| Also Known As: Solomons Pidgin,Neo-solomonic,Pijin language
Description:
Pijin (Solomons Pidgin or Neo-Solomonic) is also referred to as Kanaka and is a language spoken in the Solomon Islands. It is closely related to Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea; Bislama of Vanuatu; and Torres Strait Creole of the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia and is written in the Latin alphabet.
As of 1999 there were 306,984 second- or third-language speakers with a literacy rate in first language of 60%,a literacy rate in second language of 50%.
During the early 19th Century an English Jargon or Beach-La-Mar was developed and spread through the Pacific as a language between traders (Lingua franca) of the whaling industry at the end of the 18th Century, the Sandalwood trade of the 1830's and the bêche-de-mer trade of the 1850's. Similar to the Lingua Franca of the Levant, the Pidgin of the China Seas, the Chinook Jargon of the American fur trade, the Negro-English of the Guiana plantations, and the Krooboy talk of the African coast
Between 1863 and 1906 Blackbirding was used for the sugar cane plantation labour trade in Queensland, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia. At the beginning of the trade period, the Australian planters started to recruit in the Loyalty Islands early..... full article at Wikipedia |
