Torres Strait Broken
Widely used as a lingua franca of trade and commerce on the Torres Strait Islands, the northern part of Cape York Peninsula and south-western coastal Papua New Guinea, Torres Strait Broken (a.k.a. Ailan Tok, Big Thap, Blaikman, Brokan/Broken, Broken English, Cape York Creole, Kriol, Lockhart Creole, Papuan, Pizin, Torres Strait Creole, Torres Strait Pidgin, Yumplatok) is a family of English-based creole languages with an estimated 20,000–30,000 mother-tongue and multilingual speakers.
Dialects within the family reflect the range of linguistic influences that have contributed to the blend of English, Indigenous languages and external elements that constitute what may uncharitably be seen as a corrupted version of the European tongue. In reality, one could not expect things to have panned out otherwise. The family's earliest influences arrived with the Indigenous population; external influences began to infiltrate the region in the 1840s, although occasional visits to the area by Europeans date back to at least 1606.
Various British and other visitors — including Melanesian and Polynesian South Sea Islanders, Island South-East Asians, Jamaicans, Cantonese Chinese, and Japanese — arrived to exploit the Strait's marine resources or convert the inhabitants to the newcomers' religion. Their interactions with the local people produced slightly different results that evolved into a variety of dialects:
- Western-Central-Cape York dialects influenced by Kala Lagaw Ya (the western and central language of Torres Strait);
- a 'TI' (Thursday Island) dialect with strong Malay/Indonesian-Filipino-European influences;
- Eastern dialects with South Seas and Meriam Mìr influences;
- Papuan dialects influenced by New Guinean languages, including Agöb, Bine, Gizrra, Wipi, Kiwai, Motu and Tok Pisin.
Missing links:
Polynesian
