The completive

[BURTON John]

And Derek Scarr's edited volume of Giles' memoirs as a ship captain
before 1877 have 'bin' in them.

Ross Clark's 1979 article in Te Reo presumably has the earliest
attestations he could find of this item in PPE. I can't check that
particular article just now though.

mm
--

Miriam Meyerhoff
Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
University of Edinburgh
40 George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LL
Scotland, UK

ph (131) 651-1836
fax (131) 650-3962

http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~mhoff/

>>  >  Mihalicers
>>
>>  >  I suggest this is groundless and that "bin" was present at
>>  the birth of
>>  >  these pidgins in the 1840-60s. A clue is that "bin" is the usual
>>  >  completive
>>  >  marker in Torres Strait Creole. The earliest point at
>>  which this language
>>  >  can have began to diverge was 1863 when William Banner started a
>>  >  beche-de-mer station on Warrior (Tudu) Island, employing
>>  70 South Sea
>>  >  Islanders, all speakers of Pacific Pidgin English. By 1870, short
>>  >  sentences
>>  >  from local headmen are quoted in government reports and it
>>  is clear that
>>  >  PPE
>>  >  was in use in a stable form in the Torres Strait. Thus,
>>  "bin" in PPE's
>>  >  local
>>  >  successor, Torres Strait Creole, very likely dates to that period.
>>  <div>-- <br>
>>  <br>
>>  Miriam Meyerhoff<br>
>>  Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics<br>
>>  University of Edinburgh<br>
>>  40 George Square<br>
>>  Edinburgh EH8 9LL<br>
>>  Scotland, UK<br>
>>  <br>
>>  ph (131) 651-1836<br>
>>  fax (131) 650-3962<br>
>>  <br>
>>  http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~mhoff/<br>