Pidgin and Creole Languages

Pidgin and Creole LanguagesPresented by:Nurul Izzati and Wan MuhaiminTerminologyAdstrates: languages in contact that have equal prestige AdstrateAdstrate English NorseSuperstrate: language of dominant groupLexifier language: the input language that provided most of the basic vocabulary or lexicon. (aka "superstrate")Substrate: language of the less dominant or subordinate group. Typically provides most of the phonological, and usually, grammatical features.Superstrate Substrate EnglishNative Am. Langs.Syntax: The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.Morphology: The study of the forms of languages, in particular.Phonology: The branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), esp. in a particular language.Lexicon: The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.OutlinesDEFINITION

No agreement on how to define pidgins and creoles in precise linguistic terms or where they came fromLinguists recognise the existence of such a group languages.Their distictiveness lies not so much in terms of a common historical origin, but shared circumstances of socio-historical development and use.Pidgins and creoles are the outcomes of diverse processes and influences in situations of language contact where speakers of different languages have to work out a common means of communications. Pidgins & CreolesPidginsA contact language between adults with different first languages

CreolesA second-generation language spoken by children who grow up in a pidgin community.Limited functions of useAdjunct language (no one speaks only a pidgin)Linguistically simplifiedDevelop their own rules and norms of usage

ExamplesWest African Pidgin EnglishChinook Jargon, Native American, British, & French traders in the Pacific Northwest, 19th c.Solomon Island Pidgin, Solomon IslandsPidginLanguages developed from pidginsFirst language of some members of a speech communityUsed for a wide range of functions

ExamplesJamaican Creole (also called patois)Krio (Sierra Leone, Africa)Gullah (South Carolina & Georgia)CreolesDISTRIBUTIONSpoken mainly in Third World countries.There are probably more than 100 pidgins and creole languages in daily use around the world.The number of speakers varies; eg. Tok Pisin is the largest language in the south Pavific today with as many 2 million speakers.

SuperstrateSubstrate (indigenous languages)EnglishFrenchSpanishPortugeseDutchOther languagesEnglish-based

Examples;Tok Pisin PEBahamian CEGuyanese CESranan CEChinese PEVanuatu PESolomon Island PESaramaccan CELiberian CENigerian PE

Virgin Island CENorfolk Island CEHawaiian CENdjuka CEGambian Krio CEGullah CEFrench-based

Examples;Lousiana CFHaitian CFGrenada CFGuyanis CFWest African PFReunionnais Rodriques CFVietnamese PFNew Caledonian PFSeychellois CF

Diego Garcia CFLesser Antillean CFGrenada CFPortugese-based

Examples;Popular Brazilian PCape Verdean CPGuinea- Bissau CPGulf of Guinea CPIndo-PortugueseSri Lanka CPPapia Kristang CpMacanese CPMelayu-Portuguese

Dutch-based

Examples;Negerhollands CDBerbice, Skepi CDAfrikaans

Can you identify the superstrate of these Creoles?1.mo pe aste sa banan.I am buying the banana. French: Seychelles Creole

2.de bin alde luk dat big tri. They always looked for a big tree.English: Roper River Creole

3.a waka go a wosu. He walked home. English: Saran

4.ja fruher wir bleiben. Yes at first we remained. German: Papua New Guinea

5.olmaan i kas-im chek. The old man is cashing a check.English: Cape York Creole

6.li pote sa bay mo.He brought that for me. French: GuyanaisORIGINS &STRUCTURESThe theories of Pidgin origin1. Polygenesis (not from a single source, but develop independently when the social situation requires communication among speakers who do not share a common language, but need to communicate.Monogenetic and relexification theories of pidgin origin are almost certainly wrong (Wardhaugh 74-5)Creole DevelopmentCreoles: Structural Similarities1.zero copuladi kaafi kuol the coffee cold(The coffee is cold.)

2.serial verbs: one verb fulfills a grammatical role

Gullah Creole English (So. Carolina & Georgia)I tol pas mihe tall pass me(Hes taller THAN me.)

Theories of Creolization1.When children learn a pidgin as a native language

2.Grammaticalization and phrases become words ma bilong mi (my husband) to mabilongmi (Wardhaugh 78)

Creolization1.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

Shift toward 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. RecreolizationAs 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)Look at discussion question 1 on page 85 (an analagous way to think about these redical linguistic evolutions is to consider the metamorphosis of the whale. Radical change because of special enviornment.Look also at discussion question 5 3. Pidgins & Creoles: Conditions for Development

1. The Slave TradeThe forcible exile of over 12 million Africans to work the plantations of European colonists.33seventeenth century: European settlers establish colonies in the new world, simultaneously with the early capitalism slavery developed The Sale Triangle: Europe-Africa-`New World` first triangle leg: -ships set off from ports in Europe ( e.g. Liverpool, Bristol,Amsterdam) for the west coast of Africa.-numerous slave factories along the Gulf of Guinea ( ``slave coast ``)second triangle leg:-inhuman and harsh journey from Africa towards the West Indies or the other New World coloniesthird triangle leg: -return to Europe with New World products such as sugar and tea.Profile of a Slave ShipName of ship:ZongLeft Sn Tom6 September 1781Slaves on board440White crew17Arrived in Jamaica27 November 1781Slaves deceased60Crew deceased7Slaves sick on arrival, likely to diegreater than 60Price per slave in Jamaica 20-40 pounds

from The Memoirs of Granville-Sharp (text p. 284)34Plantation economy: use of imported labour on a massive scale under the control of small numbers of Europeans.1600s through about 1850.Two LocationsFort Creole: developed at fortified posts along the west African coast, where European forces held slaves until the arrival of the next ship.Guinea Coast Creole English

Plantation Creole: developed on plantations in the New World colonies under the dominance of different European languages.Jamaican CreoleJamaica EnglishNegerhollands Virgin IslandsDutchHaitian Creole HaitiFrenchPapiamentoNetherlands AntillesSpanishAngolarSno TomPortuguese35Plantation economy: use of imported labour on a massive scale under the control of small numbers of Europeans.1600s through about 1850.2.TradeNaga PidginContemporary pidgin spoken by peoples in mountain regions of north-east India.

Acts as lingua franca (29 languages)

Originated as a market language in Assam in the 19th century among the Naga people

Undergoing creolization among small groups like the Kacharis in the town of Dimapur, and among the children of interethnic marriages.3.European settlementmovement of European settlers to places wherethe indigenous population had not been decimated or moved into reservationsa slave population did not form the labor force

Fanakalospoken in parts of South Africavocabulary from Zulu, and some from English & Afrikaans)stable pidgin, shows no signs of creolizing

4.WarKorean Bamboo EnglishAmerican wars in Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand)marginal, unstable pidginRead story of Cinderella-San, Wardhaugh pp. 71-2

5.Labor Migrationwithin colonized countries, people from different ethnic groups may be drawn into a common work sphere without being forced

Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea (Pacific Islands)

4. Linguistic Features of PidginsExamplesTwo pidgins for which English supplied much of the vocabulary

Cameroonian Pidgin, Cameroon, West Africa

Korean Bamboo English, Korea

PhonologyTend to reduce consonant clusters.

Lack AffixesMorphologyUse Reduplication. (as in English purple)

LexiconReduced vocabularies

PolysemyCircumlocution

CompoundingLexiconGrammatical StructureOften complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adejectivesWardhaugh 67Lack articles (e.g. the, a, an)Preference for compound sentences, not complex.very few suffixes and grammatical markersTime usually expressed with adverbs instead of inflection

Chinese Pidgin EnglishBefore mysellumfor ten dollarPAST1sgsellfor ten dollars

I sold it for ten dollars.5. Pidgin DevelopmentTheories for structural similarities1.Monogenesis & relexification (Portuguese)

2.Independent parallel development (foreigner talk)

3.Linguistic universals

Classifying Pidgins: Grammatical Complexity

Pre-pidgin (or jargon)

Stable Pidgin

Expanded PidginLess ComplexMore ComplexExpanded PidginsPidgins that have developed a more formal role, as regular auxiliary languages. May have official status as lingua francas.Linguistically more complex to meet needs.Used for more functions in a much wider range of situations.

Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea) c. 1880expanded pidgin currently undergoing creolization. Now has about 20,000 native speakers.about 44% of the populationPidgins and creolesGrammatical and syntactical similarity of creoles.Theories of origin:Foreigner-talk theoryMonogenetic theoryPolygenetic theory

Pidgins and creolesForeigner-talk theory

MastaPidgins and creoles Monogenetic theory: (this is the theory mentioned by Wells 7.1.2., p. 562. See also Todd.)The original Mediterranean creole Sabir, i.e. proto-Creole, was relexified by Portuguese, later by French, English, Dutch etc.

Pidgins and creoles First language acquisition:Where there is a fully developed language available to children, they will acquire it.First languages are not aquired by copying, but by re-creation from key features

Pidgins and creoles Where there is not a fully developed language available for children, they create their own

Pidgins and creoles pidginsmall vocabularylack of stable grammarcreolegrammar and vocabulary become elaboratedgrammar develops rules native speakers

Pidgins and creoles Thus we assume that unorganized vocabulary will organise (creolize) itself into language with generation renewal. Call this the polygenetic theory of pidgin/creole origin

Pidgins and creolesPolygenetic theory

Masta

Pidgins and creoles

Why is the vocabulary taken from the Masta language rather than one of the vernaculars?Prestige - the masta's language has power, centrality.The masta's language is always presentThe masta's language is equally alien to all vernaculars; it is the only language that none of the slaves speaks.

Creolization:THE CREOLECONTINUUMThe boundary between pidgins and creole cannot be defined in purely linguistic termsSome languages may exist in both pidgin and creole forms, which display different degrees of structural expansion and stability depending on whether they are used by first or second language speakers.Levels of creole/language statusand the continuum

1. Acrolect high speech2. Mesolect middle speech3. Basolect low speech

Groups often recognize status distinctions subconsciouslyTypes of Creolization

ContinuumAcrolect(eg. English)Basilect(eg. Guyanese C)Mesolect

mi gii ammi bin gii ammi bin gii iimi bin gi iimi di gii iimi gi gi hiia di gii ii a geev iia di gi ii a geev ima did gi ii a geev hima did giv iia did giv iia did giv hiia giv iia giv ima giv him

I gave himBecause creolization can occur at any stage in the development continuum, from jargon to expanded pidgin, different kinds of degrees of structural repair may be necessary to make the pidgin fully adequate to meet the demands placed on it for use as a primary language. PIDGINS & CREOLE IN SOCIAL CONTEXTStatusAlthough pidgins and creole are often widely used, throughout their history most have not had any official status.Only Tok Pisin and Bislama have received some official recognition due to numbers of users P&C in educationEnglish is still the most widely used official medium of education.In Papua New Guinea, although Tok Pisin is officially recognised, but they still use English as medium of education.Bislama is forbidden in the schools in Vanuatu English and French are used instead

In Australia, although Australian Kriol has no official recognition, it is being used in bilingual education programmes in parts of Australia.Haitian Creole has been making steady advances into new domains of use in teaching and literacy programmes.