INTRODUCTION

It is quite evident that there are varieties and dialects of a language. To some extent, a dialect or
variety can evolve into a language due to some sociolinguistic factors. Our concern here is how a
Creole becomes a language. We are going to look at the meaning/definition of Creole, historical
development of creole as well as the origin and characteristics of a creole language

CREOLE

When a pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade or contact language and becomes the first
language of a social community, it is described as a creole. It refers to a language that has
developed from pidgin but later become lingua franca , having a full range of functions e.g.
grammar. The term 'creole' derives from French creole (indigenous) borrowed from Spanish
criollo (native). Creoles are products of First Language Acquisition, based on inadequate input.
Creolization is a process when children learn a pidgin as their mother tongue, within a generation
or two, native language use becomes consolidated and widespread. Pidgins are lexically derived
from other languages, but they are simplified especially in morphology. In comparison with
others, it means that pidgins are also different from creoles.

According to Wikipedia, a creole language or simply creole, is a stable natural language that
develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into new one within a fairly
brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full fledge language. While the concept is
similar to that of mixed or hybrid language, creoles are often characterized by a tendency to
systematize their inherited grammar (e.g. by eliminating irregularities or regularizing the
conjugation of otherwise irregular verbs). Like any language, creoles are characterized by a
consistent system of grammar, possess large stable vocabularies and are acquired by children as
their native language. These three features distinguish a creole language from a pidgin.

The precise number of creole languages is not known, particularly as many are poorly attested or
documented. About one hundred creole languages have arisen since 1500. These are
predominantly based on European languages such as English and French due to the European
age of discovery and the Atlantic slave trade that arose at that time.
Creoles may arise in one of two basic situations. One is where speakers of pidgins are put in a
situation in which they cannot use their respective mother tongues. This has arisen in the course
of the slave trade (in the Caribbean and the southern United States) where speakers were
deliberately kept in separate groups to avoid their plotting rebellion. They were then forced to
maintain the pidgin which they had developed up to then and pass it on to future generations as
their mother tongue thus forming the transition from a pidgin to a creole. A second situation is
where a pidgin is regarded by a social group as a higher language variety and deliberately
cultivated; this is the kind of situation which obtained in Cameroon and which does still to some
extent on Papua New Guinea. The outcome of this kind of situation is that the children of such
speakers which use pidgin for prestige reasons may end up using the pidgin as a first language,
thus rendering it a creole with the attendant relinquishing of the native language of their parents
and the expansion of all linguistic levels for the new creole to act as a fully-fledged language.

A creole refers to a pidgin after it has become the mother tongue of a certain population. This
development usually implies that the pidgin has become more complex grammatically and has
increased its vocabulary in order to deal with the entire set of situations in which a native
language is used. The increased complexity of creoles is attained through the restructuring of
material provided by the pidgin as there is normally no other source of input at the time of
creolisation. In the scholarly literature there are many definitions of creoles, the following are
three main types.

External definition by this is meant that factors outside a language determine whether it can be
labelled a creole or not. External definitions are favoured by some scholars, such as John Holm,
who, when examining the varieties of English in the Caribbean, stated: ‘no particular set of
syntactic features alone will identify a language as a creole without reference to its
sociolinguistic history’ (Holm 372).

Acquisitional definition: sees a creole as the language of a generation which developed it from
a considerably reduced and imperfectly acquired form of a (colonial) lexifier language. This
definition stresses the break with the native language(s) of previous generations.

Structural definition: According to this definition a creole is a language which has undergone
considerable restructuring with respect to the lexifier language and probably with regard to the
substrate native language(s) as well, if it/they provided input. Restructuring involves a movement
towards analytical type and a simplification of morphology (independent morphemes are used
for bound morphemes in the grammar of the lexifier language; the latter may be present but a
functional). Restructured languages generally show SVO word order and pre-specification in
dyads, i.e. adjective + noun and genitive + noun. In verb phrases markers for tense and aspect
generally precede the verb in question. In fact basilectal varieties of creole English have no
verbal inflections.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CREOLES

The English term creole comes from French créole, which is cognate with the Spanish term
criollo and Portuguese crioulo, all descending from the verb criar ('to breed' or 'to raise'), all
coming from Latin creare ('to produce, create'). The specific sense of the term was coined in the
16th and 17th century, during the great expansion in European maritime power and trade that led
to the establishment of European colonies in other continents.

The terms criollo and crioulo were originally qualifiers used throughout the Spanish and
Portuguese colonies to distinguish the members of an ethnic group who were born and raised
locally from those who immigrated as adults. They were most commonly applied to nationals of
the colonial power, e.g. to distinguish españoles criollos (people born in the colonies from
Spanish ancestors) from españoles peninsulares (those born in the Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Spain).
However, in Brazil the term was also used to distinguish between negros crioulos (blacks born in
Brazil from African slave ancestors) and negros africanos (born in Africa). Over time, the term
and its derivatives (Creole, Kréol, Kreyol, Kreyòl, Kriol, Krio, etc.) lost the generic meaning and
became the proper name of many distinct ethnic groups that developed locally from immigrant
communities. Originally, therefore, the term "creole language" meant the speech of any of those
creole peoples.

Geographic distribution

As a consequence of colonial European trade patterns, most of the known European-based creole
languages arose in coastal areas in the equatorial belt around the world, including the Americas,
western Africa, Goa along the west of India, and along Southeast Asia up to Indonesia,
Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles and
Oceania.

Many of those creoles are now extinct, but others still survive in the Caribbean, the north and
east coasts of South America (The Guyanas), western Africa, Australia (Australian Kriol
language), the Philippines (Chavacano) and in the Indian Ocean.

Atlantic Creole languages are based on European languages with elements from African and
possibly Amerindian languages. Indian Ocean Creole languages are based on European
languages with elements from Malagasy and possibly other Asian languages. There are,
however, creoles like Nubi and Sango that are derived solely from non-European languages.

Social and political status

Because of the generally low status of the Creole peoples in the eyes of prior European colonial
powers, creole languages have generally been regarded as "degenerate" languages, or at best as
rudimentary "dialects" of the politically dominant parent languages. Because of this, the word
"creole" was generally used by linguists in opposition to "language", rather than as a qualifier for
it.

Another factor that may have contributed to the relative neglect of creole languages in linguistics
is that they do not fit the 19th-century neogrammarian "tree model" for the evolution of
languages, and its postulated regularity of sound changes (these critics including the earliest
advocates of the wave model, Johannes Schmidt and Hugo Schuchardt, the forerunners of
modern sociolinguistics). This controversy of the late 19th century profoundly shaped modern
approaches to the comparative method in historical linguistics and in creolistics.

Historic classification

According to their external history, four types of creoles have been distinguished: plantation
creoles, fort creoles, maroon creoles, and creolized pidgins. By the very nature of a creole
language, the phylogenetic classification of a particular creole usually is a matter of dispute;
especially when the pidgin precursor and its parent tongues (which may have been other creoles
or pidgins) have disappeared before they could be documented.
Phylogenetic classification traditionally relies on inheritance of the lexicon, especially of "core"
terms, and of the grammar structure. However, in creoles, the core lexicon often has mixed
origin, and the grammar is largely original. For these reasons, the issue of which language is the
parent of a creole – that is, whether a language should be classified as a "French creole",
"Portuguese creole" or "English creole", etc. – often has no definitive answer, and can become
the topic of long-lasting controversies, where social prejudices and political considerations may
interfere with scientific discussion.

Substrate and superstrate

The terms substrate and superstrate are often used when two languages interact. However, the
meaning of these terms is reasonably well-defined only in second language acquisition or
language replacement events, when the native speakers of a certain source language (the
substrate) are somehow compelled to abandon it for another target language (the superstrate).
The outcome of such an event is that erstwhile speakers of the substrate will use some version of
the superstrate, at least in more formal contexts. The substrate may survive as a second language
for informal conversation. As demonstrated by the fate of many replaced European languages
(such as Etruscan, Breton, and Venetian), the influence of the substrate on the official speech is
often limited to pronunciation and a modest number of loanwords. The substrate might even
disappear altogether without leaving any trace.

However, there is dispute over the extent to which the terms "substrate" and "superstrate" are
applicable to the genesis or the description of creole languages. The language replacement model
may not be appropriate in creole formation contexts, where the emerging language is derived
from multiple languages without any one of them being imposed as a replacement for any other.
The substratum-superstratum distinction becomes awkward when multiple superstrata must be
assumed (such as in Papiamento), when the substratum cannot be identified, or when the
presence or the survival of substratal evidence is inferred from mere typological analogies. On
the other hand, the distinction may be meaningful when the contributions of each parent
language to the resulting creole can be shown to be very unequal, in a scientifically meaningful
way. In the literature on Atlantic Creoles, "superstrate" usually means European and "substrate"
non-European or African.
Others (have demonstrated creoles that serve as counter examples to McWhorter's hypothesis –
the existence of inflectional morphology in Berbice Dutch Creole, for example, or tone in
Papiamentu.

NIGERIAN PIDGIN AS A CROLE LANGUAGE

During the European quest for new markets and raw materials in the 17th Century, many
Portuguese missionaries and traders arrived on the shores of Jamaica and West and Central
African countries like: Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Nigeria were largely visited by the
missionaries. For trade and religious purposes with no language in common they created a form
of communication with bases from the European language, giving birth to most African
languages: such as Creole, Pidgin, and Patois. These languages came to serve the linguistic need
there, by giving birth to the Cameroon Camfranglais (mixture of French and English) spoken by
the youth today.

Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE), originated as a lingua franca for trade purposes amongst the
Nigerians and the Portuguese merchants during the 17th century. It is broken English like Patois
and Creole, spoken along the coast of West Africa and it has extended to the diaspora, due to
Nigerian migrants. After the departure of the missionaries, this lingua franca did not go with
them but remained and is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria today compared to
English. There are still Portuguese words present in the NPE such as : “ Sabi (to know) and
Pikin (child)” .

NPE is regarded as a bastardization of the English language used by the non-literates, though it is
highly spoken in Nigeria by every individual starting from an early age. In the country, both the
literates, such as the president, campaigning politicians, lawyers, doctors, and non-literates speak
and understand pidgin, though it is mostly used in informal situations and English is used for
official purposes and the medium of education. NPE is the most widely spoken language as it is
not a native language of any tribe in Nigeria but the only language everyone understands and
regards as the easiest form of interaction amongst the population.The Federal Republic of
Nigeria has three major languages namely: Igbo in the (East), Yoruba in the (South) and Hausa
in the (North ) having English as the official language alongside other 500 different spoken
dialects. Indeed, NPE is considered as a bastardized language as it is yet to have a standard
written form. University in Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria both undergraduate
and postgraduate levels , department of English and Drama are now offering it as a course and
many struggles are being put up for NPE to be considered Nigeria’s official language as it is
highly used by the masses, high school students, postgraduates and undergraduates, politicians
and business people.

NPE is not only spoken in Nigeria, it is widely used by the diasporic communities in America,
England, and Canada. In addition, a large group of the Nigerian community in Luxembourg use
Pidgin as a means of communication, these diasporic communities use pidgin among themselves
as a means to feel at home.

NPE varies in written and spoken form depending on which part of the country the speaker is
from, as the language is spoken differently in each state of the country. Each State tends to add
words from their dialect into Pidgin making it more interesting for the ears and understood by
everyone. Nigerian Pidgin English remains the only language that unifies the 186 million
population.
CONCLUSION

The paper tried to explain how creoles becomes a language of its own by looking at the origins,
historical development, status as well as Nigerian Pidgin English as a creole language.
Definitions of creole were looked at from different angles, the geographic distributions of creoles
and also mentioned some creole languages from all over the world.
Works Cited
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Gass & L.Selinker. Rowley Mass: Newbury House, 1983.

Arends, Jacques. “Demographic factors in the formation of Sranan. Ed. Jacques Arends.
Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995.

Clyne, Michael. Dynamics of language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 .

Gumperz, John J. & Robert Wilson. Convergence and creolization: A case from the
IndoAryan/Dravidian border in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , 1971.

Harris, John. " Syntactic variation and dialect divergence." Journal of Linguistics 20 (1984): 303-
327.

Hymes, Dell (ed.). Pidginization and creolization of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press., 1971.

Lefebvre, Claire. Creole genesis and the acquisition of grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.

Myers-Scotton, Carol. Contact Linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Thomason, Sarah G. & Terrence Kaufman. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic
Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY DUTSIN-MA

HOW IS CREOLE A LANGUAGE?

A RESEARCH TOPIC FOR MULTILINGUALISM

ENG 815

SUBMITTED BY

ABUBAKR SAADATU ZAKKA

MATRIC NUMBER

PG8/ART/2021/1781