| Melanesian Pidgin | |
|---|---|
| Region | Melanesia |
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: bis – Bislama pis – Pijin tcs – Torres Strait Creole tpi – Tok Pisin |
| Glottolog | earl1243 |
| IETF | cpe-054 |
Melanesian Pidgin or Neo-Melanesian language comprises four related English-derived languages of Melanesia:
Torres Strait Creole is the least closely related of the four, and is sometimes treated as a separate from the other three. [2]
These languages are based on a mixture of a substrate of Eastern Oceanic languages, and substrate of German (from the era of German New Guinea) and/or English (due to "blackbirding", where Melanesians were indentured to work on plantations in Queensland, Australia). Worldwide nautical jargon/pidgins have also contributed to the languages. [1] [2] : 546