![]() ![]() ![]() It’s the result of the contact between at least two languages, with one of them having more prestige than the other one.įinally, creole languages, as their name indicates, are those that have developed organically from the colonies’ cultural mixture. In contrast, a pidgin language is a new linguistic variety that arises when two or more groups of speakers need to attain something immediately for example, a trade deal. Nowadays, English has taken that role on an international level. Until the 18 th Century, for example, Latin was the lingua franca for scientists and scholars. Before translators existed, this was possible thanks to linguae francae, pidgins and creole languages.Ī lingua franca is an already existing language which people from different linguistic backgrounds use to communicate. When a cultural exchange between two or more different cultures takes part, speakers need to find a way to communicate effectively. Keep on reading this post or click here to switch to the Spanish version of this article and find out about mixed languages and how they originated. How do you think they communicated with people from other lands? The answer is easy: they had to find linguistic solutions easy to understand for both parties. You would need to use a real map, ask around to find a hotel, choose a restaurant without reading Google reviews… Sounds tough, right? Well, centuries ago, when the first explorers and merchants sailed the seven seas, they didn’t have machine translation apps in their smartphones. Typical Pidgin-English pamphlet dropped over New Guinea during WW2.Imagine having to plan a trip without Internet. Touted as an ethnic identifier and point of pride by some, and as a progress-halting burden by others, these languages inspire no shortage of discussion. In Jamaica, Creole is an oft-discussed topic within government and education. On Nigerian college campuses, one can see signs banning the use of pidgin and read scholarly articles praising its merits. ![]() Jamaica, Haiti, and Hawaii are just a few examples of former colonies that have adapted a Creole language into their cultures.Ĭreoles and pidgins have given rise to a good deal of controversy in modern times, both for linguistic and cultural reasons. ![]() Like pidgins, Creoles rely on a mixture of two parent languages, typically drawing most of their vocabularies from the dominant language and grammar from the subordinate. Eventually, if an idiom is “depidginized”, it becomes a Creole language, expanding into the general population of a country and acquiring native speakers as it is taught to the younger generations. Examples of pidgin languages exist in several African and South American countries. They arise out of necessity and survive so long as they are needed. Pidgin languages are nobody’s native tongues. The 19th century, however, saw an upswell in English-language education as pidgin came to be viewed as degrading. While a rudimentary sort of communication was necessary, Chinese merchants of the 17th and 18th centuries held the English language in low esteem and did not feel compelled to learn it fully. Allegedly, the name comes from the mispronunciation of the word “business” by those selfsame Mandarin speakers that introduced so many colorful phrases into everyday English. Pidgin languages – originally a business vernacular – are characterized by a limited vocabulary, simplified grammar and syntax, and an unfussy disregard for subject-verb agreement. The result was a pidgin language that would be the mercantile lingua franca for over two centuries. Beginning in the 17th century, as English merchants crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed upwards through the South China Sea, they met with their Asian counterparts and, out of necessity, developed a means of communication that melded English words with Chinese sentence structure. What do popular English colloquialisms like “long time no see”, “lose face”, and “no can do” have in common? Far from neologisms, these simple, staccato utterances all originated centuries ago as a means of facilitating trade between the English and Chinese. ![]()
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