1. Languages in Contact contact languages
Languages that develop as a result of contact between other languages
lingua franca, jargon, koine, pidgin, creole,constructed languages
South East Asia – several examples

2. PIDGIN Used for communication by non-native speakers
Always a second language (restricted input)
Develop rapidly (and may die rapidly )
Hundreds known – others not recorded

3. Features Simplified lexis, phonology, syntax, morphology
Example – Solomon Islands Pidgin
Mifela I-go go long solwater, lukoutim fish, now win I-kum. Now mifela I-go alabout long kinu now bigfela win I-kum now, mifela I-fafasi allabout rong tumus.

4. Example (?) – Korean Bamboo English
Taksan years ago, skoshi Cinderella-san lived in hootchie with sisters. Poor little Cinderella-san ketchee no fun, have no social life. Aways washee-washee, scrubee- scrubee, make chop-chop. One day Cinderella-san ketchee post cardo from Seoul.

5. Superstrate and substrate
Superstrate language provides vocabulary – socially dominant
may be relexified
Substrate languages may provide structure
(structure may also reflect universal features)

6. Continued
Principal superstrate languages are English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, also Juba Arabic
Occasional equal languages -- Russonorsk

7. Background Most Pidgins are in Caribbean and Pacific
Also found in North America, Arctic, West Africa
associated with any contact situation --trade, slavery, plantations

8. Creoles A pidgin taught to children
Learnt as first language (with restricted input)
Rapid development
Distinction between pidgins and creoles not always clear
Pidgin and creole variants of same language may coexist

9. Example – Tok Pisin
Dispela man i- stap naboutlong ples matmat na i kam. Em I save slip long ples matmat. Na I no gat wanpela man inap long pasim em. Sen ti I no inap. Plenti taim ol i bin pasim em long hankap na sen.

10. Continued
More complex than pidgins but less so than superstrate and substrate languages
Distinct languages, although speakers may not be aware of this
Attitudes to Creoles vary – existence may be denied

11. Continued
Often despised, sometimes source of identity, occasionally national status
post-creole continuum -creole is absorbed by superstrate language
In Caribbean may be several ways of saying one sentence

12. Creolisation
Some languages may be simplified when learnt as a second languages
Varieties of Malay – bazaar/market Malay, Jakarta Malay
Afrikaans -- simplified version of Dutch in South Africa
Varieties of French in Indian Ocean

13. continued Also called semi-creoles or creoloids
Suggested not preceded by creoles
But maybe there was a brief period when a creole and before that a pidgin existed

14. continued Compare English with German and Dutch
Syntax and morphology much less complex
At some point was English creolised? –I.e. learnt as a second language

15. continued
Alternative explanation – Middle English ( ) is a post-creole developed from a creole which in turn developed from a pidgin
Very speculative

16. continued
Is it possible that languages may become creoles without going through a pidgin stage?

17. Features of pidgins and creoles
Pidgins & creoles have common features
limited morphology
loss of case
Loss of gender
Lexicalisation of gender
Questions marked by intonation or lexis

18. continued Absence of copula “to be” Preverbal negation No tones
But creoles are closer to other languages
More complex syntax and morphology
Expanded lexicon

19. Decreolisation Education in standard languages affects creoles
Assimilated by standard languages – become dialects
Post-creole continuum in transitional societies
Jamaica and Papua New Guinea – listen to Bob Marley and Panim Wok Band

20. example
Church Creole in Suriname – variety developed about 1780 for religious purposes – widely imitated
Belly – Sranan – bere -- CC – bele
Time te tem
Help helpi yepi

21. Recreolisation
Afro-Caribbeans in England – adopt features of patois – but is it really recreolisation?

22. Origins Monogenesis ? family tree model
Sabir -- Italian based trade language
Portuguese relexification
spread by traders and sailors
Further relexification

23. continued
Pidgins in West Africa (and then Caribbean) East Africa, India, Ceylon, S/SE Asia, Pacific, Arctic, N America
Evidence -- Widespread lexis – saber – sibi in Crioulo, sabe in Krio and Bislama, Save in Tok Pisin, sabiam in Kamtok

24. continued
BUT
Many pidgins and creoles that had nothing to do with Portuguese
Turku – Arabic pidgin around Lake Chad
Sudanese Creole (Juba) Arabic – LF Southern Sudan
Nubi Arabic Creole in Kenya and Uganda

25. continued
African slaves drafted into Egyptian army in Sudan – joined British army in East Africa
Numbers in Nubi Arabic Creole
Wai, tinin, talata, arba, khamsa, sita

26. Universlism each pidgin and creole develops independently
common features are the result of a bioprogram (Bickerton)
Human mind is universal – so are pidgins and creoles
Why not both?