pidgin - Creation of pidgins, Common traits among pidgins, Etymology, History

A language with a highly simplified grammar and vocabulary, the native language of no one, which develops when people who lack a common language attempt to communicate. Pidgins flourish in areas of trade contact, and were particularly common in the East and West Indies, Africa, and the Americas, based on English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, during the days of colonial exploration. Some pidgins have developed into important systems of communication, such as Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, which is used on the radio and in the press. Pidgins become creoles when they are used by people as a mother-tongue.

Not to be confused with pigeon, a type of bird. Not to be confused with Pidgin Architectural Journal.

A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have simple grammars and few synonyms, serving as auxiliary contact languages.

Creation of pidgins

The creation 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, accessible interlanguage

Also, Keith Whinnom (in Hymes 1971) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others.

Pidgins become creole languages when a generation whose parents speak pidgin to each other teach it to their children as their first language. However, pidgins do not always become creoles — they can die out or become obsolete.

Certain expressions survive from Chinglish, a pidgin formerly spoken in Southeast Asia.

Spanglish, commonly believed to be a pidgin of Spanish and English is actually not a pidgin. So is Goleta English, a combined Spanish and English code-switch as it is spoken by Puerto Ricans, either occasionally when in the island, or daily as immigrants in the United States.

Fanagalo is a Southern African pidgin used to communicate among speakers of many different languages, primarily while underground in the country's gold mines.

Caribbean pidgins

Caribbean pidgins are the result of colonialism. This led to the development of pidgins. Three examples of pidgins in this region include Haitian Kreyol, Jamaican Patois, and Papiamento, which is widely spoken in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles.

Pacific pidgins

The Melanesian pidgins may have originated off their home islands, in the 19th century when the islanders were abducted for indentured labour.

Several expressions commonly used to exemplify Melanesian pidgins have no known basis in actual use.

The best-known pidgin used in America is the now creolized Hawaiian Pidgin where locals mixed the traditional dialect of Hawaiian with English, Japanese, Portuguese, and other languages of immigrants of Hawaii and Pacific traders.

One of the most famous pidgins in the world is Pitcairnese, spoken mainly on Pitcairn Island, but also on Norfolk Island, an Australian territory. Another well-known pidgin is Bislama of Vanuatu, based on English but incorporating Malay, Chinese, and Portuguese words. The monogenetic theory of pidgins, advanced by Hugo Schuchardt, theorizes that a common origin for most pidgins and creoles exists in the form of Sabir.

Sabir

Sabir was a common pidgin in the Southwestern ports of the Mediterranean. This would explain similarities in pidgins and creoles as separated as Papiamento, Tok Pisin, Chinese English Pidgin and others. The word for "small" is similar to Portuguese pequeno and became pikinini in pidgins.

Common traits among pidgins

Since a Pidgin strives to be a simple and effective form of communication, the grammar, phonology, et cetera, are as simple as possible, and usually consist of:

A Subject-Verb-Object word order in a sentence No codas within syllables (Syllables consist of a vowel, with an optional initial consonant) Basic vowels, like /a/ /i/ /u/ /e/ /o/ Separate words that indicate tense, usually before the verb Words are repeated twice to represent plurals, superlatives, and other parts of speech that represent the concept being increased

Etymology

The origin of the word "Pidgin" is not clear. The Chinese name for Pidgin, 洋涇濱, originated from the name of a river that lay along the boundary of French and British-leased land in Shanghai.

That name is retained in the form Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea and Pijin Blong Solomon (Solomon Islands pidgin).

Pidgin English was the name given to a Chinese-English-Portuguese pidgin used for commerce in Canton during the 18th and 19th centuries.

History

Pidgin English from "God's Chinese Son," written by Jonathan Spence

http://www.hkfilm.net/pidgin.txt

Various pidgins

Chinook Jargon is a trade pidgin or creole language used in the Pacific Northwest; Russenorsk was a combined Russian and Norwegian pidgin; Helsinki slang originated as a pidgin of Finnish, Swedish and Russian in city of Helsinki; Fanakalo is a South African mine pidgin; Tsotsitaal is another South African pidgin, prevalent in Gauteng; 'Rinkeby Swedish' is a Swedish pidgin mainly used in the working-class suburbs by non-Nordic immigrants; 'Cocoliche' is an Italian-Spanish pidgin that was spoken by Italian immigrants in Argentina between 1880-1950 West African Pidgin English originated in the 17th century when English traders begun trading with various West African tribes. West African pidgin english includes Gambian Pidgin English (Aku), Sierra Leone Pidgin English (Krio), Liberian Pidgin English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin English, and Cameroonian Pidgin English (Kamtok).