The vernaculars

Vernacular refers to the languages that were present in the Solomon Islands before the arrival of the Europeans. Vernacular languages continue to be spoken in rural areas as well as in the capital Honiara, there often as a first but not as a main language. They were thus present before, during and after the formation of Pijin, and their influence on the new language continues to be felt. The pronunciation of Pijin is remarkable in that it resembles very much the pronunciation of these vernacular languages. This indicates that speakers tend to apply to Pijin the phonological rules that govern their own vernaculars. While keeping to vernacular sound patterns, lexemes derived from English must be reshaped in order to be accommodated, often in different ways by speakers of different vernaculars. This pattern explains in part the differences that exist between speakers, according to their islands of origin, or according to the vernacular they speak.

The variable influence of the vernaculars takes at least three different forms:

a. phonological substitution;

b. insertion of epenthetic vowels;

c. addition of final vowels