Announcements
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Bender guest lecture POSTPONED till
March 9 (final day)
Today: Pidgins and Creoles
Friday 3/2: Historical Lx 1
Monday 3/5: Historical Lx 2
Wednesday 3/7: Final Exam Discussion
and Review
Friday 3/9: Computational Lx (Bender)
Today
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Language contact
Pidgins and creoles
Readings: 11.1-11.3
Language contact
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Situation in which groups of speakers of
different languages come into contact with
one another, e.g.,
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geography
conquest
trade
Language Contact--Outcomes
What happens when cultures with different languages
come into contact?
A. Widespread bilingualism (usually with codeswitching)
B. Selection of a lingua franca: Any language used to enable
communication between groups of people with differing native languages. (natural
or constructed languages)
Two possible strategies:
(1) Employ an already existing language
a. natural (e.g., Swahili, English)
b. artificial (e.g., Esperanto)
(2) Form new language…
Terminology
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Adstrates: languages in contact that have equal
prestige
Adstrate
English
Adstrate
Norse
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Superstrate: language of dominant group
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Lexifier language: the input language that provided most of
the basic vocabulary or lexicon. (aka "superstrate")
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Substrate: language of the less dominant or
subordinate group. Typically provides most of the
phonological, and usually, grammatical features.
Superstrate
English
Substrate
Native Am. Langs.
Pidgin
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One type of lingua franca. A language which arises to fulfill
restricted and ongoing needs for communication among
people who have no common language.
Often arises when there is a long-term need to communicate
(i.e., in trade/business)
e.g., Chinook Jargon
Not the primary language of their speakers (i.e., learned as
2nd lang)
Structural features of a PIDGIN
x no strict word order
 single set of pronouns
x no complex sentences
x no determiners
x no grammatical gender
x no inflectional morphology
 plurals: noun + 3rd person pronoun
Allows either word
order:
Mi bammy eat.
Mi eat bammy.
“I eat the cassava.”
Creole
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A language that comes about by prolonged use and
nativization, usually arising when parents transmit a pidgin to
their children, and the pidgin becomes the child's native
language. This language undergoes rapid expansion because
it must meet all the communicative needs of the native
speaker.
Often arises from a pidgin that is adopted as first/native
language
Structural differences: Ps vs. Cs
Pidgins
x
Creoles
tolerates extensive grammatical
variation
 single set of pronouns
x complex sentences
x no determiners
x no grammatical gender
x no inflectional morphology
 plurals: noun + 3rd person pronoun
 strict word order
 single set of pronouns
 complex sentences
 determiners
x no grammatical gender
 inflectional morphology
 plurals: noun + 3rd person pronoun
Jamaican Creole:
only one word order is allowed:
Mi a-go tel shi se
mi waa nyam di bammy.
1sg FUT tell 3sg COMP 1sg want eat DET cassava.
“I will tell her that I want to eat the cassava.”
Emergence of Pidgins and Creoles
Arises from:
Characteristics:
PIDGIN
sudden
disruption
CREOLE
accelerated
language change
language contact
(2 or more)
parental
transmission
need is long-term
but restricted
need is
comprehensive
not a first language
first language
no frills
fully developed
system
stable
1 + 1 = 3??
chaotic structure
derivative
How have Pidgins and Creoles Gotten their
Names?
Chinese
location
Pidgin
type
English
lexifier
Cameroon Pidgin English (Cameroon, W. Africa)
Louisiana Creole French (Louisiana, USA)
Berbice Creole Dutch (Berbice County, Guyana)
Nauru Chinese Pidgin English (Nauru, New Zealand)
Bombay Creole Portuguese (Maharastra, India)
Jamaican Creole (Jamaica, West Indies)
Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea)
Sranan (Suriname)
Afrikaans (South Africa)
Samaná (Dominican Republic)
Bislama (Vanuatu)
Kreyól (Haiti)
Distribution of Lexifier Languages
Q: How many creole languages are there in the world?
A: ~100 (spoken natively by ~6 million people)
Q: What languages have combined to form the superstrate for
creole languages in the world?
A:
English--35
African languages--17 French--15
Portuguese--14
Spanish--7
German--6
Amerindian--6
Dutch--5
Arabic--4
Italian--3
Russian--2
Jamaican Creole Sociolinguistics
dialects form a “post-creole continuum”:
phonology, morphology,
basilect: A fi-mi buk dat.
A truu in a taak.
mesolect 1: A mi buk dat.
A trut shi taakin.
mesolect 2:
Is trut shi taakin.
lexicon, and syntax
phonology only
Is my book dat.
acrolect: That's my book.
A = Copula verb “to be”
She's telling the truth.
Continuum examples
Bob Marley, “Real Situation”
Lieutenant Stitchie, “The Cab”
Check out the real situation
Slam bam, tank yu maam
Nation war against nation
Cab, an a di nuu yut-dem a demand a gran
slam
Where did it all begin
Where will it end
Well it seems like total destruction
No real solution
And there ain’t no use
No one can stop them now
There ain’t no use
Nobody can stop us now
Give them an inch...
Stitchie and di girl-dem cab service
Girl pickni bruok out ina dis
Listen dis, Hiir mi nuo, come
Mi cab a-come, sii mi cab a-come bwai
Han go dung a mek i cab slow dung
Mi cab a-come, sii mi cab a-come close
An di cyab-man hafi draw dung
Drive mi guud ya, man
How yu a drive mi so long…
Continuum examples
Bob Marley, “Real Situation”
Lieutenant Stitchie, “The Cab”
Check out the real situation
Slam bam, tank yu maam
Nation warø against nation
Cab, an a di nuu yut-dem a demand a gran
slam
Where did it all begin
Where will it end
Well it seems like total destruction
No real solution
And there ain’t no use
No one can stop them now
There ain’t no use
Nobody can stop us now
Give them an inch...
Stitchie and di girl-dem cab service
Girl pickni bruok out ina dis
Listen dis, Hiir mi nuo, come
Mi cab a-come, sii mi cab a-come bwai
Han go dung a mek i cab slow dung
Mi cab a-come, sii mi cab a-come close
An di cyab-man hafi draw dung
Drive mi guud ya, man
How yu a drive mi so long…