Pidgin
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A pidgin[1][2][3] /ˈpɪdʒɪn/, or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups).
Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin is not the
A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or body language from a multitude of languages as well as onomatopoeia. As the lexicon of any pidgin will be limited to core vocabulary, words with only a specific meaning in the lexifier language may acquire a completely new (or additional) meaning in the pidgin.[citation needed]
Pidgins have historically been considered a form of patois, unsophisticated simplified versions of their lexifiers, and as such usually have low prestige with respect to other languages.[6] However, not all simplified or "unsophisticated" forms of a language are pidgins. Each pidgin has its own norms of usage which must be learned for proficiency in the pidgin.[7]
A pidgin differs from a
Etymology
Pidgin derives from a
A popular
Terminology
The word pidgin, formerly also spelled pigion,
The term jargon has also been used to refer to pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins, such as Chinook Jargon. In this context, linguists today use jargon to denote a particularly rudimentary type of pidgin;[14] however, this usage is rather rare, and the term jargon most often refers to the words particular to a given profession.
Pidgins may start out as or become
Common traits
Pidgins are usually less morphologically complex but more syntactically rigid than other languages, and usually have fewer morphosyntactic irregularities than other languages.
Characteristics shared by most pidgins:
- Typologically most closely resemble isolating languages
- Uncomplicated embeddedclauses, etc.)
- Reduction or elimination of syllable codas
- Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them with epenthesis
- Elimination of sound changes
- Monophthongization is common, employment of as few basic vowels as possible, such as [a, e, i, o, u]
- Lack of morphophonemic variation
- Lack of Niger-Congo, Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families and in various families of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- Lack of grammatical tense; use of separate words to indicate tense, usually preceding the verb
- Lack of conjugation, declension or agreement
- Lack of superlatives, and other parts of speech that represent the concept being increased and clear indication of the gender of animated objects.
- Lack of clear verbification, adjectivization etc.
Development
The initial development of a pidgin usually requires:
- prolonged, regular contact between the different language communities
- a need to communicate between them
- an absence of (or absence of widespread proficiency in) a widespread, accessible interlanguage
Keith Whinnom (in Hymes (1971)) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others.
Linguists sometimes posit that pidgins can become creole languages when a generation of children learn a pidgin as their first language,[15] a process that regularizes speaker-dependent variation in grammar. Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community (such as the
Other scholars, such as
List of notable pidgins
Many of these languages are commonly referred to by their speakers as "Pidgin".
- Algonquian–Basque pidgin
- Arafundi-Enga Pidgin
- Bamboo English
- Barikanchi Pidgin
- Basque–Icelandic pidgin
- Bimbashi Arabic
- Bislama (creolized)
- Borgarmålet
- Bozal Spanish
- Broken Oghibbeway
- Loucheux Jargon
- Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin
- Camtho
- Cameroonian Pidgin English (creolized)
- Cocoliche
- Chinook Jargon
- Duvle-Wano Pidgin
- Eskimo Trade Jargon
- Ewondo Populaire
- Fanagalo (Pidgin Zulu)
- Français Tirailleur
- Haflong Hindi
- International Sign
- Inuktitut-English Pidgin
- Kiautschou Pidgin German
- KiKAR (Swahili pidgin)
- Kwoma-Manambu Pidgin
- Kyakhta Russian–Chinese Pidgin
- Xieheyu
- Labrador Inuit Pidgin French
- Madras Bashai
- Maridi Arabic
- Maritime Polynesian Pidgin
- Mediterranean Lingua Franca (Sabir)
- Mekeo pidgins
- Mobilian Jargon
- Namibian Black German
- Ndyuka-Tiriyó Pidgin
- Nefamese
- Nigerian Pidgin (creolized)
- Nootka Jargon
- Pidgin Delaware
- Pidgin Hawaiian
- Pidgin Iha
- Pidgin Ngarluma
- Pidgin Onin
- Pidgin Wolof
- Pijin (creolized)
- Roquetas Pidgin Spanish
- Russenorsk
- Settler Swahili
- Sranan Tongo
- Taimyr Pidgin Russian
- Tây Bồi Pidgin French
- Tinglish
- Te Parau Tinito
- Tok Pisin (creolized)
- Turku language
- West Greenlandic Pidgin
- Yokohama Pidgin Japanese
- Barikanchi Pidgin
See also
- Bilingual pun
- Camfranglais (Cameroon)
- Creole language
- Engrish
- Hiri Motu
- International auxiliary language
- Lingua franca
- Macaronic language
- Mixed language
- Spanglish
Notes
- ^ Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (2008). "The study of pidgin and creole languages" (PDF). In Arends, Jacques; Muijsken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (eds.). Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. John Benjamins. pp. 3–14.
- ^ Özüorçun, Fatma (2014). "Language varieties: Pidgins and creoles" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-12. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
- JSTOR 2949309.
- ^ See Todd (1990:3)
- ^ See Thomason & Kaufman (1988:169)
- ^ Bakker (1994:27)
- ^ Bakker (1994:26)
- ^ a b "pidgin, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, January 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/143533. Accessed 23 January 2018.
- ^ a b Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ Crystal, David (1997), "Pidgin", The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press
- ^ Bakker (1994:25)
- ^ Smith, Geoff P. Growing Up with Tok Pisin: Contact, creolization, and change in Papua New Guinea's national language. London: Battlebridge. 2002. p. 4.
- ^ Thus the published court reports of Papua New Guinea refer to Tok Pisin as "Pidgin": see for example Schubert v The State [1979] PNGLR 66.
- ^ Bakker (1994:25–26)
- ^
For example: Campbell, John Howland; ISBN 9780867209617. Retrieved 2014-04-20.
[...] the children of pidgin-speaking parents face a big problem, because pidgins are so rudimentary and inexpressive, poorly capable of expressing the nuances of a full range of human emotions and life situations. The first generation of such children spontaneously develops a pidgin into a more complex language termed a creole. [...] [T]he evolution of a pidgin into a creole is unconscious and spontaneous.
- ^ "Salikoko Mufwene: "Pidgin and Creole Languages"". Humanities.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
References
- Bakker, Peter (1994), "Pidgins", in Arends, Jacques; Muijsken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (eds.), Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction, John Benjamins, pp. 26–39
- Hymes, Dell (1971), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-07833-4
- McWhorter, John (2002), The Power of Babel: The Natural History of Language, ISBN 0-06-052085-X
- Sebba, Mark (1997), Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles, MacMillan, ISBN 0-333-63024-6
- ISBN 0-520-07893-4
- Todd, Loreto (1990), Pidgins and Creoles, ISBN 0-415-05311-0
Further reading
- Holm, John (2000), An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles, Cambridge University Press
External links