TUCHEMNITZ SOCIOLINGUISTICS Pidgin

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TU-CHEMNITZ SOCIOLINGUISTICS PidginCreole and
Lingua Franca

• Presenters
• Gamze Yenidogan
  
  Raside Dag

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1. Introduction

• ?When people in contact dont have a common
  native language
• there maybe only two possibilities exist
• something else other than language will be
  used, maybe body language ?
• a common language are either
• chosen or created
• three labels of such languages
• lingua franca
• pidgin
• creole

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• 1.1. Pidgin language
• A language created when people combine parts
  of two or more languages into a simplified
  structure and vocabulary.
• 1.2. Creole language
• A pidgin language that has developed a more
  complex structure and vocabulary and has become
  the native language of a group of people.
• 1.3. Lingua franca
• A language used among speakers of different
  languages
• for the purposes of trade and commerce.

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1.1. Pidgin Language

• a marginal language which arises to fulfill
  certain restricted communication needs among
  people who have no common language
• its initial, highly restricted, purpose
• trade
• other matters relevant for survival and
  co-existence
• based on a highly simplified version of a
  dominant source language spoken by one of the
  communities
• have no native speakers
• no one's first language but a contact language

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• One of the best known examples of pidgin English
  
• ? Tok Pisin originated in New Guinea.
• No smoking sign in
  Kavieng

Ref http//www.ida.liu.se/g-robek/PNG-TokPisin.h
tm
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• Nigerian Pidgin is an English based pidgin or
  creole language spoken as a kind of lingua franca
  across Nigeria.
• Sango is spoken mainly in the towns of Central
  African Republic.
• Sango alphabet and
  pronunciation

Ref http//www.omniglot.co
m/writing/sango.php
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?Types of Pidgins

• 2.1. Maritime or Nautical Pidgins
• Used by sailors communicating with people from
  other nations.
• Examples
• Romance based pidgin used all over
  Mediterranean.
• The Basque- Lexifier pidgin of Iceland.
• 2.2. Trade Pidgins
• Used for trade.
• Maritime and trade pidgins are similar.

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• An example ?Pidgin Eskimo of Arctic Ocean
• Used mainly in and around American ships ( in
  19th and 20th century)
• Used between Inuit ( Eskimos) and ships crews.
• 2.3. Interethnic Contact Languages
• Used for spread of religion, political
  negotiations or ceremonies.
• Used by people with no common language.
• Examples

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• Amerindian- Lexifier pidgins
• a) Chinook Jargon of American Northwest(
  19th and 20th century)
• b) Delaware Jargon ( 17th century)
• 2.4. Work Force Pidgins
• Formed by contacts between colonial people and
  local workers.
• Examples
• Butler English and Bamboo English in India.

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? Linguistic Features of Pidgins

• Simplified Morphology.
• Reduced inflectional and derivational morphemes
  (as in Creoles.)
• Variational word order.
• Examples
• Subject Verb Object (SVO)
• Fanagalo, Zulu- lexifier pidgin spoken in
  Southern Africa
• Mina chena ena first, mina ai az khuluma
  gagle lo English.
• I tell them first I not can
  speak well the English.

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• Object Subject Verb (OSV)
• Mobilian Jargon
• Tamaha olcifo inu hakkalo banna.
• Town name I hear want.
• Subject Object Verb (SOV)
• Delaware Jargon, Unami Delaware- Lexifier
  Pidgin(Northeastern United States, 17th Century)
• Kee squa og enychan hatah?
• You woman and child have?

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• Phonological system of pidgins is simplified.
• For example
• Fijian fricatives /ß/ and /ð/ become stops /b/
  and /d/ in Pidgin
• Fijian.
• Tones are usually not present in Pidgins.
• For Example
• Vietnamese and Chinese are tone languages.
• Vietnamese Pidgin French, Chinese Pidgin Russian
  or Chinese Pidgin English have no tones.

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• Pidgins have generally a basic lexical source (
  mixture of
• different languages.)
• Only very few Pidgins show abnormal mixture of
  vocabulary.
• One Pidgin word may have various meanings.
• For Example
• In Chinook Jargon, muckamuck means
• Eat, drink, bite and more.
• Fewer words are used, many function words are
  omitted.
• Pidgin Hawaiian
• Japana, makana dala oe hiamoe ma keia hale
  wau
• Japan, gift dollar me sleep at
  this house you

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1.2. Creole language

• ?No one learns pidgin languages as native
  languages.
• ?However, once a pidgin is adopted by a speech
  community as its first language and that children
  learn it as a mother tongue
• ? the pidgin is creolized
• and
• the language becomes a creole.

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? Geographical Distribution

• Pidgin and Creole languages are distributed
  mainly, though not exclusively,
• ? in the equatorial belt around the world,
  usually in places with direct or easy access to
  the oceans.
• mainly in the Caribbean and around the north
  and east coasts of South America, around the
  coasts of Africa, particularly the west coast,
  and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
• closely related to longstanding patterns of
  trade, including trade in slaves.

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Geographical Distribution
Ref http//dooku.miun.se/engelska/englishB/langua
gesurvey/Lectures/B4.Geography.pdf
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? Creolization vs Pidginization

• Creolization
• expansion of the morphology and syntax,
• regularization of the phonology,
• deliberate increase in the number of functions in
  which the language is used,
• development of a rational and stable system for
  increasing vocabulary.

• Pidginization
• simplification of a language,
• reduction in morphology (word structure) and
  syntax (grammatical structure
• tolerance of considerable phonological variation
  (pronunciation)
• reduction in the number of functions for which
  the pidgin is used (e.g., you usually do not
  attempt to write novels in a pidgin)
• extensive borrowing of words from local
  mother-tongues.

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Creole Processes

• Decreolisation
• ?when a society has two languages, a
  creolized X and standard X, and that standard
  exerts considerable influence on the creole.
• People start to improve' their creole using
  the standard language as their model,
• a whole range of varieties is created with
  standard X at the top' and the original creole
  at the bottom'.

• Recrolization
• ? opposite process in which
• the creole language is dominating.
• e.g. Adolescents of immigrated Carribbean
  spoke a local English dialect and a form of
  Creole which maintained more than English.

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? Some Differences between
Pidgins and Creoles

• ? Creole languages are fully developed languages
• have no simplified structure
• have more lexical items
• have complete grammar
• word order is fixed, almost rigidly SVO
• syntax (subordinate clauses exist)
• use the lexicon of the language of the dominant
  group.

• ? Pidgins have a simplified structure
• have little productive morphology
• have no inflections
• have free, variable word order
• tense, mood aspect in the VP, expressed by
  adverbs
• Before my sell-um for ten dollar (Chinese
  Pidgin Eng.)
• I sold it for ten dollars
• Pidgins, however show the opposite,
• Pidgins based on colonial languages are rare.
• For example Hawaiian Pidgin was based on
  Hawaiian not English.

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1.3. Lingua franca

• ? When an area is populated by groups speaking
  different languages, they often use one commonly
  agreed language for social or commercial wise.
• UNESCO defines a language which is used
  habitually by people whose mother tongues are
  different in order to facilitate communication
  between them
• Samarin (as cited in Wardhaugh,2002) lists four
  
• a trade language (e.g., Hausa in West Africa or
  Swahili in East Africa)
• a contact language (e.g., Greek koine in the
  Ancient World)
• an international language (e.g., English
  throughout much of our contemporary world)
• an auxiliary language (e.g., Esperanto or Basic
  English)

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1.3. Lingua franca

• also called interlingua
• ?English is seen as the worlds most common
  lingua franca.
• ? In diplomacy, French is considered the lingua
  franca.
• Usually, serves as a trade language.
• The different tribes of East Africa learn
  Swahili to communicate with each other the
  same is in West Africa where Hausa, in nearly
  every market-place, is the lingua franca.
• In China where the situation is more complex
  (many languages and many dialects), 94 of the
  Chinese people speak Han language.
• ? Thus, represents a type of language that is
  usually quite different from everyday language
  because it fulfils a far more practical and often
  rather restricted purpose.

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References

• Kaye A. Tosco, M. (2003). Pidgin and Creole
  Languages A Basic Introduction. LINCOM.
• Romaine, S. (1988). Pidgin Creole Languages.
  Longman.
• Singh, I. (2000). Pidgins and Creoles An
  Introduction. Oxford.
• Todd, L. (1990). Pidgins and Creoles. Routledge.
• Wardhaugh, R. (2002). An introduction to
  Sociolinguistics. Blackwell
• http//ell.phil.tu-chemnitz.de/intro/histSoc/soci
  oLing.html
• http//dooku.miun.se/engelska/englishB/languagesur
  vey/Lectures/B4.Geography.pdf
• http//shawn914.myweb.hinet.net/Introduction20to
  20Linguistics/handout9.pdf
• http//www.amatosphere.com/docs/pdf/2007/deblij_c
  h6.pdf