ABSTRACT
All this notwithstanding, the early contacts of European sailors and traders with the Native Americans did leave behind two important traces. The first of these was disease, one of the most significant and tragic parts of what one author (Crosby 2003) calls the “Columbian Exchange.” The second was the English language, which some of the Native Americans learned well enough to serve as interpreters in negotiations with the settlers who came soon after. It is not impossible that these early nautical varieties of English had a linguistic impact on the mainland of North America, though it would hardly have been a permanent one. The English of the seafarers was probably used in the early days in North America, but the continued influence of nautical jargon can only be seen somewhat indirectly, according to Dillard (e.g. 1980: 407), in the use of American Indian Pidgin English (link: American Indian Pidgin English) and in the pidgin and creole English spoken by African slaves (see 10.2.4 and 10.4.3). English was clearly around before colonization, but it was through the large number of settlers that the language became truly native to North America.
