Apidgin[1][2][3]/ˈpɪdʒɪn/, orpidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form ofcontact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have alanguage in common: typically, itsvocabulary andgrammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. It is most commonly employed in situations such astrade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups).
Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin is not thenative language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language.[4][5]
A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or body language from a multitude of languages as well asonomatopoeia. As thelexicon of any pidgin will be limited to core vocabulary, words with only a specific meaning in thelexifier language may acquire a completely new (or additional) meaning in the pidgin.[citation needed]
Pidgins have historically been considered a form ofpatois, unsophisticated simplified versions of their lexifiers, and as such usually have lowprestige with respect to other languages.[6] However, not all simplified or "unsophisticated" forms of a language are pidgins. Each pidgin has its own norms of usage which must be learned for proficiency in the pidgin.[7]
A pidgin differs from acreole, which is thefirst language of a speech community ofnative speakers that at one point arose from a pidgin. Unlike pidgins, creoles have fully developed vocabulary and patterned grammar.[citation needed] Most linguists[according to whom?] believe that a creole develops through a process ofnativization of a pidgin when children of speakers of an acquired pidgin learn it and use it as their native language.[citation needed]
Pidgin derives from aChinese pronunciation of the English wordbusiness, and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of theOxford English Dictionary mean "business; an action, occupation, or affair" (the earliest being from 1807). The termpidgin English ('business English'), first attested in 1855, shows the term in transition to referring to language, and by the 1860s the termpidgin alone could refer to Pidgin English. The term came to be used in a more general linguistic sense to refer to any simplified language by the late 19th century.[8][9]
The wordpidgin, formerly also spelledpigion,[9] was first applied toChinese Pidgin English, but was later generalized to refer to any pidgin.[11]Pidgin may also be used as the specific name for local pidgins orcreoles, in places where they are spoken. For example, the name of the creole languageTok Pisin derives from the English wordstalk pidgin. Its speakers usually refer to it simply as "pidgin" when speaking English.[12][13] Likewise,Hawaiian Creole English is commonly referred to by its speakers as "Pidgin".
The termjargon has also been used to refer to pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins, such asChinook Jargon. In this context, linguists today usejargon to denote a particularly rudimentary type of pidgin;[14] however, this usage is rather rare, and the termjargon most often means the specialized vocabulary of some profession.
Pidgins may start out as or becometrade languages, such asTok Pisin. Trade languages can eventually evolve into fully developed languages in their own right, such asSwahili, distinct from the languages they were originally influenced by. Trade languages and pidgins can also influence an established language'svernacular, especially amongst people who are directly involved in a trade where that pidgin is commonly used, which can alternatively result in aregional dialect being developed.[citation needed]
Pidgins are usually less morphologically complex but more syntactically rigid than other languages, and usually have fewer morphosyntactic irregularities than other languages.
Lack ofgrammatical gender ornumber, commonly supplanted byreduplication to representplurals andsuperlatives, and other parts of speech that represent the concept being increased and clear indication of the gender of animated objects.
The initial development 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, accessibleinterlanguage
Keith Whinnom (inHymes (1971)) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others.
Linguists sometimes posit that pidgins can becomecreole languages when a generation of children learn a pidgin as their first language,[15]a process that regularizes speaker-dependent variation in grammar. Creoles can then replace the existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community (such as theChavacano language in thePhilippines,Krio inSierra Leone, andTok Pisin inPapua New Guinea). However, not all pidgins become creole languages; a pidgin may die out before this phase would occur (e.g. theMediterranean Lingua Franca).
Other scholars, such asSalikoko 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. 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, oftenindentured servants whose language would be far from the standard in the first place, interacted extensively with non-Europeanslaves, absorbing certain words and features from the slaves' non-European native languages, resulting in a heavilybasilectalized version of the original language. 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.[16]
^Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (2008)."The study of pidgin and creole languages"(PDF). In Arends, Jacques; Muijsken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (eds.).Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. John Benjamins. pp. 3–14.
^Smith, Geoff P.Growing Up with Tok Pisin: Contact, creolization, and change in Papua New Guinea's national language. London: Battlebridge. 2002. p. 4.
^Thus the published court reports of Papua New Guinea refer to Tok Pisin as "Pidgin": see for exampleSchubert v The State [1979] PNGLR 66.
^For example:Campbell, John Howland;Schopf, J. William, eds. (1994).Creative Evolution. Life Science Series. Contributor:University of California, Los Angeles. IGPP Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 81.ISBN9780867209617. Retrieved2014-04-20.[...] the children of pidgin-speaking parents face a big problem, because pidgins are so rudimentary and inexpressive, poorly capable of expressing the nuances of a full range of human emotions and life situations. The first generation of such children spontaneously develops a pidgin into a more complex language termed a creole. [...] [T]he evolution of a pidgin into a creole is unconscious and spontaneous.
Bakker, Peter (1994), "Pidgins", in Arends, Jacques; Muijsken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (eds.),Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction, John Benjamins, pp. 26–39
Hymes, Dell (1971),Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-07833-4
