Pidgins & Creoles An introduction to contact linguistics 1 What do we mean by language contact? • Any sort of situation where different languages might interact • Separate communities living close to each other (think big multilingual countries!) • Multiple languages spoken by the same people (one ethnic group, several languages) • Multiple languages within the same community with one language in common (for example…?) 2 Language contact in New Zealand • For example, New Zealand! • Top languages in NZ (by number of speakers, 2013): • English • Māori • Samoan • Hindi • Mandarin 3 Language contact can result in… • Bilingualism • Codeswitching • Pidgins • Creoles • Mixed languages • Nothing? 4 Pidgins & Creoles • Not necessarily formed with just contact of any sort • Historically, what kind of contact has resulted in these languages? • slave trade/ indentured labour • forced movement of people • separation of speech communities • Intense social pressure 5 APiCS map 6 http://apics-online.info/contributions Pidgin vs Creole Pidgin Creole Second language Native language Restricted use Full range of uses Grammatically highly impoverished Grammatically ? (we’ll come back to this) In common: relatively stable (from later stages of formation onward), result of contact between two or more languages, can be found in many different parts of the world 7 What’s in a name? • Many creoles called “creole” or equivalent • St. Lucia: Kwéyòl • Martinique: Kréyol • Guadeloupe: Kréyòl • Haiti: Kreyòl • Seychelles, Mauritius: Kreol • Sierra Leone: Krio • (northern) Australia: Kriol • Guinea-Bissau: Kriyol • Patois/patwa also a common term 8 What’s in a name? • Some creoles called “pidgin” or equivalent: • Tok Pisin • Hawaiian Pidgin • Cameroon Pidgin English • Community choice and the role of linguists • Referring to language by ‘technically correct’ term in academic environments/conversations, publications, etc.: • Telling the community what they should call their language: 9 Pidgins - definition a pidgin is a conventionalised language formed from close and repeated contact between groups of people with no language in common (Velupillai 2015) 10 Pidgins - uses • Where no other lingua franca exists • Usually limited to use for which it developed trade pidgin: vocabulary specific to trade, general greetings (small talk) e.g. Yimas-Arafundi Pidgin (Papua New Guinea): language between men of certain clans in Yimas village and Arafundi-speaking village Auwim in their trade interactions fell out of use in the 1950s replaced functionally by Tok Pisin 11 Pidgins - examples • Basque-Icelandic Pidgin • spoken in 17th century Iceland • possibly brought by Basque sailors • Germanic, Romance, and Basque vocabulary • Russenorsk • Russian + Norwegian • fishermen and traders in the Arctic • 18th-19th century • (Kyakhta) Russian-Chinese Pidgin • 18th-20th century • used by traders • named after Kyakhta, town in Russia on the border of Mongolia 12 Creoles - definition • A ‘nativized’ pidgin: pidgin becomes native language for a community/ subset of the community • Lexifier/superstrate + substrates = creole • Lexifier: the language from which the creole draws its vocabulary • Substrate(s): the language(s) from which the grammatical features are drawn, usually the lower prestige language(s), the ones the population already spoke • Tend to be grouped according to lexifier language 13 Creoles - definition • Sociohistorical definition: • Intense language contact, often forced • No language in common • Reliance on the one language everyone had access to (the eventual lexifier) • Creole formation environments usually meant no formal learning of the target language • Structural definition (this one is a bit more controversial!): • “the world’s simplest grammars are creole grammars” (title, McWhorter 2005) • *simple in the sense of how ideas are expressed, not which ideas can be expressed • creole exceptionalists vs. ‘creoles are not structurally distinct’ 14 Creoles - uses • usually the native language of a majority population – everyday communication • can have certain connotations attached to its use, depending on the country/language, e.g.: • telling someone off • when the conversation becomes more serious • “when we want to exaggerate something we say it in creole” • identity – marking a group (especially common among speakers overseas) 15 Creole orthography • Various historical reasons mean that creoles tend to be oral languages • Some have developed orthographies e.g. Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, etc. • …but having official orthographies does not guarantee speakers will use them! • especially if orthographies (and the creoles themselves) are not taught in schools • People may just use their own spellings which generally represent pronunciation quite closely, speakers will understand each other • …but some spellings are ‘weird’ or just plain wrong • “drink de riddem” ad for Coruba (found in St. Luke’s) • drink di riddim 16 Creoles - examples Bislama • lingua franca in Vanuatu • English-lexified • One of several related Pacific creoles: Pijin (Solomon Islands), Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea), others • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NrSATT7Y7M 17 Creoles - examples Martinique Creole • French-lexified • Closely related to varieties in Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Lucia • Also related to Haitian Creole (less close) • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFzjAR-05M 18 Language contact: not a single event! • Most creoles formed ~300 years ago • Spoken in countries where other languages are also spoken • e.g. in the Caribbean, European language fills the function of “standard” variety • creoles often spoken in informal contexts (for those who have access to > 1 language) 19 Creole contact – creole + lexifier • Haitian Creole, French-based + French (official language) • Result = diglossia: a situation in which two languages are used within a community but in distinct contexts • Usually resulting in a ‘high’ (H) variety and a ‘low’ (L) variety • French generally the language of government, education, etc.; seen as the ‘high’ variety • Haitian Creole the everyday language; seen as the ‘low’ variety • Jamaican Creole, English-based creole + (Jamaican) English, official language • Result = creole continuum (or ‘post-creole continuum’) 20 Creole continuum • ‘meso’ = middle • A mixture of features basilect mesolect acrolect • Furthest away from • More or less standard equivalent to the • Most difficult for non- country’s standard native speakers to form understand 21 Continuum examples • Jamaican Creole/ English Acrolect: I am eatin(g) I is eatin I eatin Mi eatin Mi a eat Basilect: Mi a nyam (Sebba 1997) 22 Continuum examples • St. Lucian Kwéyòl-Creole English ‘The boy eats pepper’ bòi la ka manjé piman bòi la ka it pèpa bòi la dòz it pèpa di bòi iting pèpa (Dalphinis 1985) • Notice there are not three distinct, identifiable points but a continuous continuum of variation 23 Factors affecting continuum position • urban-rural divide • education level • socio-economic status • parents’/guardians’ languages basilect mesolect acrolect 24 Attitudes to creoles (and pidgins) • 1844 publication on St. Lucian French-based creole: “[…] It is in short, the French language, stripped of its manly and dignified ornaments and travestied for the accommodation of children and toothless old women. […]” • Those ideas don’t disappear completely – long history of trying to prevent people from speaking a creole (their native language) • Standard (European) language of instruction in schools 25 How attitudes affect speakers • Internalised negative attitudes towards creoles • Manifests especially in conversations about school • Teaching students in their own language vs. in the “prestige” language? 26 27 Changing attitudes • Orthographies developed • Special programmes for learning the creole in some countries • Integration into schooling e.g. Haiti • Dedicated celebrations e.g. Jounen Kwéyòl 28 Creole contact – creole + Not-Lexifier* *not a technical term • creole formed, lexifier population left • Louisiana Creole French • Korlai • Nicaraguan Creole English • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsaLfwqxGEw • Extra contact: lexifier population left, new contact language formed • St. Lucian/Dominican case • Unserdeutsch 29 Case study: Language contact in St. Lucia 30 A quick history • Indigenous population of Arawak people, taken over by Carib people but relations with remaining Arawak women results in a new genetic mixture, Island Caribs • First official claim on the island 1635 by the French • Changed hands 18 times, but very little interest in the day-to- day running of the island • Final handover to the British in 1814, in power until St. Lucian independence 1972 31 Language contact in St. Lucia • Official language: English • Other major language: Kwéyòl/ Patwa • Now a third variety: St. Lucia Contact English (St. Lucia Creole English?) 32 Language contact in St. Lucia • Now a third variety: St. Lucia Contact English (St. Lucia Creole English?) (1) muuv in do reen sòti an lapli-a ‘Get out of the rain.’ (Garrett 2003: 174) c.f. Sors de la pluie (2) Pu ki u ka kwiyé shê u? For what you are calling you dog? Why are you calling your dog? (Midgett 1970: 165) 33 An example • Collected October 2017 in St. Lucia • Listen out for codeswitching! • Most of the vocabulary is in English, but what’s different? 34 An example What’s different? you know she dress nice and thing that day he dancing with the girl it can make you see things that you not real seeing he thinking is at the girl home he going he reach all in the sulphur springs [tourist attraction in St. Lucia] when he check is a anthole 35 An example What’s different? you know she dress nice and thing that day he dancing with the girl it can make you see things that you not real seeing he thinking is at the girl home he going he reach all in the sulphur springs [tourist attraction in St. Lucia] when he check is a anthole 36 Cool resources • The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures • online http://apics-online.info/ and three volumes available in the library • YouTube (wikitongues) • Wikipedia (with some caution!) 37.