A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade. Trade is the willing exchange of goods, services, or both Trade is also called Commerce. Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but are instead learned as second languages. ^[1][2] Pidgins usually have low prestige with respect to other languages. ^[3]

Not all simplified or "broken" forms of language are pidgins. Pidgins have their own norms of usage which must be learned to speak the pidgin well. ^[4]

Terminology

The word pidgin, formerly also spelled pigion, derives from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of business. Chinese Pidgin English is today a Pidgin language of Nauru and other countries in Asia and Oceania. ^[5] Originally used to describe Chinese Pidgin English, it was later generalized to refer to any pidgin. ^[6] Pidgin may also be used as the specific name for a local pidgin in places where they are spoken. For example, the name of Tok Pisin derives from the English words talk pidgin, and its speakers usually refer to it simply as "Pidgin" when speaking English. Tok Pisin ( tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk" pisin means " Pidgin " is a creole spoken throughout

The term jargon has also been used to describe pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins such as Chinook Jargon. For Wikipedia jargon see WikipediaGlossary. For hacker slang see Jargon File. Chinook Jargon originated as a Pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread quickly up the West Coast from modern Oregon to the regions now In this context, linguists today use jargon to denote a particularly rudimentary type of pidgin;^[7] 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 trade languages, such as Tok Pisin; but trade languages are often full blown languages in their own right such as Swahili, Persian, or English. Tok Pisin ( tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk" pisin means " Pidgin " is a creole spoken throughout Swahili (called Kiswahili in the language itself is the First language of the Swahili people (Waswahili who inhabit several large stretches English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Trade languages tend to be "vehicular languages", while pidgins can evolve into the vernacular. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality

Common traits among pidgins

Since a Pidgin strives to be a simple and effective form of communication, the grammar, phonology, etc, are as simple as possible, and usually consist of:

• A Subject-Verb-Object word order in a sentence
• Uncomplicated clausal structure (i. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of e. , no embedded clauses, etc)
• Reduction or elimination of syllable codas
• Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them with epenthesis
• Basic vowels, like /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/
• No tones, such as those found in West African and Asian languages
• Use of separate words to indicate tense, usually preceding the verb
• Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives, and other parts of speech that represent the concept being increased
• A lack of morphophonemic variation

Pidgin development

The creation 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

Also, Keith Whinnom (in Hymes (1971)) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself a dependent clause does not express a complete Thought; therefore it is usually attached to an In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" Tone is the use of pitch in Language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is to distinguish or inflect words For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world In Grammar the superlative of an Adjective or Adverb is the greatest form of adjective or adverb which indicates that something has some feature Morphophonology (also morphophonemics, morphonology) is a branch of Linguistics which studies The phonological structure An interlanguage is an emerging linguistic system that has been developed by a learner of a Second language (or L2 who has not become fully proficient yet but is A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade

It is often posited that pidgins become creole languages when a generation whose parents speak pidgin to each other teach it to their children as their first language. A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community (such as Krio in Sierra Leone and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea). Krio (also Creo or Creole) is the lingua franca language spoken throughout Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. Tok Pisin ( tok means "word" or "speech" as in "talk" pisin means " Pidgin " is a creole spoken throughout Papua New Guinea (or ˈpæpjuːə in Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania However, not all pidgins become creole languages; a pidgin may die out before this phase would occur.

Other scholars, such as Salikoko Mufwene, argue that pidgins and creoles arise independently under different circumstances, and that a pidgin need not always precede a creole nor a creole evolve from a pidgin. Salikoko Mufwene is a linguist born in Mbaya-Lareme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pidgins, according to Mufwene, emerged among trade colonies among "users who preserved their native vernaculars for their day-to-day interactions". Creoles, meanwhile, developed in settlement colonies in which speakers of a European language, often indentured servants whose language would be far from the standard in the first place, interacted heavily with non-European slaves, absorbing certain words and features from the slaves' non-European native languages, resulting in a heavily basilectalized version of the original language. An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Due to the relationship between a Creole language and its superstrate language that is a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social political and economic These servants and slaves would come to use the creole as an everyday vernacular, rather than merely in situations in which contact with a speaker of the superstrate was necessary. ^[8]

See also

• Creole language
• Decreolization
• Hawaiian Pidgin
• Mediterranean Lingua Franca or Sabir
• Mixed language
• Trading zones
• Béarlachas
• Chinook Jargon

Notes

References

• Bakker, Peter (1994), "Pidgins", in Jacques Arends, Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction, John Benjamins, 26–39
• Hymes,, Dell (1971), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-07833-4
• McWhorter, John (2002). A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. Decreolization is a hypothetical phenomenon whereby over time a Creole language reconverges with one of the standard languages from which it originally derived Hawaii Pidgin English, Hawaii Creole English, HCE, or simply Pidgin, is a Creole language based in part on English The Lingua franca of the Mediterranean or Sabir ("know" was a Pidgin language used as a Lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from A mixed language is a Language that arises through the fusion of two source languages normally in situations of thorough Bilingualism. The metaphor of a trading zone is being applied to collaborations in Science and Technology. Béarlachas is an Irish word used to describe a variety of Irish language perceived by users of the term to be excessively influenced by English. Chinook Jargon originated as a Pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread quickly up the West Coast from modern Oregon to the regions now A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade The Power of Babel: The Natural History of Language. Random House Group. ISBN 0-06-052085-X.  
• Sebba, Mark (1997). Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-63024-6.  
• Kaufman, Terrence (1988), written at Berkely, Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics (first ed. Terrence Kaufman is an American linguist specializing in documentation of Unwritten languages Mesoamerican Historical linguistics and ), University of California Press
• Todd, Loreto (1990), Pidgins and Creoles, Routledge, ISBN 0415053110