Samoan Plantation Pidgin is an extinct English-based pidgin language that was spoken by black plantation workers in Samoa. It is closely related to Tok Pisin, due to the large number of New Guinean laborers in Samoa.
| Samoan Plantation Pidgin | |
|---|---|
| Region | Samoa |
| Extinct | After 1975 |
English-based pidgin
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | samo1307 |
History
editThe early History of SPP is poorly documented and the first surviving document with references to SPP is a newspaper article from 1889, though it references earlier texts from 1883. At this time the first plantation workers had already arrived from New Ireland and New Britain the pidgin had had time to form from the various jargons and broken english spoken previously. As time progressed the pidgin underwent significant changes due to the arrival of more laborers from across the South Pacific.[1]
Some time after 1975 SPP went extinct. Its extinction was due to the language failing to expand its usage beyond on and near plantations for workers and managers to communicate. As new immigrants arrived on Samoa instead of adopting SPP they adopted another language.[1][2]
Lexicon
editThe lexicon of SPP like all pidgins was very small compared to a full language, but unlike other pidgins like Australian Kriol and Tok Pisin, it is never expanded into a full creole. A study of several remembers in the 1970's found 300 basic lexical units. Most of these words were from English but some were from Samoan, Tok Pisin, or were of unknown origin.[1]
Sample Text
edit| Samoan Plantation Pidgin[1] | English[1] |
|---|---|
| you sabi this fellow on top? | Do you know this bloke on top (god)? |
| you speak fellow on top he finish rain | You say this bloke on top (god) stopped the rain |
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Mühlhäusler, Peter (1978). Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics No. 1. Pacific Linguistics. pp. 70–90.
- ^ "Samoan Plantation Pidgin".
External links
edit- Mühlhäusler, Peter (1983). "Samoan Plantation Pidgin English and the origin of New Guinea Pidgin". In Ellen Woolford, William Washabaugh (ed.). The Social Context of Creolization. pp. 28–76.