Languages in Contact: Pidgins & Creoles LCS D57 Michael Hall

Pidgins Definition & Origin Attitudes Samples Functions Structure Fate Creolisation Creole continuum Relevance

1 Definition and origins A language with no native speakers “Conventionalised systems of communication, not idiosyncratic production” (W&F p 119): you can’t just make it up Sample Tok Pisin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H61y75G0A24 Developed as a means of communication between people who do not have a common language Slaves on plantations: language groups split up to reduce risk of rebellion Coastal languages of trade in multilingual situations Mass migration of labour (e.g. Gastarbeiter from Turkey in 1970s)

Often based on European language English (35), Portuguese (14) French (15) Spanish (7) Dutch (5) German (5) Italian (3) (figures for pidgins and creoles from W&F 2015: 124) Where they are spoken: geographic spread -> see next slide

From APiCS (The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures)

2 Attitudes to Pidgins “Uninteresting linguistic phenomena” Studied for the features they lack, not the ones they possess “Broken English” Often treated with amusement or disdain 3 SAMPLE ACTIVITY

4 Functions Restricted range of domains and functions Buying and selling, no motivation to learn the other person’s language Reduced set of social interactions: Not used to express social distinctions or politeness, group identification or solidarity, level of education Referential, not affective No pressure to retain redundant features

5 Structure & users Prestigious language (socially, economically, politically dominant) tends to provide vocabulary (lexifier, superstrate): Tok Pisin vocab = 77% English Vernacular languages have more influence on grammar (substrate) Speakers of prestige language: soldiers, sailors, farmers, convicts -> rarely speakers of prestige variety Speakers of substrate language socially subordinate, with limited access to superstrate Added to linguistic repertoire (L2, L3, L4 etc)

Features Reduction in morphology, syntax, pronunciation and vocabulary compared to source languages Five vowels, 16 consonants in Tok Pisin it = eat, sip = ship = chip Ship -> sip, sheep -> sipsip Reduced consonant clusters (pes = paste), vowels inserted (silip = sleep) Absence of affixes, no gender: meaning of affixes conveyed elsewhere in sentence ka bilong mi = my car Breaking down into distinct components (natural language process: e.g. Latin -> French) -> Regularisation of structure

Pronouns: mi = I or me (no cases) Transitive verbs marked by –im Periphrastic verb constructions (broken down into components) Bin + verb denotes past tense Bai + verb denotes future tense Pre-verbal particle to denote continuous aspect Vocabulary: reduplication & innovation Tok v toktok (chatter), luk v lukluk (stare), san (sun) v sansan (sand) As = buttock, cause, foundation; bel = belly, seat of emotions

6 Fate: what happens to Pidgins Short life: Disappear when contact or function disappears e.g. departure of Americans at end of Vietnam War Gastarbeiter’s children attended school Die out if trade grows & one side learns the other’s language i.e. no longer recognised as the target language of both sides Continuum between pidgin and lexifier, with pidgin gradually dissolving Develop into creoles or fully-fledged languages Couples with different L1 use it in the home have children -> native speakers

7 Creolisation (Pidgin -> creole) Pidgins become more structurally regular as they undergo creolisation Acquire registers and functions People speak creoles faster than pidgins Assimilation: man bilong pait -> paitman (fighter) Greater sentence complexity: development of we (where) as introductory marker to a relative clause Pidgin formation = L2 learning with restricted input Creole formation = L1 learning with restricted input (Bickerton 1977) Communicative context (rather than native speakers) gives rise to elaboration

8 Creole continuum A state, not a process Range of varieties between a creole and the standard form of the same language as in Jamaica but not Surinam (Dutch standard & English creole) Requires contact between speakers of creole and standard e.g. not as in Haiti Acrolects, basilects and mesolects = Top, bottom and in-between Jamaica: Patois (basilect) & standard English (acrolect) Infinite adjustments are possible between them Individuals command a range of variation up and down the scale and can adapt according to contextual factors Does ‘continuum’ explain the complexity of real language situations?

Pidgin and creole as points on a scale (process, not a state) Expanded pidgin Creolisation Creole

9 Relevance of pidgins and creoles? They may reflect universal language development processes All languages may have developed in this way to some extent, i.e. through a process of contact Is English a creole? If so what is the substrate and what is the superstrate? Celtic + Anglo-Saxon? Anglo-Saxon + Norman French + Latin? Is French a creole?

References and further exploration Wardhaugh & Fuller (2015) Ch 5 Holmes (2013) Ch 4 Meyerhoff (2010) Ch 11 pp 259-270 About World Languages: Tok Pisin (http://aboutworldlanguages.com/tok-pisin) Tok pisin page on Univ Hawaii website https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/tokpisin.htm l