Syarfuni, and Creole Languages

PIDGINS AND CREOLES LANGUAGES

Syarfuni1

ABSTRAK

A is language with no native speakers, it is not first language but it is a contact language creoles is a normal language in just about every sense. Creole has native speaker, each pidgin and Creole are well organizes of linguistic system, the sound of pidgin or creoles are likely to be a fewer and less complicated than those of related languages for example has only five basic vowels, Papia Kristang has seven basic vowel. The pidgin or have two theories polygenesis and relexification. The distributions of pidgin and Creole are in equatorial belt around the world, usually in place with easy success such as in the oceans and harbor.

Keywords: Pidgins, Creole, Language

1 Syarfuni, Dosen Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris – STKIP Bina Bangsa Getsempena, Jalan Tgk Chik Di Tiro, Peuniti, Banda Aceh, Telepon 0651-33427, Email: [email protected]

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 42

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

A. Introduction pidgins need three languages to form, with one Many languages in the world can (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over change language change happen in short the others. It is often posited that pidgins period. It caused by language contact among become creole languages when a generation society whom have languages themselves. The whose parents speak pidgin to each other teach pidgin emerges when the society uses the it to their children as their first language. language in the same place and with different Creoles can then replace the existing mix of mother tongue then when the pidgin used by languages to become the native language of a many people, these will be a creole. Before the community such as Krio in and 1930 pidgin and Creole were largely ignored Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea). However, by linguists, who regard them as “marginal not all pidgins become Creole languages; a languages” at best. But recent years the pidgin may die out before this phase would linguist have pay much attentions about pidgin occur. Other scholars, such as Salikoko and Creole, and this become very advantage Mufwene, argue that pidgins and creoles arise for learner who want to know deeply about independently under different circumstances, pidgin and creole. and that a pidgin need not always precede a Pidgin and creoles arise from basic creole nor a creole evolve from a pidgin. need that the people who speak different Pidgins. Mufwene emerged among trade language and have to find a common system of colonies among "users who preserved their communication in this chapter is concerning native vernaculars for their day-to-day about pidgin and creole definition that related interactions". to the process of them, linguistic characteristic, Creole is a ‘normal’ language in just geographical of pidgin and creole, theories of about every sense, like a normal language, a pidgin and some other that all explanations Creole has native speaker and no relationship here are very important to the reader who want to the usually standardized language with to know deeply about what pidgin and creole which it is associated. Usually, creole are. developed in settlement colonies in which B. Discussion speakers of a European language, often 1. Pidgin and Creole Definition indentured servants whose language would be A pidgin is language with no native far from the standard in the first place, speaker; it is no one’s first language but is interacted heavily with non-European slaves, contact language. A pidgin is sometime absorbing certain words and features from the regarded as reduced variety of normal slaves' non-European native languages, language with simplification of the grammar resulting in a heavily basilectalized version of and vocabulary of that language. According to the original language. These servants and Keith Whinnom in Hymes (1971) suggests that slaves would come to use the creole as an

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 43

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

everyday vernacular, rather than merely in those of responding standard language, for situations in which contact with a speaker of example Neo-Melanesian make use only five the superstrate was necessary. basic vowel and also has fewer consonant than The process of pidginization and English. No contrast between words like it and Creolization generally involve the eat or pin and fin or sip and ship. The simplification of language e.g. reduction of necessary vowel and consonant distinction morphology (word structure) and syntax (contrast) are not present. (grammatical structure), tolerance of 3. Geographical Distribution considerable phonological variation Pidgin and creoles languages are (pronunciation), reduction in number of distributed mainly in the equatorial belt around functions for which the pidgin is used and the world, and usually in place with easy to extensive borrowing of words from local access such as the oceans in the Caribbean and mother tongues. Whereas creolization involves around the north east coast of south America, expansion of morphology and syntax, around coast of Africa, particularly the west regularization of the phonology deliberate coast and across the Indians pacific. Their increase in member of function in language distributions appear to be fairly closely related that used, and development of a rational and to longstanding pattern of trade, including stable system for increasing vocabulary trade of slave. 2. Linguistic Characteristic Hancock (1997) list 127 pidgin and The linguistic characteristic of a pidgin and creoles language, there are thirty-five of these creole are difficult to resist the temptation to are described as being English-based, these compare with a standard language which is include such as Hawaiian Creole, Gullah or associated. In certain circumstances such as a sea islands Creole (spoken on the islands of comparison make be good sense, as a the coast of northern Florida, Georgia, and linguistic situation in Jamaica and Guyana but south of Carolina), Jamaican creole, Guyana it seem a little make sense as in Haiti, that creole, Krio, Sranan, and Djuka, Camaron some such comparison will be made but they pidgin language, Neo-Melanesian (Tok pisin), are not meant to be invidious to the pidgin Chinese pidgin language. Another fifteen are creole. Each pidgin and creole are a well- described as French-base, threre are Lusiana organized linguistic system and must be creole, Haitian creole, Seychelles creole, and treated as we cannot speak Neo-Melanesian. Mauritian creole. Fourteen other are listed as And need to simply English quite arbitrarily Portuguese there are Papiamentu, Guine that you will be virtually incomprehensible to creole, Sinegal creole, and Samaraccam. Seven those who actually do speak it, nor will you are Spanish-base e.g Cocoliche (spoken by comprehend them. The sounds of pidgin or Italian immigrants in Bunues Aires). Five are creoles are likely to be fewer and less Dutch-base e.g virgin island ducth creole complicated in their possible arrangement than (Negerholland) and Afrikaans (creolized in the

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 44

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages seventeenth century). Three are Italian-base used instead of "a" is because the word "um" e.g Asmara Pidgin (spoken in parts of in Portuguese has two meanings: "um" Ethiopia). Six are German-base e.g Yiddish translates to "one" and "a" in English. The way and Gastarbeister Deuctsch (spoken by some people use the phrase "No can" ("não pode") is of over million guest worker in west Germany Portuguese grammar, as well. In Portuguese, from turkey, Greece, Yogoslavia, Italy and the phrase "Você não pode fazer isso!" comes spain, and the rest of based on a variety of out in Pidgin as "You no can do dat!", and in other languages e.g Russsenock, ( a Russian- English as "You cannot do that!" Nerwegian contact language) Chinook jargon (contact language of pacific Northwest of Pidgin words derived from united stated and canada), Sango (used in are also seen in other parts of America. For central African Republic), Various pidginized example, the word "Haa?" is also used by forms of Swahili ( a Bantu language) used Chinese Americans outside of Hawaiʻi. The widely in east Africa and varieties of Hindi, meaning is "Excuse me?" or "What did you Bazaar Malay (a variety of Malay in say?". Another word is "chop suey", a popular widespread use through Malaysia and dish throughout America. In Hawaiʻi, it can Indonesia), and Arabic. also mean that someone is a variety of ethnicities. Another word in pidgin that was 3.1 Pidgin and Creole Languages of derived from the Chinese which is also seen in Hawaiian America is "lie dat", which means "like that" Pidgin and Creole Hawaiian originated but in it is pronounced "li'dat". as a form of communication used between Pidgin has distinct pronunciation English speaking residents and non-English differences from standard speaking immigrants in Hawaiʻi, which (SAE). Some key differences include the influenced by many languages, including following: Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Cantonese, not only speaking residents but also the speaking  Pidgin's general rhythm is syllable- immigrant such as from Japaness, Filipinos, timed, meaning syllables take up and Korean. For example, the word "stay" in roughly the same amount of time with Pidgin has the same meaning as the roughly the same amount of stress. Portuguese "ficar", meaning "to stay" Standard American English is stress- when referring to a temporary state or location. timed, meaning that only stressed Sometimes the structure of the language is like syllables are evenly timed. Some that of Portuguese grammar. For instance, Western languages, including English, "You like one knife?" means "Would you like are stress-timed, while most Romance a knife?". The reason why the word "one" is and East Asian languages are syllable

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 45

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

timed. Many pronunciation features are shared with other dialectal forms of are shared with other colloquial English or may derive from other linguistic language forms or pidgins/creoles influences. Generally, forms of English "to be" from other parts of the world. Even (i.e. the ) are omitted when referring to when a person is speaking Standard inherent qualities of an object or person, English, they will tend to pronounce forming in essence a form. syllables in the same manner, and this Additionally, inverted sentence order may be is often considered as having a "local" used for emphasis. (Many East Asian or "Hawaiian" accent. languages use stative instead of the  The voiced and unvoiced th sounds are copula- construction of English and replaced by d or t respectively that is, other Western languages.) for example: changed from a fricative to a Da baby cute. (or) Cute, da baby. (stop). For instance, that (voiced th) The baby is cute. The to be here is becomes dat, and think (unvoiced th) Da. becomes tink. To express , Pidgin uses wen  The sound l at the end of a word is (went) in front of the verb for example Jesus often pronounced o or ol. For instance, wen cry. Jesus cried. To express , mental is often pronounced mento; Pidgin uses goin (going) in front of the verb, people is pronounced peepo. for example: a declaratory word or verbum  Pidgin is non-rhotic. That is, r after a dicendi, common in many forms of slang vowel is often omitted, similar to American English. many , such as Eastern New God goin do plenny good kine stuff fo him. England, , and God is going to do a lot of good things for English English variants. For instance, him. car is often pronounced cah, and letter To express past tense negative, Pidgin is pronounced letta. Intrusive r is also uses neva (never). Neva can also mean "never" used. The number of as in normal English usage; context speakers with rhotic English has also sometimes, but not always, makes the meaning been increasing. clear, for example:  Falling is used at the end of He neva like dat. questions. This feature appears to be He didn't want that. (or) He never wanted that. from Hawaiian, and is shared with (or) He didn't like that. some other languages, including Fijian. 3.2 Pidgin and Creole Languages of Gullah Gullah resembles other English-based Pidgin also has distinct grammatical creole languages spoken in and forms not found in SAE, but some of which the Caribbean Basin. These include the Krio

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 46

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages language of Sierra Leone, 3.2.2. Sample sentences of Gullah English, Bahamian , Jamaican Creole, Bajan and Belizean Kriol. All of these These sentences are examples of how th languages have vocabularies derived largely Gullah was spoken in the 19 century: from English, but grammars and sentence Uh gwine gone dey "I will go there structures strongly influenced by African tomorruh. tomorrow." languages. Gullah is most closely related to We blan ketch 'nuf "We always catch a lot Afro-Seminole Creole spoken in scattered cootuh dey. of turtles there." Black Seminole communities in Oklahoma, Dem yent yeddy wuh "They did not hear what Texas, and Northern Mexico. The Black oonuh say. you said." Seminoles' ancestors were Gullahs who Dem chillun binnuh "Those children were escaped from slavery in coastal South Carolina nyam all we rice. eating all our rice." and Georgia in the 18th and 19th centuries and fled into the Florida wilderness. They 'E tell'um say 'e "He told him that he had haffuh do'um. to do it." emigrated from Florida after the Second Seminole War (1835-42), and their modern Duh him tell we say "He's the one who told dem duh faa'muh. us that they are farmers." descendants in the West still speak a De buckruh dey duh conservative form of Gullah resembling the "The white man is in the 'ood duh hunt language of 19th century plantation slaves. woods hunting turkeys." tuckrey.

3.2.1. Gullah verbs. Alltwo dem 'ooman "Both those women are done fuh smaa't. really smart." The following sentences illustrate the basic verb tense and aspect system in Gullah: Enty duh dem shum "Aren't they the ones dey? who saw him there?" Uh he'p dem -- "I help them/I helped them" (Present/Past Tense) Uh bin he'p dem -- "I helped them" (Past 4. Theories of Pidgin Tense) The theories of origin pidgins are Uh gwine he'p dem -- "I will help them" easily dismissed, this is the idea that pidgin (Future Tense) arise, because the people whom they are found Uh done he'p dem -- "I have helped them" lack the ability to learn the standard languages (Perfect Tense) with which the pidgins are associated. There Uh duh he'p dem -- "I am helping them" are too many similarities among the pidgin and (Present Progressive) creole associated with very different Uh binnuh he'p dem -- "I was helping them" eouropean language to make such a theory of (Past Progressive) origin plausible e.g between the English-based creole of Jamaica and the French based on Haiti.

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 47

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

There are two kinds of theories of 5. Structural characteristics of a pidgin or pidgins, first, theory of polygenesis, it means creole that pidgin and Creole have a variety and any 5.1. Phonology similarities among them that arise from the The sounds of a pidgin or creole are shared circumstances of their origins. For likely to be fewer and less complicated than instance, speaker of English have had to those of related languages. For example, Tok understand from the language purpose of trade Pisin has only the basic vowels, Papia Kristang and those trading with them have had to be has seven basic vowels. understood. Consequently, certain simplified forms of English have developed in a number 5.2. Morphology of places, giving rise to varieties of Pidgin Pidgins have very little English. One variant such a theory is that the morphophonemic variation, that is, the type of similarities among pidgins and creoles might variation found in the final sounds in cats, be attributable to a common origin in the dogs, and Boxes. The development of such language of sailors. It is well known fact that morphological alternations is a sign that the the crews of ship were used it. That is pidgin is undergoing creolization. In pidgins Nelson’s flagship with crews by sailors of and creoles, there is almost a complete lack of fourteen different nationalities. Second, the inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs, and theory of relexification is pidgin are stripped . down that the lack of the features which linguist use rely on to relate one language 5.3 Syntax another, according to this theory that all the Sentences are likely to be present European language based on pidgin uncomplicated in clausal structures. Pidgins do and Creole and derive from , not have relative clauses. Their development is called Sabir used in Mediterranean. Then the a sign of creolization. Portuguese relaxified this language in their own vocabulary into grammatical structure the 5.4 Vocabulary Portuguese-based pidgin come into widespread The vocabulary is quite similar to the use a s trade language, later this pidgin standard language with which it is associated, relaxified in French, English, and Spanish. The although there may be considerable actually relexification has occurred in morphological and phonological simplication. Samaraccam, it seem to be pidgin in the The reduplication is often used to indicate, process of relaxicification from Portuguese to among other things, intensity, pluralization, English habituality.

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 48

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

6. From Pidgin and Creole Beyond contact language creoles is a normal language Generally pidgin is involved in the in just about every sense. Creole has native earliest stage of each Creole. The pidgin come speaker, each pidgin and Creole are well about from the need to communicate, organizes of linguistic system, the sound of particularly when those who need to pidgin or creoles are likely to be a fewer and communicate speak a variety of language and less complicated than those of related the speaker of the target language and the languages for example Tok pisin has only five speaker of ‘target’ language is superior in basic vowels, Papia Kristang has seven basic some sense and perhaps transcient. Not every vowel. The pidgin or Creole language have pidgin becomes Creole that is undergoes the two theories polygenesis and relexification. process of Pidginization. In fact most pidgin The distributions of pidgin and Creole are in are lingua franca, existing to meet special local equatorial belt around the world, usually in needs. They are spoken by people who use place with easy success such as in the oceans another language other languages to serves and harbor. most of their needs and the need their children. The process of pidgin at least needs Creolization occurs when a pidgin for some three languages, one of which is dominant reasons becomes the variety of language that language. While Creole is a pidgin language children must use in situation in which use of a which has become the native language a group ‘full’ language effectively denied them. It of speaker, being use for all or many of their happed in Haiti when French was effectively daily communicative needs. If Creole is able to denied to the masses and the African language collect a lot of speaker and can form a brought by the slaves fell into disuse. We can language its self, hence this Creole will see also, while many of the guest workers, in develop become a complete language. For Germany have developed pidginized varieties example Krio (language) and now become of German to communicate when necessary national language Siere Leone in Africa. with one another, their children have not The structural of morphology of creolized these varieties but with varying pidgin and creole have a little success have acquired standard German. Since morphophonemic variation that is the type of they must go to school and be educated in variation found in the final sound sin cats, German. A full language is available to them dogs, and box. In pidgin and creole, there is so they have no need to creolized Gastarbeiter almost a complete lack of inflection in nouns, Deutsh. pronoun, verbs and adjective. The vocabulary in pidgin and creole is quite similar to the C. Conclusion standard language with which is associated, A pidgin is language with no native reduplication is often use to indicate, among speakers, it is not first language but it is a

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 49

Syarfuni, Pidgins and Creole Languages

other things, intensity, pluralization, and habituality.

REFERENCES Chaer Abdul. 2004. Sosiolinguistik Perkenalan Awal. Penerbit Rineka Cipta. Hymes, Dell (1971), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, Cambridge University Press, Hudson. R.A.- Socilinguistic. Cambridge University Press. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language #Geographical_distribution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english_hawaiian _creole.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english_Gullah_la nguage.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english _Pidgin.development.htm Jack Richards et all. 1985, Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistic. England. Wardaugh R. (1998), An Introduction to Sociolinguistic. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english _ Structural Characteristic Pidgin or Creole.htm

ISSN 2086 – 1397 Volume II. Nomor 1. Januari – Juni 2011 | 50