Pidgins

creole
and
The main
points :
 Introduction

 Lingua franca
 Pidgins

 Pidginization

 creole

 Creolization

 Decreolization
Introduction
:people from different
When two or more

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
which is 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.

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
Chines
e
o
French
Arabic
o
Chinoo
We can conclude that mainly
k
and economical power defines
political
o Jargon
the Lingua Franca.
• ( Ameri
can
pidgin
s 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 –

one isdominant. The dominant language 
superior because of economical or social
factor.
 Two languages involved  a power struggle
for dominance.
 The dominant group –more vocabulary (lexifier
• Reduced grammatical
structure:
 Phonology:  CV syllable

 Morphology: preferred
 Poor affixation is
-Reduplication

common
 SVO pattern preferred
Syntax:
 -Articles usually

 Lexicon: omitted
 Semantics:  Limited vocabulary

   Semantic extensions
Pragmatics:  Narrower range of
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

Creole
s  Origin:
An adaptation of the Castilian Spanish
criollo (home, local)
from Portuguese criar (to rear, to bring
up), from Latin creo ("to create").
 Definition
:
 A creole is a pidgin that has
become the first language of
a new generation of
speakers.
 Creolization
: a process where a pidgin
Is

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
opidgins adopted as the native language.
 Nativization is when pidgin passed
onto new generations and became a
mother tongue which is acquired by
children.
 Often classified as
English/French/Spanish… based
 speech becomes faster,
 Expansion of morphology and syntax.
 Expansion of phonology.
Decreolizatio
n
It is 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.,
Solomon Islands Haitia
 - Russenorsk
Tok Pisin n
Ja maica
 - Chinese PE
n
 An example of a
creole:
•
Jamaican creole is mixed with English
and African.
For example :
•
instead of saying me they say mi.
•
This sentence is written in Jamaican
• creole:

Unu cya lissen to we mia

• say! English is:

Cant you listen to what I'm
saying!