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From: brianp@tekchips.UUCP (Brian Phillips)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Yu laik save dispella Pisin?
Message-ID: <64@tekchips.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Sep-84 12:56:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekchips.64
Posted: Thu Sep  6 12:56:15 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Sep-84 01:30:38 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 45


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.