The Paleolinguist Bulletin
(BERLIN)-- Considered to be a sub-dialect of Chinese Pidgin-English, information on this other form of communication between islanders of the South Pacific and English traders is scant. It appears to have the same history of the Chinese version, but the foreigners were bartering for the purchase of sandalwood, prized for its superior quality and fragrance.
Mr Walter Coote, a gentleman practically acquainted with the difficulties of trade in the South Seas, writes to the Melbourne Argus :—" The islanders have begun to argue that the white men are, to use a sandalwood English expression, 'all same woman, and that, although we often talk about inen•of-war, we evidently have not got any, or tho murders that aro so con. tinually taking place would be avenged.
The London Standard, 21 April 1888, Page 5, Col. 3
They learn all the vices and few of the virtues of civilisation, and, with their amazing capacity for picking up a language, some acquire English of the " sandal-wood " order, as it is called because it was first taught by the now fast disappearing barterers in that article. It is chiefly characterised by the interpolation of words and sentences of " exceptionally vigorous profanity," which the native linguist utters without a sus-picion of the impropriety of the phrases. Grammar he does not affect. " That fellow woman MARY he belong a me," or " Big fellow Yam he stop Telma," is the beach-comber's pupil's way of intimating that MARY is his wife, and there are big yams in Telma. This sandal-wood English is in the Pacific what the lingua Franca is in the Le-vant, and the Chinook jargon in North-West America.
The London Standard, 26 December 1893, Page 5, Column 3.
The South Sea Islanders
About a tenth of them have been to Queensland, and can speak the Pacific lingua franca, or "sandal-wood English," first learned at a time when the sandal-wood traders and the " beach-combers "—those rude lotus-eaters of Polynesia and Melanesia—were about the only white men scattered over that island-dotted world of waters. Nowadays, this jargon is so widely spread, that even in the French Law Courts at Noumea natives are sworn in it. "Me talked true," so runs the oath. "My word, me no tell lie, me no gammon ; me," raising the right hand, " swear ! " Considering the source of this " beche-de-mer lingo," it is not surprising that one of its most marked charac-teristics is the frequent interpolation of much exceptionally vigorous profanity.
William T. Wawn, The South Sea Islanders,
Tahiti photo: https://www.tripsavvy.com/a-guide-to-tahitis-best-beaches-1532890
James C. L'Angelle Undergraduate Research University of Nevada, Reno
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