Melanesian Pidgin

Melanesian Pidgin
Region	Melanesia
Language family	English-based pidgin and English Creole Pacific Melanesian Pidgin
Dialects	Bislama Solomon Islands Pijin Tok Pisin Torres Strait Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: bis – Bislama pis – Pijin tcs – Torres Strait Creole tpi – Tok Pisin
Glottolog	earl1243
IETF	cpe-054

Melanesian Pidgin or Neo-Melanesian language comprises four related English-derived languages of Melanesia:

• Bislama, of Vanuatu^[1]
• Solomon Islands Pidgin^[1]
• Tok Pisin, of Papua New Guinea^[1][2]
• Torres Strait Creole, of the Torres Strait Islands and parts of Cape York

Torres Strait Creole is the least closely related of the four, and is sometimes treated as a separate from the other three.^[2]

These languages are based on a mixture of a substrate of Eastern Oceanic languages, and substrate of German (from the era of German New Guinea) and/or English (due to "blackbirding", where Melanesians were indentured to work on plantations in Queensland, Australia). Worldwide nautical jargon/pidgins have also contributed to the languages.^{[1][2]: 546}

References

1. Singler, John Victor (1992). "Review of Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate". Language. 68 (1): 176–182. doi:10.2307/416377. ISSN 0097-8507.
2. "Melanesian Pidgin English". Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications (14): 546–583. 1975. ISSN 0078-3188.

Further reading

• Peter Mühlhäusler (3 October 2002). "Pidgin English and the Melanesian Mission". Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. 17 (2): 237–263. doi:10.1075/JPCL.17.2.04MUH. ISSN 0920-9034. Wikidata Q134700881.
• Karin Speedy (November 2013). "Reflections on creole genesis in New Caledonia". Acta Linguistica Hafniensia. 45 (2): 187–205. doi:10.1080/03740463.2014.897817. ISSN 0374-0463. Wikidata Q134700946.
• Peter Mühlhäusler, The Changing Status of Melanesian Pidgin English, doi:10.1515/9783110851625.253, Wikidata Q134700947
• D. T. Tryon; J. A. Bennett; P. Muhlhausler (31 December 1979), Some English-based Pidgins in the Southwestern Pacific, pp. 53–78, doi:10.1515/9783110820775-005, Wikidata Q134700948

See also

• Micronesian Pidgin English, spoken in nineteenth-century Micronesia
• Pidgin (disambiguation)