This chapter describes aboriginal languages of New Guinea and Australia, with the focus on both language classification into families and the linguistic peculiarities of the regions’ languages. Some special attention is given to Tok Pisin, a creole that serves as a national language in Papua New Guinea. The last section addresses the question of whether the languages of so-called “primitive peoples” are linguistically primitive. (Spoiler: the answer is no.)

This chapter documents the historical background and the current usage conditions of English in postcolonial countries where English holds a strong position as a widely used second language, notably in West and East Africa, in South and South-East Asia, and in the Pacific region. Case studies focus more closely on Nigerian English (including a sample text of news in Nigerian Pidgin English, with linguistic explanations), on English in Singapore (also with a recording, transcript and linguistic analysis of a sample, a conversation in "Singlish") and on Tok Pisin, an English-derived pidgin which is a national language in Papua New Guinea (also with a sample text, an election poster). To these world regions English was brought as the language of traders and missionaries, and later administrators and soldiers. Interestingly enough, the diffusion of English to these countries has gained special momentum only fairly recently, after the end of the colonial period, in the wake of globalization. The last section continues this exploration by describing the growing role of English in non-postcolonial countries in East Asia, with brief looks at Japan and South Korea and an extensive case study, including samples of Chinese English, of English in China.

Australasia and the Pacific encompass a range of diverse native and non-native Englishes, including contact varieties such as pidgins and creoles. The chapter provides a new approach to these varieties by focusing on their geographical closeness and structural patterns that have the potential of being areal features of Australasian and (South) Pacific Englishes. Owing to the interaction of conditioning factors in language evolution, such features are not only difficult to define but also difficult to trace. Therefore, a significant section of the chapter provides a detailed theoretical discussion on areal features in Australasia and the South Pacific. Finally, three different scenarios are outlined in which the emergence of areal features for at least a number of these varieties seems to be apparent: parallel developments of Australian and New Zealand English; the possible influence of Pasifika Englishes in New Zealand on other varieties; and the effect of similarities in substrate languages, cultural practices, and in the external ecology as a precursor to areal features for ESL, EFL, ethnic varieties, pidgins, and creoles in Australasia and the Pacific.