Maritime Polynesian Pidgin was a Polynesian-based

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

that was the main

contact language Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...

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 Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

expeditions. Drechsel (2014) concludes that reduced forms of Tahitian,

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

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.

References

Pidgins and creoles Hawaiian language Māori language Polynesian languages Exploration of the Pacific Ocean Extinct languages of Oceania {{Pidgincreole-lang-stub

See also

References