The contact varieties of Japan and the North-West Pacific

要旨

With its focus on the pidgins, creoles, koinés and other contact varieties of the North-West Pacific, the geographic range of this chapter extends as far north as Sakhalin, Russia, and as far south as equatorial Micronesia. While the chapter concentrates on varieties shaped by the Japanese language, it also considers other varieties in the area emerging from contact with English and other languages. The chapter demonstrates that Japanese has served not only as a superstrate but also as a substrate language in pidgin and creole formation in the region, as well as being the dominant ingredient variety or xenolectal variety for a number of mixed languages and koinés. In contributing to the genesis of these new varieties, Japanese has come into intensive contact with languages such as Chinese, Korean, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Formosan languages (Atayal), Ryukyuan languages, Ainu, Russian, Nivkh, Palauan, Chamorro, as well as a number of Micronesian languages. Although new Englishes brought about through colonial contact with British, Australian and, post-1945, American varieties of English are also present in the area, we focus here on contact varieties that have emerged in the region as a result of migration and settlement, war and conquest, as well as specific instances of unique demographic events on certain islands.

主題