- Copyright Page
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Contact-Induced Linguistic Change: An Introduction
- Theories of Language Contact
- Contact-Induced Change and Phonology
- Morphology and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Syntax and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Semantic Borrowing in Language Contact
- Sociolinguistic, Sociological, and Sociocultural Approaches to Contact-Induced Language Change: Identifying Chamic Child Bilingualism in Contact-Based Language Change
- Code-Switching as a Reflection of Contact-Induced Change
- First- and Second-Language Acquisition and CILC
- Language Contact and Endangered Languages
- Pidgins
- Creoles
- Mixed Languages, Younger Languages, and Contact-Induced Linguistic Change
- Language Contact in Celtic and Early Irish
- English and Welsh in Contact
- Language Contact in the History of English
- Contact-Induced Language Change in Spanish
- Language Contact in Tagdal, a Northern Songhay Language of Niger
- Language Contact in the West Chadic Language Goemai
- Language Contact in Berber
- Contact Influences on Ossetic
- Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Language Contact
- Contact and the Development of Malayalam
- Language Contact in Korean
- Language Contact in Khmer
- Language Contact in Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri
- Language Contact and Tok Pisin
- Bidirectional Borrowing of Structure and Lexicon: The Case of the Reef Islands
- Language Contact in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut)
- The Lower Mississippi Valley as a Linguistic Area
- Language Contact Considering Signed Language
- Language Contact in Paraguayan Guaraniˊ
- Language Contact in Cape Verdean Creole: A Study of Bidirectional Influences in Two Contact Settings
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
As a creole language developed from an English-lexifier pidgin, the varieties of Melanesian Pidgin English (MPE) are traditionally viewed as consequences of a particular kind of language contact: processes of pidgin-creole (PC) language development. Studies have highlighted the legacy and impact of both indigenous ‘substrate’ languages and ongoing contact with the lexifier that operated as a social ‘superstrate’ in the Solomon Islands, post–World War II New Guinea, and parts of Vanuatu. Stepping outside the debates of pidgin and creole studies, however, MPE provides an incredibly rich and diverse field of study from which to consider language contact phenomena: from the initial contact context of the South Pacific whaling ships and beche la mer and sandalwood traders moving from New South Wales across the islands, to the incredible multilingual melting pot of the plantations in Samoa, Queensland, and Fiji, to the stabilization of Tok Pisin in German-controlled New Guinea between 1880 and 1918 and the substantial Austronesianization of the early jargon, through the impact of shared proto-Oceanic features on the developing language, and the eventual establishment of the currency of this regional lingua franca as previous colonial dominions achieved independence in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Today, MPE varieties are once more under scrutiny as test beds for theories of decreolization: with ongoing contact with English resulting in changes, apparent destabilization, and the possible development of new varieties.
Keywords: language, Tok Pisin, English, Oceanic, Melanesian, Tolai, continuum
Adam A. H. Blaxter Paliwala was born in Port Moresby shortly after Papua New Guinean Independence and grew up in the United Kingdom. After reading English Literature and Social and Political Science at Cambridge University, Adam won a Northcote Graduate Scholarship to continue work on the relationship between Tok Pisin and English in Papua New Guinea at the University of Sydney. Adam lives in London and continues to publish.
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- Copyright Page
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Contact-Induced Linguistic Change: An Introduction
- Theories of Language Contact
- Contact-Induced Change and Phonology
- Morphology and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Syntax and Contact-Induced Language Change
- Semantic Borrowing in Language Contact
- Sociolinguistic, Sociological, and Sociocultural Approaches to Contact-Induced Language Change: Identifying Chamic Child Bilingualism in Contact-Based Language Change
- Code-Switching as a Reflection of Contact-Induced Change
- First- and Second-Language Acquisition and CILC
- Language Contact and Endangered Languages
- Pidgins
- Creoles
- Mixed Languages, Younger Languages, and Contact-Induced Linguistic Change
- Language Contact in Celtic and Early Irish
- English and Welsh in Contact
- Language Contact in the History of English
- Contact-Induced Language Change in Spanish
- Language Contact in Tagdal, a Northern Songhay Language of Niger
- Language Contact in the West Chadic Language Goemai
- Language Contact in Berber
- Contact Influences on Ossetic
- Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and Language Contact
- Contact and the Development of Malayalam
- Language Contact in Korean
- Language Contact in Khmer
- Language Contact in Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri
- Language Contact and Tok Pisin
- Bidirectional Borrowing of Structure and Lexicon: The Case of the Reef Islands
- Language Contact in Unangam Tunuu (Aleut)
- The Lower Mississippi Valley as a Linguistic Area
- Language Contact Considering Signed Language
- Language Contact in Paraguayan Guaraniˊ
- Language Contact in Cape Verdean Creole: A Study of Bidirectional Influences in Two Contact Settings
- Index