of Luqa. Students and teachers at the school speak of how studying their own language has anchored them intellectually. In contrast to the English-language instruction of primary and secondary school, learning in their own language has given them a sense of being firmly connected to the ground, no longer flailing toward an uncertain future.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
ILARA (January 12, 2026). Na Paranga, the Treasure My Father Left Me. ILARA, the Institute for Linguistic Heritage and Diversity. Retrieved April 18, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15hm1





