1. Languages in Contact: Pidgins & Creoles
LCS D57
Michael Hall

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

3. 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:
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)

4. 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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

14. 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?

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

16. 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?

17. References and further exploration
Wardhaugh & Fuller (2015) Ch 5
Holmes (2013) Ch 4
Meyerhoff (2010) Ch 11 pp
About World Languages: Tok Pisin (
Tok pisin page on Univ Hawaii website l