Efatese is an artificial

mixed language A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole or pidgin language in that, whereas creoles/pidgi ...

or zonal auxiliary language of Efate Island in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

. There are half a dozen languages spoken on Efate, of which the languages of North Efate and South Efate are not particularly closely related, and when missionary activity began on the island, at Port Havannah in the northwest of the island, a mixture of the target languages was invented for evangelism and scripture, in preference to promoting one indigenous language over the others.

References

Robert Henry Codrington Robert Henry Codrington (15 September 1830, Wroughton, Wiltshire – 11 September 1922)Davidson, Allan K. "The Legacy of Robert Henry Codrington." ''International Bulletin of Missionary Research.'' Oct 2003, Vol. 27 Issue 4, p. 171-176full t ...

(1885) "Fate, Sandwich Islands", in ''The Melanesian Languages,'' 471–476. Oxford: Clarendon Press. * Daniel MacDonald (1889) "Grammar of the Efatese language", in Daniel MacDonald (ed.), ''Three New Hebrides Languages (Efatese, Eromangan, Santo),'' 1–58. Melbourne: Edgerton and Moore. {{Constructed languages Zonal constructed languages Central Vanuatu languages Constructed languages introduced in the 19th century