Micronesian Pidgin is an English-based pidgin language spoken in nineteenth-century

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

. It may have been related to Melanesian Pidgin English, due to a number of workers from Melanesia. English-speaking traders dominated the area from about 1840, and unstable pidgins were in use by 1860. It may have creolized in some beach communities of Kusaie, but no data is available. In 1899 the area passed to German control, and since English pidgin was not used for local inter-ethnic communication, it quickly disappeared: It had been replaced by German by the time German control ended in 1919. The one exception is on Nauru, where it appears to have combined with

Chinese Pidgin English Chinese Pidgin English (also called Chinese Coastal English or Pigeon English; ) is a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese substratum. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin Eng ...

to create Nauruan Pidgin English. Micronesia includes the Carolines (divided between the

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the ...

and the

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...

), the

Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. M ...

, the Marianas (divided between the

Northern Marianas The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territories of the Unit ...

and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

), and the

Gilberts The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

(where the most populated part of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

is located) as well as isolates like

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

, Nauru and Banaba. There are only 15–30 native speakers left worldwide.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *Ulrich Ammon, 1992, ''Status Change of Languages'' English-based pidgins and creoles Languages of the Federated States of Micronesia Languages attested from the 19th century {{pidgincreole-lang-stub