An Analysis of English Pidgin and Creole Languages: A Study

This essay delves into the categorization of English-based pidgin and creole languages, examining their historical context and linguistic features. It explores how these languages, derived from English, are often perceived as simplified forms. The essay highlights the origins of pidgins and creoles, focusing on their development during the era of the Atlantic slave trade and the influence of European colonial powers. It also touches upon the social and political factors that have shaped the perception of these languages, including the impact of decolonization and the rise of their use in media. The essay references key works in the field to support its analysis and concludes by emphasizing the evolving perspectives on pidgin and creole languages, reflecting a shift towards embracing linguistic diversity and identity.

Running head: ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
The following assignment will look into the categorization of English-based pidgin and
creole languages and how they are considered to be a variation of the English language, far less
complex and therefore, impoverished.
A pidgin is the grammatically simplified form of language, typically Portuguese, French,
Dutch, or English, combined with another language, used for communication amongst speakers
who do not share a common language. A creole, on the other hand, is a stable natural language
that develops over a brief period of time, often originating from a pidgin being spoken over
generations as the second language. These language are predominantly based on the said
European languages due to the rise of the European Age of Discovery and the Atlantic slave
trade during the 1500’s, when most creole languages have been known to arise (Pennycook,
2017).
The lexicon of the pidgin and the creole languages are largely supplied by the parent
languages, especially that from the most dominant social group in the respective context. Even
though there are significant syntactic and semantic variations, the languages are still considered
to be the impoverished form of the parent language. Such a perspective is generally carried by
the speakers of the parent language, namely, the prior European colonial powers. The pidgins
and creoles developed mainly during the era of slave trade and therefore were mainly spoken by
the natives of the countries from where the slaves were brought to the European mainland, for
example, the Nigerian Pidgin English and African-American English (Dillard, 2014). Thus, the
creoles and pidgins are considered rudimentary dialects of the politically dominant parent
languages, to the extent that linguists generally oppose the use of the term ‘language’ in these
cases.

2ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
Another reason which could be attributed to the neglect of these languages is that they do
not fit into the tree-model analysis of languages developed by neogrammarians in the 19th
century. This model is generally suited for the European and other traditional languages
(Romaine, 2017).
Since decolonization, the social, political and academic changes were brought on in the
later part of the 20th century, where these languages have seen a steady revival. They are
increasingly being used in media, especially print and film and their community prestige has
improved dramatically (Bhatt & Veenstra, 2013).
Therefore, to conclude, the pidgins and creoles being a degenerate form of the parent
language, in this case English, is the opinion of a small group of the society today as the speakers
of the same have managed to overlook their colonized past and have embraced their linguistic
identity.

3ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
References
Bhatt, P., & Veenstra, T. (Eds.). (2013). Creole languages and linguistic typology (Vol. 57).
John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Dillard, J. L. (2014). A history of American English. Routledge.
Romaine, S. (2017). Pidgin and creole languages. Routledge.
Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge.