This volume presents a historical-sociolinguistic description and analysis of Maritime Polynesian Pidgin. It offers linguistic and sociohistorical substantiation for a regional Eastern Polynesian-based pidgin, and challenges conventional Eurocentric assumptions about early colonial contact in the eastern Pacific by arguing that Maritime Polynesian Pidgin preceded the introduction of Pidgin English by as much as a century. Emanuel J. Drechsel not only opens up new methodological avenues for historical-sociolinguistic research in Oceania by a combination of philology and ethnohistory, but also gives greater recognition to Pacific Islanders in early contact between cultures. Students and researchers working on language contact, language typology, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics will want to read this book. It redefines our understanding of how Europeans and Americans interacted with Pacific Islanders in Eastern Polynesia during early encounters and offers an alternative model of language contact.

'This study is of major importance, highlighting the key role of Hawaiian in shaping interethnic contact, and showing how Hawaiian and East Polynesian linguistic unity profoundly affected early European contact throughout the Pacific.'

William H. Wilson - University of Hawai'i

‘Drechsel has presented a painstakingly researched account of the language varieties that arose during early contacts between Europeans and Polynesians. His account fills a major gap in our knowledge of Pacific contact language, maritime Pidgins and their social and structural properties.’

Peter Mühlhäusler - Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of Adelaide

'… Drechsel’s work has laid a solid foundation for further research … This book is an exemplary study reflecting a pioneering spirit both by Drechsel and the islanders and mariners he quotes.’

Peter Bakker Source: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages

‘… serve[s] to provide a rich descriptive overview of the sociolinguistic dimensions and functions of MPP [Maritime Polynesian Pidgin] … [This volume] serves as a preliminary foray into a profoundly different, potentially revelatory, and more robust sociolinguistic history of the early colonial Pacific.'

Gavin Lamb Source: The Contemporary Pacific

'Drechsel's book makes a uniquely valuable contribution to contact linguistics … I found Drechsel's treatment of MPP [Maritime Polynesian Pidgin] in this book and online an exemplary demonstration of scholarly transparency and a respectful invitation to the reader to weigh the evidence independently. I hope to see many more such exciting presentations of under-researched languages following in his footsteps.'

David Douglas Robertson Source: LINGUIST List