Rethinking the Origin of Pidgin Portuguese
Portuguese // August 25, 2014 // 9562 words with references and footnotes // 20 pages Slaves and interpreters in the origin of Pidgin Portuguese1 William J. Samarin August 2014 Abstract This study contributes to the discussion about the origin of pidginized Portuguese that came to be spoken in Portugal and the Cape Verde Islands, beginning even before the 15th century. Contrary to Anthony Naro’s argument that it began in foreigner-talk that was taught to slaves in Portugal I submit evidence that there were enough slaves living on the Iberian Peninsula to have created a very different Portuguese idiom by means of faulty second-language acquisition. The study also demurs with respect to the claim by Alain Kihm and Jean-Louis Rougé that African slaves who served as interpreters were the principal figures in its origin. Finally, it is suggested that the role of alleged interpreter be understood with circumspection, a caution that arises from the study of colonization of central Africa in the 19th century. Key words: basic variety (of language), Cà da Mosto, Cape Verde Islands, children as interpreters, contact languages, ‘corrupt’ language, creoles, creolized pidgins, extended pidgins, foreigner talk, Guinea-Bissau, historiography, history in linguistics, interpreters, Kikongo, Kituba, lançados, language in trade and colonization, Língua de preto, lingua francas, linguister, Luso-Africans, Mediterranean Sabir, nativization, pidgin origins, Pidgin Portuguese, Portuguese Creole, restructured language, Sango, second language acquisition, Senegambia, slaves, theories of pidgin origins, 1 This is a revision of a study I was just about to submit for publication when the admirable work by Jacobs 2010 appeared and then Kihm & Rougé 2013.
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