| Samoan Plantation Pidgin | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Kingdom of Samoa |
| Region | Samoa |
| Extinct | After 1975 |
English-based pidgin
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | samo1307 |
Samoan Plantation Pidgin is an extinctEnglish-basedpidgin language that was spoken by blackplantation workers inSamoa. It is closely related toTok Pisin, due to the large number ofNew Guinean laborers in Samoa.
The 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 fromNew Ireland andNew Britain the pidgin had had time to form from the variousjargons andbroken english spoken previously. As time progressed the pidgin underwent significant changes due to the arrival of more laborers from across theSouth 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]
The lexicon of SPP like all pidgins was very small compared to a full language, but unlike other pidgins likeAustralian Kriol andTok Pisin, it is never expanded into a fullcreole. A study of severalremembers in the 1970's found 300 basic lexical units. Most of these words were from English but some were fromSamoan, Tok Pisin, or were of unknown origin.[1]
| 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 |
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