| Pijin | |
|---|---|
| Solomon Islands Pidgin | |
| Native to | Solomon Islands |
Native speakers | (24,000 cited 1999)[1] 300,000 L2 speakers (1999) |
English Creole
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pis |
| Glottolog | piji1239 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABB-cd |
Pijin (Solomon Islands Pidgin) is alanguage spoken inSolomon Islands. It is closely related toTok Pisin ofPapua New Guinea andBislama ofVanuatu; the three varieties are sometimes considered to be dialects of a singleMelanesian Pidgin language. It is also related toTorres Strait Creole ofTorres Strait, though more distantly.
In 1999 there were 307,000 second- or third-language speakers with a literacy rate in first language of 60%, a literacy rate in second language of 50%.[2]
During the early nineteenth century, an Englishjargon, known asBeach-la-Mar, developed and spread through the Western Pacific as a language used among traders (lingua franca) associated with thewhaling industry at the end of the 18th century, thesandalwood trade of the 1830s, and thebêche-de-mer trade of the 1850s.[3][4]
Between 1863 and 1906,blackbirding was used for thesugar cane plantation labour trade inQueensland,Samoa,Fiji andNew Caledonia. At the beginning of the trade period, the Australian planters started to recruit in theLoyalty Islands early 1860s,Gilbert Islands and theBanks Islands around the mid-1860s,New Hebrides and theSanta Cruz Islands in the early 1870s, andNew Ireland andNew Britain from 1879 when recruiting became difficult. Around 13,000 Solomon Islanders were taken to Queensland during this labour trade period.[5]
The (Kanaka) pidgin language was used on the plantations and became the lingua franca spoken between Melanesian workers (the Kanakas, as they were called) and European overseers. When Solomon Islanders came back to the Solomons at the end of their contract, or when they were forcibly repatriated at the end of the labour trade period (1904), they brought pidgin to the Solomon Islands. Old people today still remember the stories that were told by the old former Queensland hands many years after their return[6][7]
Plantation languages continued into the 20th century even though the process of blackbirding had ceased. Due to the changing nature of labour traffic there was a divergence of Samoan plantation Pijin and New GuineaTok Pisin and also other plantation Pijin and Oceanic Pijins such asBislama and Solomon Pijin.
In 1901, there were approximately 10,000 Pacific Islanders working in Australia, most in the sugar cane industry in Queensland and northern New South Wales, many working asindentured labourers. ThePacific Island Labourers Act 1901,Parliament of Australia was the facilitation instrument used to deport approximately 7,500 Pacific Islanders.[8]
Up until 1911 approximately 30,000 Solomon Islanders were indentured labourers to Queensland, Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia.[9] The use of Pijin by churches and missionaries assisted in the spread of Pijin.
With Pax Britannica and the advent of the local plantation system in the Solomon Islands, the use of Pijin was reactivated and the language started to spread in the country. It also acquired more Solomonic linguistic characteristics. Throughout the 20th century Pijin kept spreading: historical events such as Maasina Rule and WWII, and social changes such as urbanisation, played a central role in the transformation of the language. It is now the lingua franca of the country, though it has no official status.
Despite being the lingua franca of Solomon Islands, Pijin remains a spoken language with little to no effort made thus far on the part of the national government toward standardising its orthography and grammar. Efforts at standardisation have been made by Christian Associations such as SITAG. There exists a partial dictionary since 1978 (Simons and Young 1978), a full dictionary of Pijin since 2002 (Jourdan 2002), a spelling list (Beimers 2010) and a complete description of its grammar (Beimers 2009). This being the case, Pijin remains a very flexible language where the main focus is on message delivery irrespective of the niceties of formal sentence construction. A translation of the Bible into Pijin also represents a standardisation of some aspects of Pijin.[10]
| English sound – IPA | Pijin sound – IPA | Pijin example | English origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| ch –[tʃ] | s –[s] | tisa,sea,mas (hamas) | teacher, chair, much (how much?) |
| si –[si] | sios | church | |
| sh –[ʃ] | s –[s] | sot,bus,masin | short, bush, machine |
| th –[θ] | s –[s] | maos | mouth |
| t –[t] | torowe,torowem,ating,andanit | throw, throw away, I think, underneath | |
| th –[ð] | t –[t] | brata,barata,bro | brother |
| d –[d] | deswan,diswan,this wan | this one | |
| r –[ɹ] | nara,narawan | another, another one | |
| z –[z] | s –[s] | resa | razor |
| -er –[ɹ] | a –[ɑ] | mata,mada (mami),soa,faea | matter, mother, pain sore, fire |
| or; ir/er –[oɹ];[ɹ] | o; a/e –[o];[ɑ]/[ɛ] | bon,bonem,bone,fastaem,festime (festaem) | born, burn, borne, first time |
(Recreated with IPA from Wateha'a,[9] Jourdan,[11] and Mugler.[12])
Several consonantphonemes show variation,[13] in part depending on the speaker's personal linguistic background – i.e. thephonological profile of thevernacular language(s) they speak at home.
| Sounds | Pijin | English |
|---|---|---|
| b, v | kabis,kavis | edible greens |
| f, b | futbol,butbol | football |
| f, p | samfala,sampala | some |
| p, b | puteto,buteto | potato |
| r, l, d | raes,laes(rare),daes(rare) | rice |
| v, w | volkeno,wolkeno | volcano |
| j, s, z | jam ([ʧam]),sam,zam | jump |
| f, h | faea,haea | fire |
Several cases of variation are simply due to the regulardevoicing of voiced consonants at the end of syllables (a common alternation in the world's languages)
| Sounds | Pijin | English |
|---|---|---|
| b, p | krab,krap | crab |
| d, t | hed,het | head |
| g, k | pig,pik | pig |
| v, f | faev,faef | five |
Other cases reflect the widespread habit, amongOceanic languages, to associate voicing withprenasalization:
| Sounds | Pijin | English |
|---|---|---|
| b, mb | kabis,kambis | edible greens |
| d, nd | ridim,rindim | to read |
| g, ngg | digim,dinggim | to dig |
| w, ngw | woa,ngwoa | war |
| singular | dual | trial | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | exclusive | mi | mitufala | mitrifala | mifala |
| inclusive | iumitufala | iumitrifala | iumifala,iumi | ||
| 2nd person | iu | iutufala | iutrifala | iufala | |
| 3rd person | hem | tufala | trifala | ol,olketa,ota | |
Pijin, like other languages to which it is related, involves a distinction between singular, dual, trial and plural pronouns. Dual forms refer to two people or things, trial forms refer to three and plural forms refer to three or more. Such pronoun forms do not occur in English but are common in South Pacific languages.
Pijin pronouns also use different forms to distinguish between inclusive and exclusive pronouns. The inclusive and exclusive features are only realised in the first person dual, trial, and plural pronoun forms. For example, the first-person dual inclusive pronoun,iumitufala, means 'we' (you and me, including the listener), and the first-person dual exclusive pronoun,mitufala, means 'we' (him/her and me, excluding the listener). This dual inclusive pronoun is used quite frequently in the Solomon Islands. It is used most often in religious sermons when the speaker is referring to a relationship between himself/herself and a specific individual in the audience.[14]
In comparison to their original English forms Pijin transitive verbs have an additional morpheme in the form of a suffix. To the English speaker, these morphemes sound like VERB + 'him' or 'them.' The suffix is realised through the morphemes-m,-im, and-em. For example, the Pijin word for 'love' would belavem.
Examples:[15]
bild-im
build+SUF
haos
house
bild-im haos
build+SUF house
'build a house'
pe-im
buy+SUF
skul
school
yuniform
uniform
pe-im skul yuniform
buy+SUF school uniform
'buy a school uniform'
let-em
let+SUF
yu
you
go
go
let-em yu go
let+SUF you go
'let you go'
Another linguistic phenomena that occurred in the transitions from English to Solomon Islands' Pijin is the addition of vowels in the interior and final positions of a word. Like in most languages in the Solomon Islands, consonant clusters and consonant-final words do not occur in Pijin. Therefore, speakers of the language add vowels in between consonants and word-finally to adapt the English forms to Pijin grammar. The selection of the extra vowels is usually made in accordance withvowel harmony rules. For example, the word 'business' ([bɪznɛs]) becomes *bisinis or *bisinisi (depending on the age and dialect of the Pijin speaker).[16] 'Work' iswaka.
Mi olraet nomoa = 'I am all right'
Mi gut (nomoa) = 'I am good'
Oraet nomoa = 'All right'
Ma iu (yu) hao? = 'And how are you?'
Tanggio tumas = 'Thank you very much'
The question can be between question marks since in yes–no questions, the intonation can be the only difference.
Aftanun olketa! = 'Good afternoon everyone!'
Nem blo mi Charles = 'My name is Charles'
Hao nao (iu)? (Iu hao?) = 'How are you'
hu nao nem blo iu? = 'What is your name?'
Iu blo wea? = 'Where are you from?'
Mi hapi tumas fo mitim iu. = 'I'm pleased to meet you.'
Wanem nao langus iu save? = 'What languages do you know?'
Pijin Alphabet: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww.[19]
