Pidgins and
creoles
The main points:
Introduction
Lingua franca
Pidgins
Pidginization
creole
Creolization
Decreolization
Introduction:
When two or more people
from different languages
meet and tried to
communicate, what should
they do ?
Answers :
1. Use a third language (Lingua
Franca)
2. Mix the two languages (Pidgin
/Creole)
Lingua Franca
A lingua franca is a language
whichis used habitually by people
whose mother tongues are different
in order to facilitate communication
between them.
Other terms that are used to refer
to Lingua francas:
a trade language e.g., Swahili in
East Africa.
A contact language e.g., Greek
koine
An international language e.g.,
English
An auxiliary language e.g., Esperanto.
A mixed language .e.g., Mitchif in
Canada
English –lingua franca:
Spoken in many countries as a
native language .
Spoken as a second language
in other countries e.g., India and
the Philippines.
Other languages –lingua francas:
• Many Languages throughout the history
served as lingua franca:
o Chinese
o French
o Arabic
o
Chinook Jargon (American Indian)
• We can conclude that mainly political
and economical power defines
the Lingua Franca.
pidgins
Origin:
Assumed to be coming from a Chinese
attempt to pronounce the English word
business during trades in the Far East.
Historically, pidgins arose in colonial
situations where the representatives of
the particular colonial power, officials,
tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact
with natives
Definition:
A pidgin or contact language is a restricted
and extended language which arises with
an urgency of communication to serve
specific needs between social groups that
are ethnically and linguistically different from
each other .
One of these groups is in a more dominant
position than the other; the less dominant
group is the one which develops the pidgin.
Pidginization:
Is a complex combination of
different processes of change,
including reduction and
simplification of input materials
,internal innovation, and
regularization of structure, with L1
influence also playing role.
Characteristics of pidgin language:
No native speakers yet .
spoken by millions as means of communication
Not used as a means of group identification.
A product of multilingual –3 languages –oneis
dominant. The dominant language superior
because of economical or social factor.
Twolanguages involved a power struggle for
dominance.
The dominant group –more vocabulary (lexifier –
superstrate) ,while the less dominant languages
–grammar (substrate).
Main function –trading
• Reduced grammatical structure:
Phonology: CV syllable preferred
Morphology: Poor affixation
-Reduplication is common
Syntax: SVO pattern preferred
-Articles usually omitted
Lexicon: Limited vocabulary
Semantics: Semantic extensions
Narrower range of
Pragmatics: functions
Possible outcomes of Pidgins
Die out (when original reason for
communication diminishes or disappears)
Develop to more formal roles (lingua
franca); which is called an ‘expanded
pidgin’
Develop into a creole
Creoles
Origin:
An adaptation of the Castilian Spanish
criollo (home, local)
from Portuguese criar (to rear, to bring up),
from Latin creo ("tocreate").
Definition:
Acreole is a pidgin that has
become the first language of a
new generation of speakers.
Creolization:
Isa process where a pidgin
expanded in structure and
vocabulary in order to express the
range of meanings and serve the
range of functions required of a first
language.
characteristics of Creoles
o pidgins adopted as the native language.
Nativization is when pidgin passed onto
new generations and became a mother
tongue which isacquired by children.
Often classified as English/French/Spanish…
based
speech becomes faster,
Expansion of morphology and syntax.
Expansion of phonology.
Expansion of the lexicon.
Decreolization
Itis a hypothetical phenomenon
whereby over time a
creole language reconverges with
one of the standard languages from
which it originally derived. the
theory of creole continua.
Bickerton (1975)has proposed a number
of terms to refer to the creole continuum in
Guyanese English:
Acrolect : which refers to educated
Guyanese English which has very few
differences from other varieties of standard
language.
Basilect:refers to a variety that would be
least comprehensible to a speaker of the
standard
Mesolects: are intermediate varieties which
are used to fill the space between the
Acrolect and basilect.
Life-Cycle Model of Pidgins and
Creoles
Jargon Pidgin Pidgin Créole Creole
⇩ ⇩ ⇩
⇩ Post-creole continuum ⇩
Post-pidgin continuum ⇘ ⇙
Nativized version
of lexifier
e.g.,
- Russenorsk Solomon Islands Haitian
- Chinese PE Tok Pisin Jamaican
An example of a creole:
• Jamaican creole is mixed with English and
African.
For example:
• instead of saying me they say mi.
• Thissentence is written in Jamaican creole:
• Unu cya lissen to we mia say!
English is:
• Cant you listen to what I'msaying!
