So far, seven of these have been reported involving An languages in Melanesia, only five of which have been documented in any way.^[17] Of these two had to do with the hiri trade in central Papua involving An and geographically distant NAn language speakers (Dutton 1985). Another two developed with trade between the An Mekeo and neighbouring NAn language speakers in central Papua (Jones 1985). In a slightly different but related category was a kind of “foreigner talk” used by the An Motu of the Port Moresby area to communicate with visiting foreigners. An administrative language called Police Motu which developed in Papua after European contact is thought to have developed out of this special variety of Motu (Dutton 1985).

This number of reported pidgin languages is surprisingly small, given the linguistic diversity of Melanesia and the number of trading networks in which there was contact between An and NAn languages, as well as between An and An languages including Polynesian Outlier languages. Amongst the more important reasons for this are possibly the following:

It is to be particularly noted that there are no examples of pidgins arising out of An-An contact.^[18]