The case of pidgin and creole languages - Linguistics

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language came in handy at the end of the 1800s, when groups of people from Vanuatu,
the Solomon Islands, and eventually, Papua New Guinea were taken to work on large
plantations in Queensland. When these plantation workers returned, Melanesians realized
that this language could be of use as a lingua franca, and Tok Pisin developed and spread.
(Siegel)
Today, Tok Pisin is used as a medium of communication between speakers of English and
speakers of various Melanesian and Papuan languages in New Guinea, the Bismarck
Archipelago and neighboring island groups, and the Solomon Islands. It is considered an
“expanded pidgin”. Like a pidgin, the great majority of its speakers do not learn Tok
Pisin as their first language, but functionally and grammatically, it is more like a creole,
and there do exist thousands of native speakers. Tok Pisin is currently the national
language of Papua New Guinea 1 and boasts more than two million speakers there.
As a result of this history, major influences on Tok Pisin come from English, German,
and Malay, as well as Samoan and local island languages. Of the many substratum
languages that have contributed to the formation of Tok Pisin, Tolai has received the
most attention.
Data for Tok Pisin spatial terms came from a compilation of texts from letters, stories,
and books ranging over a 80 year period. This is particularly valuable because it is
possible to observe both the current use of spatial terms in this language and the
1 Actually, there are three national languages: Tok Pisin, English, and Hiri Motu