Related articles
Edit |
Discuss Article
PidginA Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have rudimentary grammars and restricted vocabulary, serving as auxiliary contact languages. They are improvised rather than learned natively.
As they develop, they can replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of the current community (such as Krio in Sierra Leone and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea). This stage requires the pidgin to be learned natively by children, who then generalize the features of the pidgin into a fully-formed, stabilized grammar (see Nicaraguan Sign Language). When a pidgin reaches this point it acquires the full complexity of a natural language, and becomes a creole language. However, pidgins do not always become creoles - they can die out or become obsolete.
The concept originated in Europe among the merchants and traders in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, who used Lingua Franca or Sabir. Another well-known pidgin is the Beach-la-Mar of the South Seas, based on English but incorporating Malay, Chinese, and Portuguese words. Bislama, as it is now called in Vanuatu, is fairly mutually intelligible with Tok Pisin.
Caribbean pidgin is the result of colonialism. As tropical islands were colonised their society was restructured, with a ruling minority of some European nation and a large mass of non-European laborers. The laborers, both natives and slaves, would often come from many different language groups and would need to communicate. This led to the development of pidgins.
The word is derived from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word business. Pidgin English was the name given to a Chinese-English-Portuguese pidgin used for commerce in Canton during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some scholars dispute this derivation of the word "pidgin", and suggest alternative etymologies, but no alternative has been deemed convincing enough to garner widespread support. In Canton, this contact language was called Canton English.
See also
Recent Pidgins
External Links
Source | Copyright
|
 |
 |
|
Webmasters: Add your website here:
Readers: Edit |
Discuss Listings
Psycholinguistics: Pidgin and Creole languages
An introduction to pidgins and creoles.
http://www.hevanet.com/alexwest/pidgin.html
Pidgin and Creole Languages
Notes for a course in pidgin and creole languages. Discusses theories of pidginization, creolization and language contact.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/messeas/handouts/pjcreol/node1.html
Pidgins, Creoles, and Constructed Languages
Number words in a variety of pidgins, creoles, and constructed languages.
http://www.zompist.com/last.htm
Pidgins and Creoles
Brief introduction with three examples of creoles.
http://babel.uoregon.edu/romance/rl407/creole/creole.html
CC: Pidgin Carriers
Introductory article on the topic of pidgin and creole languages.
http://www.kith.org/logos/words/upper2/CCreole.html
Archives of CreoLIST
Searchable archive of the most recent postings to the CreoLIST listserv.
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/creolist.html
Selected Publications and Papers on Creole Languages
"Tense/Aspect in Sranan and the creole prototype," "Creoles and Contact Linguistics," and "Irrealis in Sranan: Mood and modality in a radical creole".
http://ling.ohio-state.edu/~dwinford/SelPub.htm
Creolization is a Social, Not a Structural, Process
Paper presented at the International Symposium on "Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages."
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/linguistics/faculty/mufw_creo.html
Review of John Holm on Pidgins and Creoles
A brief review of John Holm's "An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles".
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Pidgins_Creoles.html
Language Varieties: Definitions
Definitions of "creole", "pidgin", "dialect" and "variety" are given.
http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/defintions.htm
Why Do Creoles Have Serial Verb Constructions?
A paper by Eric Schiller.
http://www.chessworks.com/ling/papers/why_svc.htm
Germanic Creole Numerals
Tables of the names of numerals in various Germanic-Language-based creoles.
http://members.tripod.com/~rjschellen/GermCreolesNums.htm
Creole Romance Numerals
Tables of the names of numerals in various Romance-Language-based creoles.
http://members.tripod.com/~rjschellen/CreoleRomNums.htm
Pidgins and Creoles
Basic facts about pidgins and creoles with examples.
http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/pidgin.html
Reference Guide for Pidgin and Creole Languages
Bibliographic guide to contact language reference material available at Stanford University.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/pidgins/pidgin.html
The Emergence of Spoken Israeli Hebrew
This paper discusses the parallels to creolization.
http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/semitic/emergence.html
Ethnologue: Language Family Index: Languages of Special Interest
A list of contact languages, pidgins and creoles.
http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/special.asp
Linguist List 7.1721: Creolistics
A discussion of whether Afrikaans and Yiddish are creole or creoloid.
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/7/7-1721.html
Pidgin
A definition of the term pidgin.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin
Creole Language
A definition of the term creole.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language
A Note on the Pronominal System of Arafundi-Enga Pidgin
A short discussion of the social background and pronominal system of a pidginization of two Papuan languages.
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/jpcl/online/snotes/sn31.htm
Pidgin Genesis in Optimality Theory
A conference paper by Joan Bresnan.
http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/LFG/3/bresnan.ps
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
A journal of all aspects of pidginization and creolization. A few full-text articles are available on-line. There is also an extensive glossary of creolist terminology.
http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/publications/jpcl/
|
