Creolization

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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.

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:

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.

[edit] 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.