PIDGINS and CREOLES

PIDGIN

A pidgin is an artificial language derived from the mixture and simplification of two languages to allow the communication between groups without a common language.

They are mainly created with trade purposes and for business necessities - however, other situations can enable the emergence of pidgins as well

A Pidgin functions as a lingua franca for its speakers and do not have native speakers.  Their grammatical structure are simplified and reduced in comparison with the grammars of their source languages. The main characteristics of a Pidgin are:

-lack of surface grammatical complexity;

-lack of morphological complexity;

-preference for semantic transparency;

-reduction in vocabulary;

-phonological simplicity

They usually take out most of their vocabulary from the language with most prestige. Although they are lexically and grammatically influenced by their source languages, pidgins are not intelligible for speakers of these languages.

According to Peter Bakker:

"Pidgins are languages lexically derived from other languages, but which are structurally simplified, especially in their morphology. (...) they are the subject of language learning, they have structural norms, they are used by two or more groups, and they are usually unintelligible for speakers of the language which the lexicon derives". (Bakker,1994:25)

The origin of the term Pidigin is controversial and uncertain; however, the most accepted explanation is that the origin of the word is related to a Chinese corruption of the word business. 

CREOLE

 

A Creole is a complete language, developed from a pidgin, with the status of a mother tongue to a speech community. To form a Creole the vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical structures of two or more languages are blended in disproportional ways, originating a new system.

It´s important to emphasize that, differently from a Pidgin, a Creole is a mother tongue. A Pidgin becomes a Creole (in a process called creolization) when the language gain complexity and is claimed as mother tongue by a speech community.

Muysken and Smith (1994)  states that a Creole is different from a ordinary language as the Creole origin is well detectable in time and the Creole language isn´t the gradual transformation of other language, receiving lexicon from one language and grammatical structure from other. 

ELLO ´s website offers a interesting map with examples of pidgins and creoles around the world. The American colonization context is marked by the development of several pidgins and creoles, they are adopted by communities formed by European, American and African individuals. In this context, the development of pidgins and creoles is mainly related to commercial purposes as the slave trade and production in plantations.

        The map below, retrieved from the ELLO´s website, show a series of Pidgins and Creoles around the world.  

See more materials about Pidgins and Creoles in this post or access the Useful Links on the right sidebar

Theories of Genesis

There are four main theories about the origins of pidgin and creole languages, they are called Theories of Genesis.

Monogenetic Theories (single-origin theories)

 This theory studies the formation of pidigins and creoles languages focusing on European-based languages, and does not consider the development  worldwide.

According to this theories, all European-based Pidgins have a proto-pidgin as common origin, in this case the fifteenth century Portuguese-based pidgin in West Africa (WAPP).

Polygenetic Theories (multiple-origin theories)

On contrary of Monogenetic theories, the Polygenetic assumes that  the pidgins and creoles of the world did not evolve from only one proto-pidgin but developed individually from different starting points. According to these theories the structural similarities are thus the result of parallel, but independent developments, worldwide.

Universalist Theories

These theories are called Universalist because explain the formation of pidgin and creole languages from the premise that all humans are characterized by an innate ability to simplify language.

Thus, the structural similarities are understood as  the result of universal strategies for language simplification shared by all humans worldwide.

Substrate theories

This one consider the role of substrate languages, in general the less prestige language, in the pidginization process. These substrate languages contributes significantly to the pidgins grammars.

These theories focus in typical structural elements shared by pidgins (and creoles) worldwide also are found in the substrate languages which played a role in their development.

Materials about Pidgins and Creole concepts

The Universität Duisburg-Essen website compares the concepts of pidgin and creoles and explain the word's origins and the process of development of both.

 ELLO´s website has a section about Pidgins and Creoles with further development of the concepts.

APICS Online is one of the most complete and interesting websites about pidgins and creoles.

ThoughtCo. This site promotes learning through internet and has a full range of topics (cience, history, math, or religion) that are presented in-depth articles. The section on Pidgins and Creoles has a full range of articles about language formation and english varieties. 

APICS ONLINE

Apics Online is one of the most useful website to Pidgins and Creole Languages students. The web site has supporting electronic material for the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS), published by Oxford University Press. The platform has a huge catalog with samples and explanation of 76 Pidgin and Creole Languages worldwide.

The best of all, they are licensed by creative commons, so every material can be use free whatever for academic or economical purposes (you must provide the link for the original material).

In the map bellow Creoles and Pidgins in the catalog of Apics Online appears as a colorful circle.

The colors represents the lexifier, in general de most prestigious language, blue: English; red: French; purple: Arabic; black: Bantu; light-blue: Dutch; pink: Malay; yellow: Portuguese; orange: Spanish; grey: Others.

The site also compares phonological, sociolinguistic and historical characteristics between the 76 languages, what provide a large view of Pidgins and Creole languages developments all over the world.

The viewer can select these languages to access more information about it.

In the specific section is possible to research demographic data, lists with contributive languages and geographic information.

Complete phonological and sociolinguist description are available to students. Also, is possible to access bibliographic information and audio examples about the chosen language.

Gullah

Gullah (also known as Geechee) is an important Creole developed in the coastline and islands from the Carolinas, Georgia and northeastern Florida. Gullah language was developed in the XVIII century by the reunion of slaves from West Indies, Irish and Scottish settlers.

Most of the vocabulary is based on English and the grammatical structures are derived from the West African languages. According to the African American Registry, the gestures, rolling rhythm, variations in tone and strong storytelling practices are important characteristics of Gullah language and culture.  

In the XIX and most part of the XX century, Gullah was a target of prejudice, but the language survived because the geographic isolation of the african-american speakers community, called “Gullah Nation”.

Since the decade of 1980, the interest in Gullah language and culture grew higher and, nowadays, the Gullah Nation has a leader with the title of Queen Quet which participates in United Nations forums.

Even so, the construction of vacation homes and golf courses in the south coastline are threats to traditional spaces and practices of the Gullah Culture in the XXI century.

Jeff Stevens, from University of Washington, in his article “Gullah”  described some gullah language characteristics.

As the phonology:

and the syntax:

The Gullah Tours has a glossary of Gullah words as:

Noura F. Abdou, from University of Regensburg, made a very interesting analysis of Gullah and made a comparison between a English text from the Bible and the equivalent part in Gullah language:

Storytelling is a important aspect of Gullah culture. Bellow, a video of the Charleston Museum about the Gullah story Foot too Crooked.

More materials about Gullah Language:

Jeff Stevens article describe Gullah language principal structures: http://faculty.washington.edu/wassink/gullah.pdf)

Noura F. Abdou present a complete article about Gullah language with historical background, demographic setup and language description: http://www.hrpub.org/download/20140105/LLS3-19301860.pdf  

Gullah Tours has a interesting material as a glossary and recordings in Gullah Language:   http://gullahtours.com/gullah/gullah-words

In this video, from National Geographic, the Gullah storyteller Theresa Jenkins Hilliard testify about the Gullah language formation in the slaves communities and the difficult life in XVIII and XIX century plantations. Images and songs are important part of the reconstruction of the Gullah past. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/141015-ngm-ace-basin-gullah

The Gullah speaking territory are considered a national heritage area, a space for cultural and historical conservation and development. The Gullah Geechee Corridor website offers information about the gullah language, culture and relevant visiting sites.

http://www.gullahgeecheecorridor.org/?Itemid=113

Joseph A. Opala offers as historical review about the Gullah language and the studies about it. Also, he offers a interesting connection between Gullah and african languages as krio from Sierra Leone:

http://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Gullah%20Language.pdf

Language Prejudice

One important aspect to think about when studying Creoles is the prejudice question. In the interaction between two different speech communities (one of them using a Creole) is a common thing to the language of one of them (the Creole) be classified as a “broken” variety of the other.

Gullah language is an example of Creole that is classified as “broken English” by the English speaking communities that enters in contact with individuals from Gullah Nation.

The language prejudice generally became a cultural one too. The video, from Ted ex Charleston, present the cultural preservasionits Ron Daise speaking about his relation to his Gullah-Geechee heritage.

This video is a fine way to understand more cultural aspects of Gullah language and culture as the importance of intonation and musicality.

Hawaiian Creole English HCE

Hawaiian Creole English (HCE) is a language spoken in Pacific Ocean archipelago, although natives called it "Pidgin", HCE is a creole language. 

The language was developed from the mixture of languages from people who went to Hawaii to work in sugarcane plantations in 18 century. Among the languages that make up the HCE are Portuguese, Hawaiian, American English, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese and Korean.

The HCE is part of the local culture,  source of island identity, pride, and controversy. The theater group Kumu Kahua Theater presents its pieces in the language, which was even shown in the TV series Hawaii Five-0. However, the language that is spoken by majority of population since 1920, only in recent years was recognized as official language.

The HCE is famous and considered attractive by tourists, so local travel companies hire Pidgin speakers because they believed that as they talk with this accent the tourists spend more money.

Hawaii Pidgin - The Voice of Hawaii is a short film bellow that explains more about HCE's history, including the explanation of what is Pidgin, and, also, the origins of the word Manapua, a typical food in Hawaii. 

See more info:


http://pidginthevoiceofhawaii.com

http://www.eyeofhawaii.com/Pidgin/pidgin.htm

https://www.to-hawaii.com/hawaiian-pidgin.php

In this link we find a version of the Bible written in HCE.