Torres Strait Creole (also
Torres Strait Pidgin, Yumplatok, Torres Strait Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Papuan Pidgin English, Broken English, Brokan/Broken, Blaikman, Big Thap) is an
English-based creole language spoken on several
Torres Strait Islands (
Queensland,
Australia), Northern Cape York and South-Western Coastal Papua. It has approximately
mother-tongue and bi/tri-lingual speakers, as well as several second/third-language speakers. It is widely used as a language of trade and commerce. It has six main dialects: Papuan, Western-Central, TI, Malay, Eastern, and Cape York. Its main characteristics show that it is a Pacific Pidgin, but the future in
X [i] go VERB aligns it with Atlantic Creoles. Related languages are
Pijin of the
Solomon Islands,
Tok Pisin of
Papua New Guinea, and
Bislama of
Vanuatu. The other creoles of Australia (such as Roper River Kriol and
Australian Kriol language) are more distantly related, being descendants of the Pidgin English that developed in and around Sydney after the colonisation of Australia.