Lecture 6

Pidgin language (origin in Engl. word `business'?) is nobody's native language;

may arise when two speakers of different languages with no common language try
to have a makeshift conversation.
Creole (orig. person of European descent born and raised in a tropical colony) is a
language that was originally a pidgin but has become nativized, i.e. a community
of speakers claims it as their first language.
Because of their limited function, pidgin languages usually do not last very long,
rarely more than several decades. They disappear when the reason for
communication diminishes, as communities either move apart, one community
learns the language of the other, or both communities learn a common language.
18 pidgins used around the world. Four of them are extinct and many are in the
process of disappearing. There are no estimates of number of speakers for many of
them. If a pidgin survives, and the next generation of speakers learns it as their first
language or if it becomes a stable lingua franca, it becomes a creole. Pidgins
usually have smaller vocabularies, a simpler structure, and more limited functions
than natural languages.
Some typical features include of pidgin languages are as follows:
 Subject-Verb-Object word order
 absence of grammatical markers for gender, number, case, tense, aspect, mood,
etc.
 Tenses are expressed lexically, i.e., by using temporal adverbs such as tomorrow,
yesterday, etc
 Grammatical relations are usually expressed through simple juxtaposition.
 Use of reduplication to represent plurals and superlatives, e.g., Hawai’ian Pidgin
wiki-wiki ‘very quick’.
Since vocabulary is restricted, words in a pidgin language have a wide range of
meanings. For instance, in the Chinook Jargon, the word klahawaya meant ‘How
are you?’, ‘Good day,’ or ‘Good bye’. \
Pidgin languages are used exclusively for oral communication. Only after they
develop into creoles, does the need for a writing system arise.
A creole language is a stable natural language developed from a mixture of
different languages. While the concept is similar to that of a mixed or hybrid
language, in the strict sense of the term, a mixed/hybrid language has derived from
two or more languages, to such an extent that it is no longer closely related to the
source languages. Creoles also differ from pidgins in that, while a pidgin has a
highly simplified linguistic structure that develops as a means of establishing
communication between two or more disparate language groups, a creole language
is more complex, used for day-to-day purposes in a community, and acquired by
children as a native language. Creole languages, therefore, have a fully developed
vocabulary and system of grammar.
A creole is believed to arise when a pidgin, developed by adults for use as a second
language, becomes the native and primary language of their children — a process
known as nativization.
Creoles share more grammatical similarities with each other than with the
languages from which they are phylogenetically derived.
A lingua franca (/ˌlɪŋɡwə ˈfræŋkə/), also known as a bridge language, common
language, trade language or vehicular language, is a language or dialect
systematically (as opposed to occasionally, or casually) used to make
communication possible between people who do not share a native language or
dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both native
languages. A lingua franca is a language or way of communicating which is used
between people who do not speak one another's native language. Lingua francas
have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for
commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages") but also for cultural, religious,
diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging
information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The
term originates with one such language, Mediterranean Lingua Franca.