A resource book for students

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World EnglishesJennifer Jenkins

• A resource book for students

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Strand 2 Pidgins and creoles

• Definition pidgin
• A pidgin is a language with no native speakers
  it is no ones first language but is a contact
  language.
• (Wardhaugh 2006 613)
• Definition creole
• In contrast to a pidgin, a creole is often
  defined as a pidgin that has become the first
  language of a new generation of speakers.
• 
  (Wardhaugh 2006 613)

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Pidgins

• Stigmatisation as inferior, bad languages
• European expansion into Africa and Asia during
  colonial period
• Contact languages between dominant European
  language speakers and speakers of mutually
  unintelligible indigenous African and American
  languages
• Fulfils restricted communicative needs between
  people who do not share a common language
• Little need for grammatical redundancy

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Creoles

• Creolisation development of a pidgin into a
  creole
• A children of pidgin speakers use their parents
  pidgin language as a mother tongue ? creole
• B pidgin is used as a lingua franca in
  multilingual areas and develops to be used for an
  increasing number of functions ? creole
• Vocabulary expands and grammar increases in
  complexity
• Decreolisation through extensive contact with
  the dominant language develops towards standard
  dominant language

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Theories of origins

• Three groups of theories
• 1 Monogenesis pidgins have a single origin
• 2 Polygenesis pidgins have an independent
  origin
• 3 Universal pidgins derive from universal
  strategies

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Monogenesis

• The theory of monogenesis and relexification
• All European-based pidgins and creoles derive
  ultimately from one proto-pidgin source, a
  Portuguese pidgin that was used in the worlds
  trade routes during the fifteenth and sixteenth
  centuries
• Evidence for this theory many linguistic
  similarities between present-day Portuguese
  pidgins and creoles, and pidgins and creoles
  related to other European languages

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Polygenesis

• The independent parallel development theory
• Pidgins and creoles arose and developed
  independently, but in similar ways because they
  shared a common linguistic ancestor
• Pidgins and creoles were formed in similar social
  and physical conditions

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Polygenesis

• The nautical jargon theory
• A nautical jargon, i.e. the European sailors
  lingua franca, formed a nucleus for the various
  pidgins, which were expanded in line with their
  learners mother tongues
• Evidence for this theory nautical element in all
  pidgins and creoles with European lexicons

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Universal

• The baby talk theory
• Based on similarities between certain pidgins and
  early speech of children
• Also because speakers of the dominant language
  use foreigner talk (simplified speech) with L2
  speakers

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Universal

• A synthesis
• Based on universal patterns of linguistic
  behaviour in contact situations
• Inherent universal constraints on language
• Evidence for this theory proficient as well as
  less proficient speakers from different L1s and
  speech communities simplify their language in
  very similar ways children go through the same
  stages in the mastery of speech

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Characteristics of pidgins and creoles

• Lexis
• Drawn from lexifier language (usually a European
  language)
• Systematic and rule-governed
• Concepts encoded in lengthier ways
• Extensive use of reduplication
• Pronunciation
• Fewer sounds
• Simplification of consonant clusters
• Conflation
• Large number of homophones

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Characteristics of pidgins and creoles

• Grammar
• Few inflections in nouns, pronouns, verbs and
  adjectives
• Simple negative particle for negation
• Uncomplicated clause structure
• Development of pidgins ? creoles
• Assimilation and reduction
• Expansion of vocabulary
• Development of tense system in verbs
• Greater sentence complexity

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Characteristics of pidgins and creoles

• Social functions
• Wide range of social functions beyond the
  original purpose to serve as basic contact
  languages
• Literature (written and oral)
• Education
• Mass media
• Advertising
• The Bible

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London Jamaican

• A combination of Jamaican Creole and a local form
  of non-standard English
• Powerful marker of group identity
• Shows grammatical, phonological and lexical
  features of Jamaican Creole
• Also shows features of London English which do
  not occur in Jamaican Creole

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Ebonics

• Also known as Africa-American Vernacular English
  (AAVE)
• No agreement on how it developed
• Debate about its status and the approach to be
  taken in schools
• Oakland school board Ebonics regarded as valid
  linguistic system and as second language, used as
  language of instruction
• Strong reactions many opposed this approach,
  some were in favour

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