Introduction to pidgins and creoles

" Yu tink sei na kapenta klin mi?"(Todd 1990²: p.26)1

Seminar:

Applied Linguistics

Dozent:

Semester:

Sommersemester: 2007

Modul:

Aufbaumodul 3 (6AP)

Sibel Uygun

Email

Adresse:

Tel:

Matrikelnummer:

Studiengang:

B.A. (4. Semester)

1 How do you think I came into being?

Sibel Uygun

Applied Linguistics SoSE 2007

Contents

Introduction 2

1. Theories about the Origin of Pidgins 2

2. Geographical facts 3

3. Definition of a Pidgin 6

4. Melanesian Pidgin Text 7

5. Grammar 8

5.1 Pronouns 8

5.2 Nouns 8

5.3 Gender distinction 9

5.4 Verbs 10

5.5 The copula "to be" 10

5.6 Articles 10

5.7 Prepositions 11

5.8 Word order 11

6. Definition of a Creole 12

7. Conclusion 13

Bibliography 15

1

Sibel Uygun

Applied Linguistics SoSE 2007

Introduction

This term paper aims to analyse the pidgin and creole languages. In the first part it

introduces a brief history description about the development of pidgin languages. In

addition, it will inform the reader about pidgins and creoles distributions by adding

some geographical facts. In the next part, a definition and the grammar of pidgins will

be briefly exposed. Finally, the last part of that term paper will focus on the creoles

and examines the reasons for their development.

1. Theories about the Origin of Pidgins

In the nineteenth century, in times of slavery, people were brought over from Africa to

North America to work on the plantations. In order to prevent an escape from the

country, slaves were mixed with various other communities without a common

language. Therefore, it was hardly possible for them to organize a plot to leave and

go back to their homeland. Thus it was indispensable for the slaves to find a way to

communicate to each other while working on plantations. As a result, the only

solution was to "create" and use a simplified and limited form of English, the so-called

pidgin.

Pidgin languages have also developed while English speaking sailors traders or

adventurers travelled to America, Africa, Asia and Australia. And that is in a natural

way that the pidgin languages came into being.

In addition, colonization influenced the formation of pidgins including languages such

as French, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Dutch. The history shows that many

circumstances and factors led to the development of a pidgin.

However, until recently, the new formed language suffered from comparison to the

official language and was regarded as an ungrammatically, lazy, bad or broken

English. In the 1930′s and 1940′s native speakers even considered that kind of

language as a "speech defect".1

1www.logos.uoregon.edu/explore/sociolling/pidgin.html

2

Sibel Uygun

Applied Linguistics SoSE 2007

2. Geographical facts

According to figures, there are more than 76.8 million speakers of pidgin and creoles

worldwide, including 35.1 million of expanded pidgins and 41.7 million of creoles,

mainly used by indigenous populations and immigrants. The following map illustrates

that Pidgin and Creole languages are spread in more than fifty countries.

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