Melanesian Pidgin

Group of related creoles of Melanesia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

RegionMelanesia
ISO 639-3Variously:
bis  Bislama
pis  Pijin
tcs  Torres Strait Creole
tpi  Tok Pisin
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Melanesian Pidgin
RegionMelanesia
English-based pidgin and English Creole
  • Pacific
    • Melanesian Pidgin
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
bis  Bislama
pis  Pijin
tcs  Torres Strait Creole
tpi  Tok Pisin
Glottologearl1243
IETFcpe-054
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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

Further reading

See also

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