INTRODUCTION
In this unit, you shall be taken through two special varieties of language, which evolve in situations where two or more languages are in contact for a period of time. In such situations, speakers of these languages need to communicate, but they do not share a common language/. In the process of trying to establish a social relation, a new language evolves which is plain and just basically for meeting the communicative needs of these speakers in a particular domain. Such languages, which evolve in contact situations includes Pidgin and Creole.
A pidgin does not have any group of native speakers. It is a creation of a particular circumstance and its use is limited to such circumstance. A Creole, on the other hand, is seen as an advanced Pidgin, which has grown to the level at which it has acquired native speakers. We shall be looking at the features of these two varieties and how they differ one from another.
3.1 Languages in Contact
It is a natural phenomenon for languages to be in contact, just as it is natural for man as a social being to interact. It is in the process of the interaction of speakers that languages come into contact. In a situation where speakers of two or more languages see the need to interact through speech and they could not, a new language may emerge, which will combine the forms and structures of the two languages. Such a new language usually emerges in trade contact situations. Such a language is usually simple and devoid of the complex nature of any of the languages that it arose from.
It is important that we study contact languages in order to deepen our knowledge of language change and contact. Our study of contact languages also helps us to understand how new languages expand, age and decay. Languages will not always remain at one level all through the period of their usage. The lexicon is expanded – old lexical items give way to new ones and entirely new ones are created. It is also a fact of language that when a group of people who posses more economic power live side-by-side with a weaker group, there is the tendency for the economically powerful group to dominate the weaker group, even linguistically. All these issues are important in discussing contact languages.
3.2 Pidgin
Pidgin is a new language, which develops in situations where speakers of different languages need to communicate but do not share a common language. One major characteristic of Pidgin is that it originally has no group of people who could call themselves its native speakers.
A Pidgin develops for some practical purpose, such as trading among groups of people who had a lot of social contacts, but who did not understand each other’s languages. Pidgins lack complex morphology and they have very limited vocabulary. For instance, English Pidgins lack inflectional suffixes such as plural, possessive and past tense. For instance, the expressions two cars and his father’s house, have plural and possessive nouns (cars – plural, father’s – possessive). However in the Nigerian Pidgin English, they would be expressed as two car and him papa house respectively. These forms have no obvious markers of plurality and possession.
The vocabulary of Pidgin comes mainly from one particular language, after which it is normally named. Such a language is called the ‘lexifier’ or the ‘superstrate’, while the other contact language that does not supply as much vocabulary as the lexifier is called the ‘substrate’ . Pidgin is totally stripped of everything except what is necessary for basic communication. It is important to note that Pidgins are natural and they developed through contact, they are deliberately invented. They are not artificial because they took after some existing languages.
A good example of English-based Pidgin is the Nigerian Pidgin English. It is widely spoken in the coastal towns of Delta and Rivers and Bayelsa States. It is also common in most major cities where there is a convergence of speakers of different Nigerian languages. Pidgins are restricted in their use - they are used only in situations where speakers have different languages and they cannot communicate without the use of a neutral language. They are also used when two speakers, one with little or no education and another highly educated have to communicate.
The historical explanations for the evolution of Pidgins see them as a product of European colonialism. The colonialists enslaved a group of speakers, shipped them to their non-native environment to work for them and in the process, these languages evolved. Some of these slaves were later shipped back home, but they have already brought with them this language. Naturally the European languages dominate as the superstrate, while the people’s languages became the substrate. Since a Pidgin developed to meet the communication needs of its speakers, ie, to talk about less topic (mainly trade and business), it may die as soon as the trade contact ceases. A lot of pidgins survived long enough to develop beyond trade jargons. They gained stability and entered into a process of linguistic and functional elaboration. They develop into a Creole, by having a group of speakers who now use it as their first language. In the next section, we shall discuss Creole, which is generally referred to as an ‘adult pidgin’ .
Pidgin is the home language of some urban dwellers. For example in Warri and other coastal cities and towns, Pidgin is the major means of communication. It is widely used in the markets and as a means of communication among speakers of low educational status.
3.3 Creole
A Creole, like a Pidgin, is a distinct language; but unlike it, it is the mother tongue of a community of speakers. It is not restricted in use and like any other language, it operates in its full range of functions, not restricted like a Pidgin. A Creole is an advanced or elaborated form of pidgin.
Creoles are distinguished synchronically by the fact that they retain signs of their Pidgin ancestry, such as virtual absence of both inflectional and highly transparent derivational process.
There is a continuum between Pidgin and Creole. Since Creoles developed from Pidgins, they exist most often in post-colonial areas, where they tend to be the vernacular of spontaneous daily use. They are typically related to one widely spoken language, and they are seen as a corruption of that language.
A Creole, though it has limited vocabulary, has mechanisms for vocabulary extension. Such mechanisms include borrowing and neologism. Unlike Pidgin, a Creole has a wider domain of use, since it has a group of native speakers. Some of the Creoles spoken across the world are Krio (Sierra Leone), Patwa (Jamaica), Gualdeloupean French Creole (in Guadeloupe), Hawaii Creole English (in Hawaii), Gullah, Toks Pisin (in Papua New Guinea), Bislama (in Vanuatu), Belizean Creole (in Belize) and so forth.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
i. Watch a play in pidgin. Identify some of the substrate used in the
conversation.
ii. Identify the differences in the Pidgin spoken by a Yoruba speaker
and an Igbo person.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Languages get into contact when speakers migrate from one area to another or when speakers interact through trade. When two languages are in contact, another variety may emerge. This is what happens in the case of Pidgin, which may later develop to a Creole, when it acquires a group of native speakers. The dominant language becomes the lexifier or superstrate that is, the language that supplies the majority of the items in the lexicon, while the other language becomes the substrate. Pidgin is not complex structurally because it is a language meant just for interaction. Most Pidgins evolved from colonialism.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have examined languages in contact – Pidgin and Creole. We observed that these languages evolve in trade situations between people who do not understand one another’s languages. Pidgins may die, when the trade relations cease. However, when it continues, then it may develop into a Creole, which is often called ‘adult pidgin’. Since Pidgin operates as a trade language, the vocabulary is limited. Though nowadays, Pidgins are used as lingua franca in linguistically
heterogeneous communities like Nigeria.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. What is Pidgin?
2. Identify some typical characteristics of Pidgin.
3. In what way is Pidgin different from Creole?
4. Explain how the Nigerian Pidgin English is related to standard English.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Elugbe, B. O. & Omamor, A.P. ( 2001). Nigerian Pidgin: Background
and Prospects. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Publishers.
Jowitt, D. (1981). Nigerian English Usage. Lagos: Longman.
Nichols, P. C. (1996). Pidgins and creoles. In: S.L. McKay & N.H. Hornberger. (Eds), Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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