Pidgins and Creoles

Pidgins and Creoles

A pidgin is a contact language that developed in a situation where speakers of different languages need a language to communicate.

A pidgin becomes a creole when it is adopted as the native language of a speech community.

Creoles in the Caribbean

Superstrate and substrate languages

Superstrate language

Provides the bulk of the vocabulary and is more prestigeous. (also called the ‘lexifier language’)

Substrate languages

Provide a few words but may have significant influence on the grammatical structure.

Pidgin and creole studies

Pidgin and creole languages have been studied extensively in linguistics:

1.Sociolinguistic aspects2.Grammaticalization3.The innateness hypothesis

Butler English

Butler English is a pidgin language spoken in India. The language emerged when Indian servants had to find a way to communicate with their English masters. It is still spoken in hotels, clubs, and households.

Butler English

1. Omission of grammatical morphemes

(1) Because ball is going nearly 200 yards. (2) Members hitting ball.

2. No inflectional morphology

(1) two spoon coffee (2) Master like it.

Butler English

3. Me vs. I

Me not drinking madam

4. Extensive use of progressive verb forms

and putting masala and

5. No copula

That the garden.

Butler English

6. Negation without auxiliary

then I not worry No water add.

7. ‘No’ (or ‘eh’) is used as a general tag-question

English-speaking sabih is all gone, no? He nice, eh?

PNG - Tok Pisin

Melanesian Pidgin

Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea

Bislama Vanuatu

Pijin Solomon Islands

Papua New Guinea

Independence

1975

Tok Pisin Newspaper

Wantok

Papua New Guinea

Urban centers

Creolisation

In urban centers, the children of mixed couples

learn Tok Pisin as their first language.

Thus, Tok Pisin is changing from an ‘extended

pidgin’ to a creole language.

Tok Pisin - Vocabulary

spak (‘spark’) = drunk

nogut (‘no good’) = bad

baimbai (‘by and by’) = soon

sekan (‘shake hands’) = to make peace

kilim (‘kill him’) = to kill /hit /beat

pisin (‘pigeon’) = bird / pidgin

gras (‘grass’) = gras /hair /fur

Tok Pisin – Word Formation

gras = gras/hair/fur

mausgras = moustache

gras bilong hed = hair‘grass belong head’

gras belong fes = beard‘grass belong face

gras belong pisin = feathers‘grass belong bird’

gras antap long ai = eyebrow ‘grass on top of long eye’

Tok Pisin – Word Formation

man bilong save > saveman ‘expert’‘man belong know’

Tok Pisin - Vocabulary

Tolai

lapun oldkumul bird of paradisepalai lizard

Malay

binatang insectlombo chillisayor vegetable leaf

Tok Pisin - Vocabulary

German

gumi rubberbeten prayraus get outbros chest

Tok Pisin

PNG - Tok Pisin

Melanesian Pidgin

Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea

Bislama Vanuatu

Pijin Solomon Islands

Tok Pisin

Superstrate language:English

Substrate language:Austronesian and Papuan languages

Tok Pisin Vocabulary

The bulk of the vocabulary comes from English (i.e. the superstrate language).

In addition, Tok Pisin includes words from various Austronesian and Papuan languages (e.g. Tolai, Malay).

Finally, Tok Pisin includes some words of German origin (e.g. gumi, beten, raus)

Tok Pisin – Word Formation

mausgras = moustache

gras = gras/hair/fur

gras bilong hed = hair‘grass belong head’

gras belong fes = beard‘grass belong face

gras antap long ai = eyebrow ‘grass on top of long eye’

Plural marker

(2) SG PLyu yu-pela bik haus bik-pela haus

(1) nil nil ‘spines’needle needle

(3) SG PLman ol man

-pela ‘fellow’

ol ‘all’

Pronouns

yu you SG

yutupela you two DUAL

yutripela you three TRIAL

yupela you all PL

em he / she / it SUBJhim / her / it OBJ

Causative/transitive marker

(1) Em i rit ‘He is reading.’

Em i ritim buk ‘He’s reading a book.’

make him > makimboil him > tellim

(2) Wara i boil pinis ‘The water has boiled.’

Meri i boilim wara pinis ‘The woman has boiled

the water.’

(3) Bai mi rait. ‘I’ll write.’

Bai i raitim pas. ‘I’ll write a letter.’

Predicative Marker

(1) a. mi kam ‘I come’

b. yu kam ‘You come’

c. em i kam ‘He/she comes’

d. Tom i wok ‘Tom works’

(2) The man, he talked to the woman.

Qustion Words

Tok Pisin

wanem ‘what name’ = ‘what/which’husat ‘who’s that’ = ‘who’

Guyanese Creole

wisaid ‘which side’ = ‘where’ wa mek ‘what makes’ = ‘why’

Cameroon Creole

wetin ‘what thing’ = ‘what’

Word Order

(1) mi kukim rais.I cook rice‘I cooked the rice.’

Complex Sentences

(1) Mi no save. Ol I wokim dispela haus.

I don’t know (that) they work in this house.

(2) Mi no save olsem ol i wokim dispela haus.

‘I didn’t know that they built this house.’

Relative clauses

(1) Stereo ia mitla putim lo kout ia, em no lukim.

‘The stereo which we put in the coat he didn’t

see.’

(2) ia: here > the > REL

(3) [[tree] here] [that has leaves] here]]

Verb Phrase in Krio

a bin rait ‘I wrote’

a de rait ‘I am writing’

a bin de rait ‘I was writing’

a don rait ‘I have written’

a bin don rait ‘I had written’

a bin don de rait ‘I had been writing’

Verb Phrase in Krio

bin = PASTde = PROGRESSIVEdon = PERFECT

Future

(1) em bai kamHe/she will come

‘He/she will come’

bai ‘by and by’

Past

(1) Em bin tokHe/she PAST say‘He/she said …

Bin ‛been’

Immediate Future

(1) em i laik go long gaden(S)he P is about to go to the garden‘He/she is about to go to the garden.’

laik ‛like’

Perfect

(1) mi kukim pinisI cook COMPLETE‘I have cooked it.’

pinis ‛finish’

Habitual marker

(1) Miplea sa harim ol gan i pairap.We HAB hear PL gun P fire‘We heard the guns firing.’

sa ‛save’ > ‛know’ > Habitual

Continuous marker

(1) ol i wokabout i stap.They P walk CONT‘They were walking.’

i stap ???

How does a pidgin language develop grammatical expressions?

What drives the process of creolisation?

The Bioprogram Hypothesis

The human species comes equipped… with the capacity to reconstitute language itself - should the normal generation-to-generation transmission of input data be inserted or distorted by extralinguistic forces.

(Muysken & Bickerton 1988)

Grammaticalization

Source Target: AUX

go (motion) gonna

will (intention) will

have (possession) have

Grammaticalization

Source Target: P

during (verb) during

in front of (PP) in front of

a-gone (PRE-verb) ago

Grammaticalization

Source Target: CONJ

by cause (PP) because

DEM while SUB while

given given

Grammaticalization

Source Target: PRO/ART

some body (NP) somebody

one (numeral) the one

one (numeral) a

Grammaticalization

Source Target: Bound

NOUN -ly

NOUN -hood

did -ed

Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization is cross-linguistically

so pervasive that some linguists

suggested that all grammatical

expressions are eventually derived from a

lexical source.

Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization is of central signifiance for

the theory of language:

1.Challenges rigid division between lexicon

and grammar.

1.Challenges the assumption that grammatical

categories have clear-cut boundaries.

1.Suggests that grammar is dynamic and

emergent.

African American English

African American English

The origin of AAE

1. Pidgin/creole

2. Second language of a particular variety of English spoken in the South.

The African Substratum Hypothesis

Since the first slaves spoke a variety of

African languages and since they had only

little contact with their white masters, they

used a simplified version of English with

elements of their native language as a lingua

france. AAE developed from this early

pidgin/creole language.

The English Origin Hypothesis

When the first African slaves where brought to America, they gave up their African languages and learned the English variety that was spoken at that time in the south. According to this hypothesis, AAE shows many linguistic features of this substandard variety of southern American English, which explains why AAE and the southern variety of white American English are relatively similar.

African American English

Until the beginning

of the 20th century,

90% of all African

American lived in

the South, mainly in

rural areas.

African American English

Today, more than 60% of all African Americans live in the non-South, mainly in urban centers.

LSA resolution

The variety known as "Ebonics," "African American Vernacular English" (AAVE), and "Vernacular Black English" and by other names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systems--spoken, signed, and written -- are fundamentally regular. … Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," "lazy," "defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English" are incorrect and demeaning.

LSA resolution

As affirmed in the LSA Statement of Language Rights (June l996), there are individual and group benefits to maintaining vernacular speech varieties and there are scientific and human advantages to linguistic diversity. For those living in the United States there are also benefits in acquiring Standard English and resources should be made available to all who aspire the mastery of Standard English. The Oakland School Board's commitment to helping students master Standard English is commendable.

Phonology - AAE

(1) [wes said] ‘west side’[kol k@ts] ‘cold cuts’

(2) [brn maI h{n] ‘burned my hand’[mEs öp] ‘messed up’

(3) [het@d] ‘hated’[SaUt@d] ‘shouted’

Phonology - AAE

(3) [de] ‘they’[d@] ‘the’[d{t] ‘that’

(4) [nöfn] ‘nothing’[Of@r]

‘author’[rUf] ‘Ruth’[saUf] ‘south’

Phonology - AAE

(5) [hEp] ‘help’

[ro] ‘roll’

[skuw] ‘school’

[fUbOw] ‘football’

(6) [{ks] ‘ask’[gr{ps] ‘grasp’

Agreement - AAE

(1) He need to get a book from the shelf.She want us to pass the papers to the front.

Genitive - AAE

(1) The dog tail was wagging.The man hat was old.

Copula deletion - AAE

(1) That my Ø bike.The coffee Ø cold.He Ø all right.

Habitual ‚be‘ - AAE

(1) Do they be playing all day?Yeah, the boys do be messin’ around a lot.I see her when I be on my way to school.The coffee be cold.

(2) a. The coffee cold.b. The coffee be cold.

(3) *The coffee be cold right now.

Perfective ‚done‘ - AAE

(1) She done did it.They done used all the good ones.They done go.

Negative inversion - AAE

(1) Can’t nobody beat’em.(2) Don’t nobody say nothin’ to dem peoples!(3) Wasn’t nobody in there but em an’ him.(4) Ain’t no white cop gonna put his hands on

me.

Double negation - AAE

(2) I ain’t go yesterday.I didn’t have no lunch.He don’t never go nowhere.

This is the end.