Pijin (Solomons Pidgin or Neo-Solomonic) is also referred to as Kanaka [1] 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%[1].
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[2]
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 1860's, Kingsmill Islands and the Banks Islands around the mid 1860's, New Hebrides and the Santa Cruz_Islands in the early 1870's, and New Ireland and New Britain from 1879 when recruiting became difficult. Around 13,000 Solomon Islanders were taken to Queensland during this labour trade period[3].
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 forcefully 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[4] [5]
Plantation languages continued into the 20th century even though the process of blackbirding has ceased. Due to the changing mature of labour traffic there was a divergence of Samoan plantation Pijin and New Guinea Tok Pisin and also other plantation Pijin and Oceanic Pijins such as Bislama 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 as indentured labourers. The Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901, Parliament of Australia was the facilitation instrument used to deport approximately 7,500 Pacific Islanders[6].
Up until 1911 approximately 30,000 Solomon Islanders were indentured labourers to Queensland, Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia[7]. The use of Pijin by churches and missionaries assisted in the spread of Pijin.
Nem blong me Charles = My name is Charles (The name that belongs to me is Charles)
Wea nao ples blong iu? Where is the place that belongs to you, (What is your address?)
(pointing to an object)
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Last updated on Monday September 24, 2007 at 05:23:47 PDT (GMT -0700)
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