Bwaxat to Bishop: an early Melanesian-Pidgin English text

Abstract

Documents in the languages of Melanesia from the mid-19th century are not
abundant, and direct evidence about the development of Pidgin English in the
area is fragmentary. The text to be presented here not only enlarges both of
these corpora, but is of special interest in being bilingual, with one version of
the text in the Fwâi language of New Caledonia, and the other in a form of
Pidgin English. The former is the earliest recorded text in any language of
New Caledonia; and the latter is the longest single text from the sparsely
documented Sandalwood English phase of Pacific Pidgin English history.