Creation of Pidgins and

Creoles

Lahore Leads University

 Introduction to PIDGINS
PIDGIN
• arises in a (new) contact situation involving more
than two linguistic groups
• groups have no shared language
• groups need to communicate regularly, but for
limited purposes, such as trade
• is nobody's native language
• vocabulary (typically) from one of the Langua-ges (=
Lexifier Language)
• grammar is a kind of cross language compromi-se
with influence from universals of L2 learning
• no elaborate morphological structures
 Pidgins
 Limited functions (esp. trade)
 No native speakers (nobody’s mother tongue)
 Contact language involving at least two, often three
different language groups
 That is, it is the product of a multilingual situation in
which those who wish to communicate must find or
improvise a simple language system that will enable
them to do so.
 Pidgin Origins
 So Pidgins, in the stereotypical case, are formed when
speakers of one language engage in trade with speakers of
another, or work on plantations managed by speakers of
another, and neither knows the other’s language.
 In plantation settings, their manual function is to enable
workers to communicate with each other, since plantation
laborers very often do not speak the same language.
 Expanded Pidgins
 Pidgins usually have limited life-span; can die out when
the interactions that they serve end (e.g., the end of a trade
route)
 Pidgins will survive longer if at least two language groups
are involved.
 E.g. Non-European language groups not in frequent
contact with each other until arrival of trans-oceanic trade
will continue to use the Pidgin created.
 Expanded Pidgins
 So the pidgin becomes a link language among the non-
Europeans, who sometimes continue to develop and use
it after the Europeans have left
 True in many West African countries and South Pacific
islands (e.g., Sierra Leone in Story of English).
 So it can become an expanded pidgin, like the Nigerian
pidgin Genesis, and remain in wide use.
 Grammar and vocabulary expand as types of interaction
become broader and more complex.
 But still no native speakers.
 Expanded Pidgins
 However, under certain circumstances, expanded pidgins
can start to have native speakers
 Imagine that as trade along the rivers and the coastal areas
continues to expand,
 Communities (ultimately cities) develop in which speakers
of different non-European languages interact frequently for
many purposes
 The only language that they share is the pidgin
 If woman and man from different native language
backgrounds meet frequently and eventually marry, they
can only communicate with each other in the pidgin.
 Expanded Pidgins
 What happens when they have children? What language
will the children speak?

 Thechildren will be native speakers of the pidgin, and

they will grow up with other children having similar
language backgrounds.

 As they grow up and become involved in broad range of

activities (education, music, religion), their language
becomes more complex in terms of grammar, vocabulary,
and discourse.
 Lifecycles of Pidgins
Jargon Phase: contains great
individual variation

Stable Pidgin: contains both

simple and complex sentences

Expanded Pidgin: complex

grammar, and has a developed
word formation component
 Features of a Stable Pidgin

 Lack of surface grammatical complexity

 Lack of morphological complexity
 Semantic transparency
 Vocabulary reduction
 Creoles
 Thus,
 -A Creole is often defined as a pidgin that has become the
first language of a new generation of speakers, i.e. creoles
arise when pidgins become mother tongues.

- A creole, therefore, is a ‘normal’ language in almost every

sense.

- A Creole is a pidgin which has expanded in structure and

vocabulary to express the range of meanings and serve the
range of functions required of a first language.
 From Pidgins To Creoles
 When a pidgin has become nativized, the history of the
resultant Creoles is, in essence, similar to that of any
other language.

 Hence, whereas a pidgin is identifiable at any given time

by both linguistic and social criteria, a Creole is
identifiable only by historical criteria—that is if we know
that it has arisen out of pidgin.

 There are no structural criteria which, in themselves, will

identify a Creole as such, in the absence of historical
evidence.
 CREOLES
Creole
• arises in a (new) contact situation involving more than two
linguistic groups
• is the native language of
a speech community
• vocabulary (typically) from one of the Languages (= Lexifier
Language)
• grammar is a kind of crosslanguage compromise with influence
from universals of L2 learning
• some creoles are nativized pidgins
 Definition of a Creole
 Creole: a second-generation language spoken by
children who grow up in a pidgin community.
 Creole – Created by the children of pidgin speakers
with its own grammar. A common primary means
of communication (not just for trade, and not
secondary, like pidgins) in situations where the
speakers in contact are in need of communication
 History of the word ‘Creole’
• from Latin creare (to create), Portuguese criar (to nurse)
• Portuguese, Spanish and French colonies in the New
World: a noun from this word meant ‘a person or animal
born in the home’ (Fr. creole)
• Caribbean usage in 17th-18th centuries, creole meant:
A local descendant of European settlers (white creole, creole
white)
Descendant of African slaves (Negro creole, creole Negro)
A mixture of both, usually capitalized (the local Creoles, the
local Creole population)
• extended to Louisiana
• late 19th century, creole extended to languages
throughout colonial and postcolonial tropics, all
over the world (Americas, Australasia, Indian
Ocean, elsewhere)
• French Creole, Creole French (Martinique,
Mauritius)
• English Creole, Creole English (Belize, Jamaica)
• Roper River Creole (Australia)
• Hawaii Creole English (Pacific)
• people of any background in a place where a creole
is used are likely to speak, whether or not it is their
mother tongue
• creoles are acquired as a first language by children
• speech becomes faster, vocabulary increaes,
development of tenses increases, development of
relative clauses increases
 Theories of Creolization
 1. When children learn a pidgin as a native
language

 2. Grammaticalization and phrases become

words ‘ma bilong mi’ (my husband) to mabilongmi
(Wardhaugh 78)
Levels of creole/language status
and the continuum

1. Acrolect “high speech”

2. Mesolect “middle speech”
3. Basolect “low speech”

Groups often recognize status distinctions subconsciously

 Creolization
1. When children learn a pidgin as their mother
tongue, within a generation or two, native
language use becomes consolidated and
widespread. The result is a creole.

2.Major expansion in the structural linguistic

resources: vocabulary, grammar, and style.

3.Shift in the overall patterns of language use in

the community.
 Decreolization
 Shifttoward standard form of the
language from which the creole derives.

 The standard language has the status of

social prestige, education, wealth. Creole
speakers find themselves under great
pressure to change their speech in the
direction of the standard.
 Hypercreolization
◦ Aggressive reaction against the standard
language on the part of creole speakers, who
assert the superior status of their creole, and
the need to recognize the ethnic identity of
their communication. Such a reaction can
lead to a marked change in speech habits as
speakers focus on what they see as the
“pure” form of the creole.
 Recreolization
As Jamacians living in England who
“deliberately recreolize the English they use
in an attempt to assert their ethnic identity
and solidarity bacause of the social situation
in which they find themselves (Wardhaugh
84)
 What is it?
 Pidgin:
Creole
 Simplified
A language that was
language between
two or more originally a pidgin
different groups of but bacame an official
people (that don’t language.
speak the same
language). Most vocabulary
 Pidgin doesn’t last originates from parent
unless it becomes a language.
creole. Has its own
 Vocabulary derives
from one of the grammatical set of
languages. rules.
 No grammatical
 When and where is it used?
 Pidgin
Creole
 Used when two people
 Used as a language at
with different
languages need to homes and schools.
communicate with  A language that a
each other community knows
 E.g. African slaves  Can be an official
from different regionslanguage
created a pidgin
 What’s the difference?

 Creoles
 IS a mother
tongue
 Larger
vocabulary
 Greater
linguistic
range,
capable of
 Crucial Difference: Pidgins have no native speakers, while Creole
being spoken
quicker