Pidgin: The Languages Of Oceania (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks) [Paperback]

Trevor Balzer (Author), Ernie Lee (Author), Peter Mulhausler (Author), Paul Monaghan (Author), Denise Angelo (Author), Dana Ober (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

The best available guide to the pidgins and creols of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, north Australia and Torres Strait. These fascinating languages have developed from English, so you'll recognize plenty of words, but their grammar, sentence structure and extensive vocabularies mean that you'll find this phrasebook invaluable in understanding the language around you.

In This Guide:

Wherever you travel in the region, and despite the huge numbers of local languages, you can still communicate easily.
Cultural tips throughout.
Get around without a hitch.

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Geographic Traveler, September 2006
'Lonely Planet Phrasebooks. Portable, pocket-size, cheap, and available for almost any country you might want to visit...'

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2 edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741045975
• ISBN-13: 978-1741045970
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,650,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talk your way through Melanesia!, June 8, 2006

By 

Laszlo Wagner (Hungary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pidgin: The Languages Of Oceania (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks) (Paperback)

This book covers the three Pidgin languages of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu - three of the most diverse, fascinating and unspoilt countries in the South Pacific. While English is spoken by many people in all the three, the Pidgins described here are the lingua franca in each, and I found that locals were very happy to hear me speak them. Each of the three languages is introduced by a good description of its grammar (don't worry, easy and similar in all three) and pronunciation, followed by useful phrases arranged thematically.

And here comes my only complaint - I would have preferred more phrases, and perhaps short dictionary listings for all the three languages. Space for that could have been found by omitting what seems a waste here to me - descriptions of two obscure pidgin languages of Australia, which are also included in LP's Australian Phrasebook (where they logicaly belong) anyway.

Still, within the confines of its limited space, this little book is excellent.
If you are lucky enough to travel to these charming archipelagos, don't leave home without it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not out of print, please don't deceive customers!, May 10, 2009

By 

Jose A. Narbona (Jerez, Spain and Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pidgin: The Languages Of Oceania (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks) (Paperback)

The book is NOT out of print. You can buy it any time on Lonely Planet for less than ten dollars. Those prices, higher than one hundred dollars for a used book, are the most ridiculous. Sorry to spoil the business but we are in a free country and I have the right to provide people with this information.