9406763 BICKERTON ABSTRACT The project seeks to determine the distribution and nature of contact languages (in particular Hawaiian) within Hawaii and the distribution of Hawaiian as a contact language throughout the Pacific basin. The Hawaiian and Pacific Special Collections of Hamilton Library in the University of Hawaii contain a vast collection of materials, both published and unpublished, including microfilmed copies of most of the many journals and newspapers, also in several languages, published in Hawaii since the mid-nineteenth century: this unrivalled database has been barely touched by researchers. The project will search and (where necessary) translate these materials with the goal of compiling an annotated bibliography of all references to language contact in this literature and all citations of utterances used in contact situations. The citations will be analyzed linguistically to determine to what extent modes of communication represent unstable jargon(s) and whether any could be described as stable pidgins. Materials so far sampled indicate that a radical version of the role of Hawaiian (and perhaps other indigenous contact languages) in language contact will result from this research, challenging received opinion which gives English the major role in Hawaii contacts and an almost exclusive role in Pacific contacts. Valuable light will also be cast on the nature of the input that gave rise to Hawaiian Creole English.
