Maritime Polynesian Pidgin was a Polynesian-based
pidgin that was the main
contact language
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for the ...
for European exploratory and whaling expeditions to the Pacific before the establishment of
pidgin English
Pidgin English is a non-specific name used to refer to any of the many pidgin languages derived from English. Pidgins that are spoken as first languages become creoles.
English-based pidgins that became stable contact languages, and which have ...
, which dated to a century after the
Cook expeditions. Drechsel (2014) concludes that reduced forms of
Tahitian,
Māori and
Hawaiian, which may have predated European contact, were grammatically similar and mutually intelligible, and with European exploration merged into a regional contact language that would later be used for trade, as well as between European and Polynesian members of the crews in preference to English.
[Emanuel Drechsel, 2014. ''Language Contact in the Colonial Pacific: Maritime Polynesian Pidgin before Pidgin English.'' Cambridge University Press.]
See also
*
Pidgin Hawaiian
References
Pidgins and creoles
Hawaiian language
Māori language
Polynesian languages
Exploration of the Pacific Ocean
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