Chapter 3 - Pidgins and Creoles Flashcards
a couple decades ago how were pidgins, creoles and Lingua Francas viewed by speakers of ‘full’ languages
- corrupt versions of full languages
- Linguistically ‘uninteresting’
- considered speakers of pidgins and creoles as mentally handicapped
What does pidgin mean in chinese
bussiness
why are pidgins and creoles important
- Essential to everyday living of speakers
- Markers of identity
- Rapid change of languages within a year to create a new language
- clues about L. origin & change
Define Lingua Franca
Language used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them (a FUNCTION of a L, any L can be a lingua Franca)
Give example of a Lingua Franca being created
→ A nun from Britain who spoke French and English
→ A priest wanted to help but only spoke italian
→ They didn’t share a language but they both knew Latin because they were Catholic
Other names for lingua Francas
o A trade language
o A contact language
o n international language
o An auxiliary language (Basic English)
Give example of a mixed language
Michif - mix of cree and maiti french
- has 500 speakers
Example of Lingua Francas
ex. 1 Vulgar Latin
ex. 2 Sabir - used in Mediterranean, originating in the middle ages. based on northern italian dialects (mixture of spanish and french)
Is lingua franca a type of language
NO it’s a function of a language
Lingua francas show what two types of variation?
ex?
Individual & regional variation
ex.1 English in india
2 swahili in east africa
Explain what happened to Swahili in Africa
- native language of coast than spread in land
o It was used only to fulfill certain purposes
o underwent Reduction of functions and simplification of grammar
o Then spread towards Rwanda and Sudan and was further simplified/ reduced
o Finally swahili on the coast was unintelligible to speakers in land - Shows that Swahili is used as a lingua Franca but also a simplified version called a pidgin
Explain the Chinook Jargon example of Lingua Francas
Chinook was spoken on the coast, but a few km inland on the plains spoke plain sign language because because using sign language you can speak from far distances
What is a pidgin
- A language with no native speakers
- contact language caused by a multilingual situation caused by the need to communicate
- Simple system
- Characterized by imbalance of power (more codified language has power - european vs. native)
What are pidgins often viewed as
- reduced versions of a normal language
- tolerant to vast variation
- “bad’ english
- baby talk
NOT TRUE
What is a superstratum and substratum?
Superstratum - dominant language( more codified) that vocab is pulled from to form a pidgin
substratum - local language which provides syntactic frame
how many languages involved in pidgins
2(causes struggle in dominance) or 3 (2 inferior, one dominant)
Where do pidgins exist?
- In slave societies
- On sea costs
- As Lingua Francas
Do pidgins have rules?
YES - but they are fewer and simplified
Example of a short lived pidgin
Turkish workers came to Germany and a pidginized variety was created only used in 60s-70s
What evidence supports the claim that pidgin languages signal only a minimum of grammatical information explicitly
- Fewer inflections
- lack of morphological endings
- repeating info in pronouns
What is a Creole
- a pidgin that became the first language of a new generation
- normal language
- Expanded vocabulary & Grammar
- A wider range of functions (not just for a certain task)
Can a language be both a pidgin and a creole?
YES - same language can be spoken by adults as pidgins and by children as a creole. There is no clear line
What is an extended pidgin
- intermediate variety characteristic of urban centers
ex. Israel
Do all pidgins become creoles?
NO
examples of creoles
1) Jamaican creole based on english
2) Haition creole based on french
Define Pidginization
- Reduction in morphology & syntax
- allow variation
- Reduction in functions
- lexical borrowing from local Ls
- innovation and regularization of structures
Define Creolization
(reverse of pidginization)
- Expansion of the morphology & syntax
- Process of creating a new linguistic system from a pidgins (not necessarily towards standard L)
- Regularization of phonology (less tolerant of variance)
- Increased functions (household language)
- Increase in vocabulary (borrowed or created)
What is the middle step between pidgin and creales
extended pidgins
who forms creoles, how fast?
children, a couple generations
where are pidgins most often spoken?
- on the coast (never inland)
- around the equatorial belt (none in extremely southern or northern places)
- near native populations
- not in middle of countries
what are the 5 historical origins (factors that contributed to the need of creating pidgins and creoles)
1) Slavery
2) Trade
3) european settlement
4) War
5) labour migration
4 large groups of creoles?
- carribean
- west african
- near indian ocean
- near pacific ocean
Factor 1: slavery - explain.
- europeans imported slaves from the african west coast to south/north america (new world) using a triangular system of importation
- exchanged slaves for fur, cotton, fire arms, alcohol
- salve coast on african boarder spoke a L very distant from standard
- from africa they got tobacco, sugar, coffee, molasses
What were the 2 types of communication during slavery?
→ Horizontal: communication between two slaves
→ Vertical: Communication between slaves and their masters
where were the fort pidgins created during savory
- plantations where they worked in north america or on the way to america
Explain factor 2: trade
trading activities where
- Several ling groups are involved
- Interpreters are unavailable
• Ex. Naga Pidgin – being creolized by children in north eastern india
Explain Factor 3: European settlement
- moving to a new area quite peacefully
• Papua New Guinea, China, India, East Africa
• communication between europeans and native populations
Give example of a pidgin formed through european settlement
ex. Fanakolo (Fanagolo)
- a pidgin spoken in south Africa that originated after contact with English speakers and Zulus
- Used today in the mines - - no sign of creolization, exists there as long as there are mines
- Structurally close to English, vocab from other languages
Explain factor 4: War
- american wars in asia, japan, vietnam etc.
- military action resulted in an unstable pidgin
- only there while american soldiers were there
- called Bamboo english
- some scholars say its not a pidgin
Explain factor 5: Labour Migration
- Accelerated contact through employment in major urban centers
- cause need for communication
Example of pidgin formed through labour migration
- E.g. Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea
- most healthy pidgin in world
- Healthy urban centers is the West and middle East
how can we group pidgins/creoles
By the superstratum (full language)
Examples of English based pidgins/creoles
(know a 2/3)
1) sea island creole - spoken in islands off the coast of florida
2) Krio - spoken in sierra leona
3) Chinese pidgin english - spoken in China
4) Hawaiian creole - spoken in Hawaii
how many french based
example?
15
- Louisiana creole - spoken in the united states
- Haitian creole - spoken in the Caribbean
-Seyshells creole -
Moritonian creole
How many Portugese based creoles, examples?
14
*Papiamentu - spoken in Aruba
Senegal - in africa
Whats interesting about Caribbean area?
- colonizers speaking different languages
- language switched ownership
- standard/official language is different from the language which creoles are based on
What types of pidgins are in the carabbean
Extremely diverse, Full range: portugese, french, dutch, english based creoels
how can the creole spoken in Caribbean be explained
who conquered who
What are some linguistic characteristics of pidgins
- well-organized structured linguistic systems
- Pidgins are easier to learn then full languages because the systems are simpler
- its not just a language simplified
What is the Sound system of Pidgins
example?
- Fewer and less complicated sounds
- Lack of some contrasts that full languages have
ex. tok pisin: no contrast between long and short vowels ( instead they duplicate the word = sipsip) - morphophonemic variation
Describe the Morphology of Pidgins and creoles
- Lack of inflection nouns
- No case markings
- some suffixes (transitivity marker - im)
- some tense markers in E-based
ex. Tok pisin ‘pinis’ - meaning the action is finished
Describe Syntax of pidgins and creoles
-Uncomplicated clausal structure:
-Absence of relative clauses
-Simple negative particles ( no in E-based, pa in F-based Creoles):
oI no tu had < It’s not too hard (Krio)
-Pre-verbal particles
oA de go wok - I am going to work, (Krio)
Why do pidgin speakers with different superstratums have such striking similarities
Because they have the same underlying processes
Describe vocabulary of pidgins and creoles
- Similarity to the lexicon of the superstratum
- Smaller size
- Re-shaped word forms
Define Polysemy.
example?
when the same word has several different meanings
ex. Camaroon: water - lake, sweat, rain
Define Multi-functionality.
example?
when the same word fulfils a number of functions
tok pisin: Sik - a sickness, a disease or it can be an intransitive or transitive verb.
Define Circumlocution.
example
Paraphrasing using multiple words
ex. grass belong face = beard
Define Compounding.
example
1) To indicate abstractions
ex. Big maus = conceited
2) To indicate gender
ex. Hos meri = female horse
Define Reduplication
Repeating the root of a word to add intensity, plurality, duration and frequency
ex. camaroon: Fain ‘lovely’ and fainfain ‘verylovely
What are the 5 stylistic devices
1) polysemy
2) Multi-functionality
3) circumlocution
4) compounding
5) reduplication
How do the origins of pidgins differ from historical origins
They are linguistic theories of how pidgins originate
What are the 3 categories of theories of pidgin origins?
1) Theories of independent parallel development
2) monogenetic theories
3) Linguistic universals
In the theory of parallel development, explain polygenisis theory
- pidgins start in multiple places but through Similar circumstances (2 groups can’t communicate, and one is dominant) leads to similar results
- Similarity of the dominant European Languages
- Similarity of many native/ substratum Languages
ex. west african L in the atlantic
In the theory of parallel development, what is the simplification strategy?
‘baby talk’ theory: europeans felt that they deliberately simplified their languages when talking to the slaves/natives so they never heard the standard language. Unable to produce proper language
= RIDICULOUS
Describe the monogenisis theory
One source for pidgins all over the world. Pidgins that dervie from european Ls originate from a portugese pigin that came from Sabir an formed structural basis for all pidgins
In the monogenisis theory, what is relexification?
Keeping the structure (cuboards) but changing the words (dishes)
Describe the linguistic Universals approach
Clarifies the similarities underlying pidgins irrespective of the circumstances that gave right to that pidgins
- stresses inherit linguistic skills of all language learners
In the Linguistic Universals Approach, describe Bickerton’s Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
- points out similarities b/w pidgins/creoles and baby talk
- every child has a biological program to develop a full language that operates by the same laws
- children who are forced to learn a codified L are at a disadvantage b/c the rules are unnatural
- creoles are more natural than codified L
Can pidgins be resurrected?
Yes, hardly any pidgin has a continuous life. They often die and are reserected
Give an example of a language that was creolized
E.g. Children learned Haitian pidgin and it became a creole because they didn’t have access to french (full language)
How can you tell Creoles from ‘full’ languages?
o No structural criteria
o Only from knowing it’s history
• Underlying process between creole and a language are the same
What happened to Tok Pisin when it was turned into a creole?
•Spoken in Papua newguine
- ‘Nativized’ in the 1960s
• Was a creole for the new generation of children and an extended pidgin for the older speakers
- in the 1980s: new grammatical categories, processes of word formation, stylistic devices
What were the new functions of TOk Pisin
- symbol of new culture
- Use in new domains
What were the • Linguistic changes in tok pisin
- Assimilation and reduction
- Expansion of vocab.
- Verbal tense system
- Syntactic complexity
What is Decreolization
- When a creole merges into the full language that used to be it’s supertratum
What is the creole continuum
many intermediate varieties converge with standard and merge with it
( only happens if we have a creole with the same supertratum as the standard language)
What is a Basilect
the basic language – more like creole, least like standard
What is a Mesolect
Intermediate varieties
What is an Acrolect
very similar to the standard language
What is the myth of jamaican creole
There are only two types of dialects
- The standard and the creole
- they ignore the existence of this continuum
example of where there is no creole continuum
- suriname : speak english based creole but the standard L is dutch
What are the conditions in which a creole continuum will not occur
- creole and standard L aren’t related
- In highly stratified societies
- If the two L have different functions
Example of decreolization
ex. Gechee - Black speech
- undergoing decreolization because there is now interaction and equality b/w races
What 4 things can happen to a creole?
- A stable relationship with the superstrate
- E.g. Haitian Creole & france - It may be ‘absorbed’ by the standard
- E.g. Sea Islands - gechee - A creole may become a standard
- E.g. Afrikaans, Tok pisin, Swahili - Develop a creole continuum
E.g. Jamaica, Guyana
What is Recreolization
When a creole that was converging with a standard L becomes more like a creole.
What was the study done by Wright in 1984 on the norms of black-british born adolescents of Caribbean origin?
- spoke the local english dialect and a form of creole (was decreolized in their parents generation)
- found that when the kids spoke it was more of a basolect than that of their parents
- To stress their background/ culture
Who is John Agard
• Born in Guyana, moved to U.K.
• Writes poems
like “Mr. Oxford Don”
Relexification hypothesis 1
the slaves learned and relexified the pidgin in the slave forts or on the ship (and completed this relexfication on plantations)
Relexification hypothesis 2
the portugese sailors adapted their pidgin to the language of the slave fort they went to in Africa.
