Massachusett Pidgin English was an English-based contact language that had developed in early seventeenth century New England and Long Island as a medium of communication between the Native speakers of Algonquian languages and the English settlers that began to settle the coastal areas in 1620s. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English co-existed in Massachusett-speaking communities with their original dialects as well as Massachusett Pidgin, another contact language that was Massachusett-based. Unlike Massachusett Pidgin, which was confused with the Massachusett language by the English colonists, attestations of Massachusett Pidgin English are quite numerous. As few of the colonists were able to or willing to master either Massachusett or its Pidgin variety, those that traded and lived directly next to Indian villages communicated in Massachusett Pidgin English. The use of Massachusett Pidgin English supplanted the use of Massachusett Pidgin and likely even overtook the native language in community. In a process likely to decreolization, the speakers of Massachusett Pidgin English began to adjust their language to the English of their neighbors, and since the nineteenth century, all the descendants of the Massachusett-speaking peoples have been monolingual English speakers.
Massachusett Pidgin English and Massachusett Pidgin are of special interest to scholars of the English language as it seems that these two languages were the vectors of transmission of Algonquian loan words into the English language. The English settlers of New England called the specialized Indian vocabulary ',' after , the Massachusett Pidgin and Massachusett Pidgin English term for 'house' or 'home' instead of the Massachusett term (). Unfortunately, as the English settlers and their descendants pushed westward, they retained elements of Massachusett Pidgin English, especially vocabulary, in dealings with other tribes, and many of the words used innocently by the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England, such as ',' ',' '' and ',' are viewed by most Native peoples today as pejorative, racist insults due to their use by the English settlers and pioneers, and use of these terms by White teachers in Native American public schools is believed to be one reason for the high dropout rates of Native students in U.S. schools.
History
English contacts prior to 1620
The Pilgrim settlers were shocked to be greeted in English by Samoset with a 'Hello, Englishmen!' A visiting sachem from Monhegan Island, Samoset would later introduce Pilgrim settlers to Squanto who was even more fluent in English. Squanto would later aid the Pilgrims as an important middleman in relations with the Wampanoag tribes around them, such as that of Massasoit, but also taught them how to survive by teaching them local agricultural practices. Only a handful of visits by the settlers are recorded. Bartholomew Gosnold established a short-lived trading post on Cuttyhunk Island in 1602. John Smith mapped the region in 1612, and stopped in several Massachusett and Wampanoag villages to trade for supplies and meet the local leaders. In 1607, the Popham Colony was established, but abandoned after a year due to infighting between political factions.
Encounters were definitely more frequent than previously thought. English fishermen began setting up camps onshore in Newfoundland in 1520, and may have ventured further south to partake of the rich bounty of cod. Samoset's encounters with English fishermen on his home island were frequent enough that he was able to recount the names of several captains and their crewmen. Both Squanto and the Nauset sachem Epenow were abducted from the coast by European merchant ships and sold into slavery in Spain. However, both Squanto and Epenow managed to escape by finding work as interpreters on vessels trading along the coast until they found their way home and could reunite with their kinsmen or join other tribes. The Native American presence in Europe was so prevalent that William Shakespeare references it in The Tempest, where he writes, 'Any strange beast makes a man [prosperous], they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, [but] they will give ten [pence] to see a dead Indian.' Local Native Americans explained the practise to the Pilgrims, when several locals, including an aged woman, recounted their sufferings to the Pilgrims with Samoset and Squanto translating. Details of these recollections were later written down by the Pilgrims themselves.