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Overview

Lingua Franca

Pidgins and creoles – Wardhaugh (2006)

Mixed languages – Meakins (2013)

Linguistic and educational aspects of Tok Pisin – Siegel (2009)

Origin of AAVE – Rickford (1998)

Discussion

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Lingua Franca

‘A language which is used habitually

by people whose mother tongues are

different in order to facilitate

communication between them.’

(UNESCO)

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Lingua Franca

Population migration (forced or

voluntary)

For the purpose of trade

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Lingua Franca (Samarin, 1968)

Trade language (e.g., Swahili in East Africa)

Contact language (e.g., Greek koiné in the Ancient World)

International language (e.g., English in our contemporary world)

Auxiliary language (e.g., Esperanto)

Mixed language (e.g., Michif)

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The Spread of Pidgins & Creoles

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APICS

http://apics-online.info/

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Pidgins

A pidgin is a language with no

native speakers: it is no one’s first

language.

It is a contact language: it is the

product of a multilingual situation.

It is an improvised simple

language system for

communication purposes.

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Pidginization (Winnom, 1971)

The process of pidginization

requires a situation that involves at

least three languages.

One language is clearly dominant

over the others.

If only two languages are involved,

there is likely to be a direct

struggle for dominance.

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Pidginization (Winnom, 1971)

The speakers of the two (or more)

inferior languages play a critical role

in the development of a pidgin.

They must not only speak to those

who are in the dominant position,

but they must also speak to each

other.

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Pidginization

A pidgin arises from the simplification

of a language when that language

comes to dominate groups of

speakers separated from each other

by language differences.

No group learns the native language

of any other group for social reasons

that may include lack of trust or of

close contact (Holm, 1988).

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Creole

In contrast to a pidgin, a creole is

often defined as a pidgin that has

become the first language of a

new generation of speakers.

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Creole (Aitchison,1994)

‘Creoles arise when pidgins

become mother tongues.’

A creole, therefore, is a ‘normal’

language in almost every sense.

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Creole (Holmes, 1992)

‘A creole is a pidgin which has

expanded in structure and vocabulary

to express the range of meanings and

serve the range of functions required

of a first language.’

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Pidginization vs. Creolization

Involves

simplification and

reduction in

morphology and

syntax, tolerance of

phonological

variation.

No morphophonemic

variation

Involves expansion

of the morphology

and syntax, and

regularization of the

phonology.

Morphophonemic

variations (English

plural in cats, dogs

and boxes)

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Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin exists as both pidgins

and creoles.

It has speakers who use the

language only as second

languages in an expanded form

and also speakers for whom Tok

Pisin is first languages.

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Features of Pidgins–Creoles

Fewer and less complicated sounds;

Tok Pisin makes no contrast

between it and eat, or fin and pin).

Lack of inflection in nouns,

pronouns, verbs, and adjectives is

likely. In Tok Pisin pronouns are not

distinguished by case (me is either ‘I’

or ‘me’).

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Features of Pidgins–Creoles

The vocabulary of a pidgin or a

creole has a great many

similarities to that of the standard

language with which it is

associated.

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Features of Pidgins–Creoles

The vocabulary is limited.

Phonological and morphological

simplification often leads to words

assuming somewhat different

shapes (In Tok Pisin ‘hair’ is gras

bilong het, ‘beard’ is gras bilong

fes).

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Pidgin to Creole

Not every pidgin eventually

becomes a creole, i.e., undergoes

the process of creolization.

In fact, very few do.

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Pidgin to Creole

Most pidgins are lingua francas,

existing to meet temporary local

needs.

If a pidgin is no longer needed, it

dies out.

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Pidgin to Creole

Creolization occurs only when a

pidgin for some reason becomes

the variety of language that children

must use in situations in which use

of a ‘full’ language is effectively

denied them.

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Decreolization

When a Creole comes in contact

with the standard language, it can

be influenced by the standard

language and comes to resemble

the standard language.

Shift from basilect to acrolect.

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Mixed Languages

G(rammar)-L(exicon) mixed

languages

The result of the fusion of two

identifiable source languages.

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Documented Examples

Angloromani

Ma'à

Bilinguial Navajo

Media Lengua

Old Helsinki Slang

Michif

Light Warlpiri

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Degrees and Types of Mixing

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Features of Mixed Languages

Emerge as expression of identity

rather than as a result of

communicative needs.

They have only two clear and often

equal parents.

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Origin of Mixed Languages

Unidirectional approaches

- Borrowing

- Code-switching (insertional)

- Relexification

- Paralexification

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Origin of Mixed Languages

Fusion

- Intertwining theory

- Language competition

- Center of gravity Hypothesis

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Insertional CS Matrix Language Turnover Hypothesis

classic code-switching

composite code-switching: The participating languages begin to converge (Matrix Language loses its undisputed role and the weaker language gains strength).

The convergence results in a mixed language stage.

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Relexification

All the present European-language-

based pidgins and creoles derive

from a single source (Sabir)

In the 15th and 16th centuries the

Portuguese relexified this language

(introduced their own vocabulary into

its grammatical structure)

A Portuguese-based pidgin was used

as the widespread trade language.

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Relexification

Later, this pidgin was in turn

relexified into pidginized French,

English, and Spanish.

In each case the underlying

grammatical structure remained

largely unaffected, but a massive

shift occurred in vocabulary.

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Paralexification

The existence of two lexicon in

parallel.

One language is entirely intact in its

grammar and lexicon.

The other language provides a

substantial reservoir of lexical material

to be inserted in the dominant

language’s grammatical frame.

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Intertwining Theory

Combination rather than replacement is

the central process.

A new language is created in the

intertwining of structure and vocabulary.

Free lexical morphemes come from one

language and the bound grammatical

morphemes from the other.

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Language Competition

Internally and externally motivated

language change.

The new language is a replication

resulted from the competition

between features in the source

languages.

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Center of Gravity

Concerned with NP-VP splits rather

than grammar-lexicon mixes.

The typology of the ancestry language

affects the nature of the split, and the

way in which this ancestry language

shifts to an introduced language via a

period of code-switching.

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Was AAVE Once a Creole?

Copula Absence

1. Socio-historical conditions

(suitable for pidginization and/or

creolization)

2. Historical attestations (literary

texts; ex-slave narratives and

recordings)

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Was AAVE Once a Creole?

3. Diaspora recordings (Samaná,

Liberian Settler, African Nova

Scotian English)

4. Creole similarities (between AAVE

and Caribbean creoles, Gullah,

Hawaiian, etc.)

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Was AAVE Once a Creole?

5. African language similarities

(between AAVE and West African

varieties)

6. English dialect differences

(between AAVE and British/White

American dialects)

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Was AAVE Once a Creole?

7. Age group comparisons (across

different generations of AAVE

speakers)

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Results

A significant number of the Africans

who came to the United States

between the seventeenth and

nineteenth centuries went through

processes of pidginization,

creolization and (maybe)

decreolization in acquiring English.

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Criticism

Dialectologists position:

The Africans who came to the United States learned the English of British and other immigrants fairly rapidly and directly, without an intervening pidgin or creole stage (Johnson,1930; Brooks,1935; McDavid,1965; Davis,1969, 1970; Poplack and Sankoff,1987).

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Was AAVE Once a Creole?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvu

WSJI87r8&list=PL38B25AE3ADF2D7E

B

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If someone told you that pidginized

varieties of a language are ‘corrupt’

and ‘ungrammatical,’ and indicated that

their speakers are either ‘lazy’ or

‘inferior’, how might you try to show

that person how wrong he or she is?

What kinds of evidence would you

use?

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Discussion

Are mixed languages autonomous

language systems? i.e. Do they

have the ability to function as a

stand alone linguistic entity?

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Selected References

Meakins, F. (2013). Mixed languages. In Peter Bakker and Yaron Matras (Ed.), Contact languages: a comprehensive guide (pp. 159-228) Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.

Rickford, J. R. (1997). The creole origins of African American Vernacular English: Evidence from copula absence. London, UK: Routledge.

Siegel, J. (2011). Linguistic and educational aspect of Tok Pisin. In Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski (Eds.), The New Sociolinguistics Reader. UK: Palgrave.

Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

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