Pidgins and Creole

Lingua Franca
People who speak different languages who are
forced into contact with each other must find
some way of communicating, a lingua franca
(Wordough 2006: 59)
Lingua franca is a language used for
communicaion between people whose first
language is differ (holmes 2001:79)
Lingua Franca
Outline Preview
Pidgins and creoles are new varieties of
language generated in situations of language
contact.
Definition
A pidgin usually combines elements of the native
languages of its users and is typically simpler than
those native languages insofar as it has fewer
words, less morphology, and a more restricted
range of phonological and syntactic options
(Rickford, 1992: 224).
Pidgin is a language used for communication
between different language users, for people
whose first languages differ, such as pidgin
between European colonizers and African slaves
(Holmes)
A pidgin is a language with no native
speakers: it is no ones first language but is a
contact language. (wordough 2006: 60)
Holm in Wourdagh (1988, pp. 45) defines a
pidgin as a reduced language that results from
extended contact between groups of people
with no language in common.
The process of pidginization probably requires
a situation that involves at least three
languages (Whinnom, 1971)
Pidgin According Wordough
When three or more languages are involved
and one is dominant, the speakers of the two
or more that are inferior appear to play a
critical role in the development of a pidgin
pidgin arises from the simplification of a
language when that language comes to
dominate groups of speakers separated from
each other by language differences.
Holmes Explanation
Pidgins language are created from combined
efforts of people who speak different
language
It has been founf that when one group speaks
prestigious world language and the other
groups use local vernacular, the prestige
language tends to supply more of the
vocabulary.

Identifying Characteristics of Pidgin
1. It is used in restricted domains and functions
2. It has a simplified structure compared to the
source languages
3. Low prestige and attracts negative attitudes-
especially from outsiders

Creole
1. A pidgin which has acquired native speakers
2. They are learned by children as their first
language and used in a wide range of
domains.
3. They become more structurally regular.
Functions
Pidgin can become lingua franca.
Once a Creole has developed it can be used
for all the functions of language, politics,
education, administration.
attitudes
Outsiders attitudes to Creole are often as
negative as their attitude to pidgin
This is not always the case for those who
speak them.
Origin and endings
found in every continent
Most are based on one of seven European
languages; English, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, German, Dutch, and Italia
The debate toward the origin of pidgin
1. All pidgins and creoles have a common origin.
2. Each pidgin arises and develops independently.

They account for the similarities by pointing two types of
constraints;
1. Pidgins arise in different contexts but for the same kinds of
basic functions.
2. These functions are expressed through structural processes
which seem universal to all situations of language
development-such as simplification and reduction of
redundant features
The origin of Creole
There are a variety of answers depending on
the social context.
1. In the societies with rigid divisions, a Creole
remains as a stable L variety alongside an
officially sanctioned H variety.
2. Where the social barriers are more fluid, the
Creole may develop towards the standard
language (decreolisation)
3. used side by side with standard variety
standard variety a continuum of
varieties between the standard and creole
4. may be adopted as an official language
e.g. Tok Pisin (PNG)
Indonesian from Pidgin Malay