brianp@tekchips.UUCP (Brian Phillips) (09/06/84)
The example from the New Scientist is in Tok Pisin (once called Melanesian Pidgin, then Neo-Melanesian) from Papua-New Guinea. My first references are old and somewhat Antipodean. An classic is "Grammar and Dictionary of Neo-Melanesian" by Rev. Francis Mihalic, Westmead Publishing Co., NSW, 1957. A briefer document is "Language Notes" by W.G. Sippo, Dept. of District Administration, Territory of Papua-New Guinea, Aug. 1958. This also mentions "Police Motu" (an indigenous pidgin) of which more later. Robert A. Hall Jr.'s "Pidgin and Creole Languages", Cornell University Press, 1966, is a venerable reference. David and Gillian Sankoff (U. Montreal) have written on Tok Pisin; I thought the papers were in "Language" (Linguistic Society of America), but did not immediately spot them. Derek Bickerton has some interesting writings on Pidgins and Creoles in general. A recent book of his examined these languages as insights into the origin/evolution of language. A major source of material is the Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University. "Language" often includes ANU reports in its "Publications Received" section. Personally I find sociolinguistic studies of Tok Pisin more interesting than its structural analysis. Papua-New Guinea is a country of 700 different languages. When it achieved independence in the 70's, the problem of a national lingua franca was very real. Tok Pisin dominated in New Guinea; Police Motu in Papua. An article by Ted Wolfers: "A report on Neo-Melanesian" in Dell Hymes (ed.) "Pidginization and Creolization of Languages", Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp. 413-419 documents some history language prejudices in PNG. Brian Hull's "The use of Pidgin in the House of Assembly", "Journal of the Papua New Guinea Society", v2 #1, 1968, observes language loyalties in the legislature and the ability of Pidgin to handle the lexicon of government. Each year there is a "Waigani Seminar", sponsored by the University of PNG and others, with varying themes. The proceedings could be accessible and worth the search.