Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library

"Pidgin" is the Pidgin English word for "business." A pidgin language is a greatly simplified form of talk. It contains lots of nouns but very few connecting words -- words which generally tie sentences together. The grammar, although simplified, tends to conform to that of the original language of the speaker. A pidgin language arises when a dominant culture confronts a subject culture, and the two do not share a common language. Speakers of the subject language may make little progress in learning the dominant language, in which case the speakers of the dominant language resort to "baby-balk." This baby-talk is the imitation by the speakers of the dominant language of the subject-language speakers' incorrect speech. The subject-language speakers are then deprived of a correct language model, so acquire the simplified, baby-talk version of the dominant language. If this situation persists, a "jargon" develops, with some words which the dominant-language speakers have learned from the subject language thrown in. Such a jargon may pass into general commercial use. If so, it is called a "lingua franca." Such a jargon or lingua franca is no one's native language, but a compromise between a foreign-speaker's version of a language, and then a native-speaker's version of that foreign-speaker's version, and so on.

In some cases, a native group may give up its native language in favor of a jargon, especially when the subject group is made up of persons with no common language other than the jargon. When the jargon has become the only language of that group, we call it a "creole." A creole is linguistically an inferior dialect of the dominant- speaker's language. This is NOT to say that the speakers are inferior!

Another case in which a creole may arise is when groups of parents from different language backgrounds have children. This happened in the early 1900's in Hawaii, resulting in Hawaiian Creole -- a language which has mostly English vocabulary, but its own very different grammar. Once a language has reached the state of being a creole, it may evolve further, just as any natural language does.

• Cajun (French)
  
• Chinook Jargon
• Fly Taal
• French Creole
• Hobson-Jobson
• Jamaican Creole
• Michif
• Papiamento
• Pidgin English
• Sranan
• Tok Pisin
• Miscellaneous Pidgins & Creoles