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Encyclopedia > Creolization

Creolization is a process through which a simplified contact language becomes a fully developed native language, that is, a pidgin language becomes a creole language. The first process is referred to as pidginization, the second is creolization, notions used in contact linguistics. There may be a stage after creolization called decreolization. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ... A Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. ... Native Language Music, founded in 1996 by musicians Joe Sherbanee and Theo Bishop, is an independent adult contemporary record company based in Southern California that produces, markets, and distributes premium jazz, world, and new age music. ... Language contact occurs when speakers of distinct speech varieties interact. ...

Pidginization
Pidgin is a language that has no native speakers. It develops as three or more different languages (different peoples) interact mostly for the sake of trade. If there are three peoples, and one of the three languages is dominant, the less dominant languages must still interact because they trade not only with the dominant people but also with each other. In this case they must simplify the dominant language. For example on an island (Haiti, Hawaii). This "new" pidgin (contact) language will contain features from all the base languages. They will blend both grammatically and functionally, though both the vocabulary and grammar are reduced when compared with the base languages (Holm (1988) 4-5). At this stage it is not a fully developed language yet.
Creolization
This is the second stage where the pidgin language develops into a fully developed language that is a creole language. This will be the mother-tongue for many people. The creolization process happens because people, especially children, using a pidgin develop native capacity (Noam Chomsky) in it, and its structure changes over time. It is a normal language with all the criteria a language needs. The morphology and syntax of the creole are richer than the pidgin's, its phonology has set rules, and the functions in which the creole is used are increased. The vocabulary will contain more and more words according to a rational and stable system (Wardhaugh 56-57).
Post-creole continuum/decreolization
The post-creole continuum comes into being when the process of decreolization begins, namely, if a society has two official languages, a 'creole Y' and a 'standard Y' and the standard has a great effect on the creole. In this case speakers of the creole start correcting their language according to the standard. Then a large scale of varieties can be observed.

The Guyanese varieties of the English sentence I told him: A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. ... Official language(s) English, Hawaiian Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area  Ranked 43rd  - Total 10,931 sq mi (29,311 km²)  - Width n/a miles (n/a km)  - Length 1,522 miles (2,450 km)  - % water 41. ... A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ... A phase that happens to native languages in a peripheral, especially colonial society that emerge from the previous dominance of a high language imposed by the center. ... Decreolisation is a hypothetical phenomenon whereby over time a creole language reconverges with one of the standard languages from which it originally derived. ...

Middle-class use, acrolectic forms:
1. aɪ tɔuld hɪm
2. aɪ toːld hɪm
3. aɪ toːl ɪm
Lower-middle class use, mesolectic forms:
4. aɪ tɛl ɪm
5. a tɛl ɪm
6. aɪ tɛl ɪ
7. a tel i
Workers of the countryside use, basilectic form:
8. mi tɛl i
Elderly, illiterate village workers use, basilectic form:
9. mi tɛl am

4-8 most common


Sometimes it is hard to decide whether a language is a creole or a pidgin. DeCamp mentions some 'pure cases' in his work.


References

  • Wardhaugh, Ronald (1992). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
  • Holm, J. (1988, 1989). Pidgins and Creoles. 2 vols. Cambridge: CUP.
  • DeCamp, D. (1977). The Development of Pidgin and Creole Studies. In Valdman (1977).
  • Valdman, A. (ed.) (1977). Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Bloomington: Indiana UP.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Creolization (404 words)
The concept of creolization first came into prominence after the European discovery of the Americas to describe the process by which Old World life forms became indigenous in the New World.
Today `creolization' appears in writings on globalization and postmodernity as a synonym of 'hybridity' and 'syncretism' to portray the mixtures occurring amongst societies in an age of migration and telecommunications.
One of the aims of this conference will be to explore the genealogy of creolization for similar insights that may help to reframe our understanding of transnational communities, past and present.
Creolization (152 words)
Despite its use of the root word Creole, the word creolization is not used exclusively to describe Creole culture.
In the context of linguistics, for example, creolization occurs when two or more languages converge to form a new, indigenous language.
Often applied to Cajun culture, creolization can be said to describe Cajun music, because of its mixing of fl and white sounds; it also describes the Cajun dialect, because of its mixture of French and English words.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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