r The study of pidgin and creole lenguages PiererMuysken and Norval Smith r.r Introduction This book is concernedwith pidgin and creolelanguages. This statementmight well give the impressionthat we know preciselywhat is meant by theseterms. In fact they arethe subjectofmuch debate.Creolists agree neither about the precisedefinition ofthe terms pidgin and creole,nor abour the statuso[a number oflanguagesthat havebeen claimed to be pidginsor creoles,Mixed languages,introduced in chapter4, havegenerally not been mentionedat all. To turn first to pidgin languages,it is generallyagreed that in essencethese represent speech-formswhichdo nothavenative speakers, and are therefore primarily usedas a means of communication among pcoplewho do not sharea common language.The degreeof developmentand sophisticationattained by sucha pidgin dependson the qpe and intensiry of communicativeinteraction among the i$ users.Miihlhiusler (r986) makesthree basic distinctionsamongst speech-forms that crcolistshave referred to aspidgins - (ratherun- stable)jargons, stablepidgins, and expandedpidgins (seefurther chapter3). To turn to creolelalguages (or just creoles),one vital differencefrom pidgins is that pidginsdo not havenativespeakers, while creolesdo. This is not alwaysan easydistinction to make,as one aspectof theworldwideincrease in linguisticconformiry and the concomi- tanrreducdon in linguisticdiversity, is that extendedpidgins are beginning to acquirenative speakers.This has happenedfor instancewith Tok Pisin, Nigerian Pidgin English, and Sango(Central African Republic),to name but rhreecases. In panicular this hastended to occur in urban environments,where speakers from different ethnic groupshave daily contactwitheach other. The pidgin thenbecomes the town language.The childrenof mixcd marriagesfrequently grow up speakingthe home language- the pidgin - astheir native language. r.z Historical linguistics and the definition ofa creole I A creolelanguage can be defned asa languagethat hascome into existenccat a point in time that can be establishedfairly precisely.Non-creole languages are assumed (often in thcabsenceofdetailed knowledge oftheir precisedevelopment) to haveemergedgradually. i I [: Pitter Mulsken and Norua! Smtth + Thestu4 of? lgin anl creob langages from other spokenlanguages. Malry of rhemt€nd to hav€certain features in common, bur So Archaic Latin developedinto ClassicalLatin, the popular variery of which rn turn creolistsare divided asto the interpretationofthis fact, and a languagelike Chineseresem- developedinto Vulgar Latin, which among other thingsdevelopedinto Old French'which some blesmanycreole languages in its grammar.This meansthat beforewe can claim alanguage developedinto Middle French,which in turn developedinto Modern French \Vhile others' we to be a creole,we needto know somethingabout its history,either linguiscicor social,and st^g., ofthi, d*.lop-ent involved more radicalchangcs in tfrelanguage thar preferablyboth, As we know comparativelylitde about chedetailed development ofmost caricleim r.rith somejustification to be able to tracethe line ofdevelopmentfrom Modern litde languagesin the world, and virtually nothing of the history of most ethnic groups,this Frenchback toArchaic Latin - the earliestrecorded stage ofLatin, with on thewhole it is fairly inevitablymeansthat theremaybe many untecognizedcreol€ languages around theworld. difficulty.Before thatwe haveto rely on linguistic reconstruction,but onceagain to One problem in the identificadonofparticular languagesas creoies is causedbythenot obviousthat Latin is a typical Indo-Europeanlanguage, and can thus be safelyassumed of possibly unusuaicircumstance that creolestend to be spokenin the samegeographical regions as havedeveloped from Proco-lndo-European,through the intermediatestages have been &e languag€sthat provide the greaterportion of th€ir lexica (their donor languages,ot Proto-ltalo'Celtic and cerrainly Proto-ltalic Proto-lndo-Europeanitself may around B C' lexifier languages).In somecases we 6nd a continuum ofsPeech_formsvarying from the spokensom€wherein SouthernRussia (an ? nachro nistic term ' ofcourse) 5ooo languages' creol€at one end ofihe spectrum(the basilect),through intermediateforms (mesolectal This kind ofstatementwecan de6nitely not makewhentalking about creole Sowe cannot varietied, ro the lexifier languagefthe acrolect).Sometimes speech-forms exist which Theseexhibir an abruPt breakin the courseoftheir historicaldevelopment r8) derivesin any apparently representcases where ei*rer the originalmesolect has survived, while the basilectai saythat Sranan(the major EnglishJexifiercreole ofsurinami seechapt€r historicalprecur- creoie,and sometimes also ihe originallexifierlanguage have not. Suchcases may be referred eradualfashion from EarlyModern English irs mostobvious immediate ofSranan ro aspost-creoles. Oth€rcases seem ratherto involvepartialcreolization, or inlluencefrom io.. Er,.., .omparison ofEarly Modern Eng)ishwith the earliestforms " ",rrrory two form ofthe samelanguage. These languages maybe t€rmed semi-creol€s orcrco- (6rst recordedin r7r8) will make it abundantly obvious that we ere dealing with acreolized Modern English loids.Afrikaans seems likely to havebeen the resultofsome such While Iinguisa completelydifferent formsofspeech. There is no conceivableway that Early Process. Even would not in generalwish to recognizethis languageas being a fuli creolc,many aspects .oul.1 h"u. d.u.lop"d into the very different Srananin the available7o or so years wholesale ofAfrikaansare reminiscent ofthe things rhat happenduring creolization.Other cas€sof the phonologicalJevelopments required would be extreme,not to speakofthe putativecreoloids ar€ American Black English, arrd at leastsome forms ofBrazilian P"rtu- chaneesthat would havehad to havetaken placein the syntax that they guese. S"ocreole langu.ges a.e different from ordinary languagesin that we can say A quite different situation involving an 'intermedia[e'staaus is the caseofthe mixed cameiDto existenceat somepoinc in time. Applying the techniquesofhistoricai linguistics que\tion of languages.This type which has until now been the object of comparativelylittle study, to creolesis therefor€not simple, and in addition presupposesanswering the provided the involvescases where two languagesclearly make a signiFcantcontribution to language- which languagesthe creoleshould be comPatedwith: the languagcwhich structure frequentlyone language pfovides the contentwords,and anotherthe grammar.Hete thete l.*i.orr, o. th.langu"ge(s)whichwere responsiblefor mostaspects ofgrammatical isnot necessarilyanyquesdorrofsimpli6cation. Awell-known caseofthis ro bestodied - inasmuchas it is possibleto identi$ these' rype (and' Media Lengua (lit. 'middle language')(Muysken r98rb) is spoken in Ecuador,and It is cleerin fact that creolclanguages develoP as thc resuirof'linguisric violencc' - to reckon with a involvesSpanish lexical items, combinedwith basically morphology,and aswe shali see,frequently socialviolence too) ln other words' we have Quechuasynta-x, (1992)has referred to this kind ofsituation aslanguage intemvining develoPmentofthe languaBe,the natural transmissionof a language phonology.Balker breakin the natural 'We not English referthe readerto chapter4. This whole subjectha-s just startedto be studied in any from generationto generation The Parentsofthe 6rst speakersofsrananwere important' they detail.Sometimes a creoieinvolves substantial mixture at all levelsoflanguage structure. ,p."klr. rtl, btt.p.akers ofvarious Afrrcan languages,andwhat is more "t the A casein point is BerbiceDutch Creole,described in chapter19. did not gro* .,p in .n environment where English was rhe norm How creolization' various theoriesare Othercaseswherelanguages have become simplified to someextentare oflingua ftalcas d.u.lop-.rrr oi language,takes place,or at leastwhat the "r.ol. " at this juncrurc-this is acontrover- (not rheLingua Francaofthe Mediterranean)and koines.These come into existenceunder concerninghowit tekesPlace, wecannot reallygo into below' similar circumstances one speech-formbecomes widely usedby non-nativ€ sPeakers, sial matteithat will be dealtrvith in chapters8 thtough rr' and briefly a degreeof simpliGcation.Here, the processseems to be gradual- in other What is clearisthat creolelanguages arc not in the slightestqualitatively distinguishable undergoing 6 The sndl ofpidgin and crcoh hngtzgzs Pieto Muyshenanl Norval Snith words, no linguisticor socialviolcncc is involved.Vc speakofa linguafranca when speakers pcan colonial languagcs,afthough even herewe may be certain thar some languagesremarn of various different languagesare involved, and of a koine when the didec$ of a single undiscovered.In the ese ofcreoles and pidgins not involving a European baselinguists have language are involved. bccn faccdwith the above-mentionedproblem that the history ofvcry many langtagesis In chapterz6 there is an annotatedlist oflanguageswherc thescdistinctions and some verypoorly known. And aswewill discovertime and dmeagain in thc courseofrhis book, further ones are used to classifrover too languagcsand dialects.To comPlicatemaller a knowledgeofthe historyofa languageis ofrcn esseniia.lfordctermining its crcoleor pidgin speechforms maychangeinstatus ovcr time. Variousscenarios or life-c1'ctes(cf. HaJlI966' starus,or the lack ofthis. This meansthat creolesthet cameinto cristenc€hundrcds ofyea$ who usedthe termsomewhatdifferently) have been proposed for thc developmentofcreoles. agomay only bc recognizedas