Jessika Thalía Escobedo Florida

Chapter: Linguistic varieties and multilingual nations.

Central Focus: Describe the vernacular, standard, pidgin and creole languages.

Key points:
1) Multilingual people learned a second language because they use it for different
intentions and it is needed for interaction with others (p.76).
2) The meaning of vernacular refers to a language that is not official in a particular
context (p.77).
3) Some of the characteristics in which a language can be called standard are that it
is an important variety, codified and worked for distinct function; literature, arts
and administration (p.79).
4) The standard languages do not have any specific vocabulary, pronunciation
neither grammar, but they are accepted for political and social influences (p.79).
5) “World Englishes” show the different varieties of English that exist since the
19th century (p.80).
6) English has been taken as a language that helps communication and interaction
in pluralistic context and multilingual countries (p.82).
7) Pidgin is used for communication between people who do not have a language
in common (p.85).
8) Pidgin has simple structures, it has just more referential than affective functions.
It just expresses simply what is needed. (p.86).
9) The pidgins languages have also small vocabulary, it has just five vowels and
the consonant clusters are simplified too. This means that words do not show
any signal about the tense or singular/plural neither the gender (p.87).
10) A creole is a language that has been acquired by people as the first one. It has a
complex grammar and structures that help to express different meanings as
needed (p.90).
11) It is called creolisation to the process in which a language that is considered as
pidgin changes into a creole (p.91).
Key quote:

“One of the reasons linguistics find he study of pidgins and creoles so fascinating is
precisely that they provide laboratories of language change in progress, and for testing
hypotheses about universal linguistic features and process” (p.92).

Reference

Holmes, J. (2013). What do sociolinguist study? In B. Holmes, J., An Introduction to

Sociolinguistics (pp. 1-15). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.