SE201 WORLD ENGLISHES

Characteristics of Pidgins and Creoles SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2011 Lecture 6

Ms.Krishnaveni krishnaveni@ucsi.edu.my

Lexis
Pidgin lexis English French Portuguese Dutch

Lexifier languages

Grammar Indigenous African or Asian Languages

Pidgin lexis is systematic and, like any other languages, has rules of use although in the earlier stages of evolution, these rules are simpler. In particular: 1. Concepts tend to be encoded in lengthier ways. Example: Tok Pisins bilong (from belong)

2. There is an extensive use of reduplication Example: tok means talk, toktok means chatter and look means look whereas looklook means stare. The reason could be to intensify meaning and partly to avoid confusions from phonological similarity.

Pronunciation (VOWELS)
Pidgins have fewer sounds. Example: Tok Pisin has only 5 sounds (a,e,i,o,u), Carribbean creole has 12 sounds while the American English (General American) has 17 sounds and the British (Received Pronunciation) has 20 sounds.

Consonants
Features of the Pidgin and Creole Consonants: 1. Simplification (ex. Friend = fren, salt = sol, cold = col)
2.

Conflation (refer to page 62)

3.

Homophones (two words are pronounced identically pear pair)

Grammar
Characteristics: 1. Few inflections (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives) 2. Negation is formed with a simple negative particle no for English-based pidgins and pa for French-based pidgins. 3. Clause Structure is uncomplicated (no embedded clauses such as relative clauses)

Four types of change as Pidgin develops into Creole

1.

People begin to speak faster, so they start employing the process of assimilation and reduction (man bilong mi = mamblomi) Their vocabularies expand: (A) Shorter words paitman for man bilong pait (fighter) (B)The capacity for word building develops (suffix im is added to adjectives to form verbs as in bik=large and it became bikim=to enlarge

2.

(C )Technical words are borrowed from Standard English 3. They develop tense system of the verbs (bin marks the past tense and bimarks future tense) 4. They develop sentence complexity for example their speakers are able to form relative clauses.

Social Functions
Pidgins and creoles perform wide range of social functions: Example: literature (written and oral) education, media, advertising and in the Bible Note: Refer to pages 64-65 for the examples

The End