Pidgin Languages

Definitions

• Pidgin is a reduced language that results from extened contact between

groups of people with no language in common; it evolves when they need
some means of verbal communication,perhaps for trade. It is the native
language of no-one, but it is nontheless a main means of communication for
millions of people. (Holm, 2000: 5)

• Pidgins are lexically derived from other languages, but structurally simplified.
They came into being where people need to communicate but do not have
language in common. Pidgins have no (or few) native speakers.
 No language in common
Historically
Trade
Colonialization
Slavery

Geographically
Different language families

Socio-cultural
SUPERstratum
SUBstratum
 No language in common
L1/L2
Pidgin

Language 1 Language 2
Superstratum
Substratum
(Lexifier language)
 No native speakers
PIDGIN

o n
zati
o li
cre
PIDGIN DISAPPEARED

CREOLE
(nativized pidgin)
decreolization

STANDARD
Post-creole continuum
 Simplified
Phonological
Morphological
Syntactic
Semantic
Pragmatic
 Phonological level
• Number of phonemes is small
• many acceptable pronunciations
Machine /mɑ’sɪn/,/mɑ’ʃɪn/,/mɑ’tʃɪn/
• Voiced plosives become voiceless at the end of the word
/pig/ - /pik/
• plosive element is lost after nasal
/hænd/-/hæn/
• Using few basic vowels as posible
/maiself/- /miself/
 Morphological level
• Lack of inflections
• Reduplication for plurals, intesifying adv,
superlatives
blak ‘black’ blakblak ‘very black’
gaan ‘big’ gaangaan ‘very big’
daag ‘dog’ daagdaag ‘many different dogs’
fiIl ‘to fill’ fiIlfiIl ‘to fill entirely’
 Syntactic level
• Case, tense, mood and voice are generally
absent from pidgins.
• Reduced set of propositions and conjunctions
• AB grid for representing features
A B AB
A B AB
- + -
+ - +
+ - -
+ + +
- - -

Im did tayad
Akosua re-su
3sg PAST tired
He was tired Akosua PROG-cry
Akosua is crying
mi did de de
1sg PAST copula there a da listen to you
I was there 1sg PROG listen to 2sg
I am listening to you
 Semantic level
• Small vocabularies
• methaphorical extension is necessary
Haus sik
Haus moni
Sit haus
Sop
Sop bilong tit
Sop bilong gras
Hongri
tumoch
Ogli
Aredi
 Pragmatic level
• Limited to a single variety of code
• Pidgin doesn’t have rich variety of language
styles
 References
• Hymes, Dell (ed.) (1971) Pidginization and Creolization of Languages.
Proceedings of Conference Held at the University of the West Indies
Mona, Jamaica, April 1968. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Jacques A., Muysken P., Smith N. (1995). Pidgins and Creoles - An
Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Edward Finegan and John R. Rickford(eds.). Language in the USA:
Themes for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 2004
• Shelome A. Gooden, (2003) The phonology and phonetics of Jamaican
Creole reduplication.The Ohio State University
• Yule G. (2010)- The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press