Nobody speaks a pidgin as their first language. This paper thus contributes to our understanding of potential diachronic sources of the cross-linguistic category of apprehensive as well as to an analysis of this function in the Kriol modal system and its origins, and a more nuanced picture of regional variation in Kriol temporal and modal expressions.Pidgins are “on-the-spot” languages that develop when people with no common language come into contact with each other. We conclude that these two motivations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but that both are consistent with the idea of instantaneous grammaticalisation through substrate influence in creole genesis. The plausible link between the two functions is the semanticisation of an invited inference from ‘event about to occur’ to ‘event to be avoided’. The possibility of independent grammaticalisation cannot, however, be excluded, since parallel developments of temporal markers to apprehensive markers are attested in a number of geographically distant and unrelated languages. In fact we show that the apprehensive function of 'bambai' is more widely distributed in pidgin and creole languages of Australia and the Pacific than previously assumed, which could even point, potentially, to an earlier development in Australia. Apprehensive markers are also found in languages which could have influenced the precursor pidgins in New South Wales and Queensland as they expanded northwards towards the Northern Territory.
The first is plausible insofar as dedicated apprehensive markers are a common trait in Australian languages, including in those that are currently in contact with Kriol and/or have previously been considered potential substrate languages, such as in the account of creolisation for Roper Kriol by Munro (2004). We consider two potential motivations for this functional extension: substrate in"uence and independent grammaticalisation. This use is considered an extension from the temporal/sequential function of this particle that is widespread in creole languages of the Pacific, including Kriol. a main clause modal marker indicating that an event will potentially occur but is undesirable, with associated pragmatics of warning or threat. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the use of the Kriol particle 'bambai' as an apprehensive, i.e.
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