Atlantic meets Pacific: Lexicon common to the english-based pidgins and creoles

Abstract

Comparing the results of lexicographical studies of English-based creoles in the Atlantic with more recent work on pidgins and creoles in the Pacific, this article examines the common core of lexicon that cannot be traced to current standard English to see what this reveals about the historical relationship between the two groups of restructured languages. The evidence indicates that the lexical base of the Pacific varieties was not only English (including archaic and regional usages), but also the English-based creoles of the Atlantic (often reflecting the influence of their African substrate), and that a number of grammatical as well as lexical items spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific via diffusion.