Pidgins and Creoles

Pidgins: Simplified languages that develop as means of communication between speakers of different native languages, often arising in trade or colonial contexts.

• Transient

• no native speakers

• arise quickly for functional communication

• compromise between two different languages

• begins restricted

• others become extended in family’s and others

Creoles: Fully developed languages that evolve from pidgins, typically becoming the first language of a community.

• usually begin as pidgin

• if survives and therefore becomes native language for next generation

• creole is second generation language