Language Contact in the Early Colonial Pacific
Maritime Polynesian Pidgin before Pidgin English

This volume presents a historical-sociolinguistic description and analysis of Maritime Polynesian Pidgin.

Emanuel J. Drechsel (Author)

9781107699618, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 March 2017

352 pages, 4 maps 3 tables
23 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.52 kg

'Drechsel's book makes a uniquely valuable contribution to contact linguistics … I found Drechsel's treatment of MPP [Maritime Polynesian Pidgin] in this book and online an exemplary demonstration of scholarly transparency and a respectful invitation to the reader to weigh the evidence independently. I hope to see many more such exciting presentations of under-researched languages following in his footsteps.' David Douglas Robertson, LINGUIST List

This volume presents a historical-sociolinguistic description and analysis of Maritime Polynesian Pidgin. It offers linguistic and sociohistorical substantiation for a regional Eastern Polynesian-based pidgin, and challenges conventional Eurocentric assumptions about early colonial contact in the eastern Pacific by arguing that Maritime Polynesian Pidgin preceded the introduction of Pidgin English by as much as a century. Emanuel J. Drechsel not only opens up new methodological avenues for historical-sociolinguistic research in Oceania by a combination of philology and ethnohistory, but also gives greater recognition to Pacific Islanders in early contact between cultures. Students and researchers working on language contact, language typology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics will want to read this book. It redefines our understanding of how Europeans and Americans interacted with Pacific Islanders in Eastern Polynesia during early encounters and offers an alternative model of language contact.

Part I. Questions, Theories, and Methods of Historical Sociolinguistics: 1. Introduction
2. Maritime Polynesian Pidgin and Pidgin and Creole linguistics
3. Ethnohistory of speaking as a historical-sociolinguistic methodology
Part II. Historical Attestations of Maritime Polynesian Pidgin (MPP): 4. Emergence, stabilization, and expansion
5. Resilience against depidginization and relexification
6. Survival in niches
Part III. Structure, Function, and History of Maritime Polynesian Pidgin: 7. Linguistic patterns
8. History and social functions
9. Conclusions: linguistic, sociohistorical, and theoretical implications.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Sociolinguistics [CFB], Linguistics [CF]