Muna Lingi

Muna Lingi is conceived of as the language of the pulotu, groups of singers who traveled between the Polynesian islands, sharing songs, stories, and news from other islands. These singers were themselves drawn from many islands, and Muna Lingi was initially their lingua franca when at sea. Over time it became a language in its own right, and the source of songs, tales, and news for isolated islanders. Most islands had a few men and women who could translate the songs and news from the pulotu’s Muna Lingi into their local language. As a pidgin, Muna Lingi was much simpler and more regular than other languages. What we know about the language comes from Dutch and Spanish beachcombers in the 1600s. The two most significant sources are Jan de Veer, a Dutch castaway from the Eendracht, and Cornelis van Noort, a clergyman who translated the Gospels into Muna Lingi.

Design Goals:

1. To appear as a possible naturalistic pidgin of Polynesian languages.
2. To be more easily learnable for English speakers than a completely naturalistic pidgin would have been. (Hence, for example, the loss of the glottal stop, no words that start with “ng”, and the ability to use SVO word order.)
3. To have a minimal lexicon, relying heavily on compounding, to ease learning.