h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Pidgins & Creoles - A52091651
Author: Joha_Ai - U13868004

Here is my essay about Pidgins&Creoles. Any kinds of propositions for improvement are welcomed
Thanks a lot!!
Yours, Johanna!

An interesting and well-written article.



Note that another entry about Creole (focussing on La Reunion) is in peer review.

Peer review:

The main idea: A good, solid text of the Creole and Pidgin languages and their developments.

Audience: Linguists, anyone interested in various language aspects and developments.

Convincing details: The definitions and examples, sources

To be added: Text seems very compact and hard to read fluently, some long sentences that could be parted into shorter ones.

Unnecessary information: None

Missing: As not being an expert, text gives a good view into the two languages; nothing obviously missing.

Unclear areas: Types of pidgins; well explained but listed rather than joined to the body of the text. The conclusion seems rather forced and unclear.

Overall: Logical, well thought out and laid out. Fluent use of language, good introduction and conclusion and a joy to read for a language student.

Interesting, thanks. Here are some suggestions from me.

"the English lexem business" - what is that? I don't understand.

"In these cases there do not develop varieties of the European languages or dialects but new languages, whose grammar (phonetic, morphology, sytax, etc.) differs fundamentally from their lexical basis-language." But presumably elements of them are borrowed from the parent languages. Certainly I would imagine some words would be kept.


In former times Pidgins and Creoles were often denoted with pejorative expressions like broken English, Bastard Portuguese, Negro French, Taki Taki for Sranan Tongo, Kombuistaaltje (kitchenlanguage) or Isikula (Coolie language) for Fanakalo, which clearly points out the disrespect for these idioms.

"Pidgins are languages lexically derived from other languages, but which are structurally simplified, especially in their morphology. They come into being where people need to communicate but do not have a language in common. Pidgins have no first language speakers, they are the subject of language learning, they have structural norms, they are used by two ore more groups, and they are usually unintelligible for speakers of the language from which the lexicon derives. (BAKKER: p.25)" I presume that this entire section is a direct quote of someone else's definition. That's fine, but could you perhaps make it a little clearer?

"The word ‘Pidgin’ comes from the Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of the English word business, which war already used in 1807 and spelled as ‘pigeon’." -> "which was already used"

"It is not possible to establish a clear boarder between maritime or nautical Pidgins and trade Pidgins," -> "border"

"Hawaiian-lexifier and English-lexifier Pidgins of Hawaii" What does 'lexifier' mean? Can you explain please?

Thank you very much!!

First of all thank you very much for all your comments!!

to Elentari: in the following I will try to answer all your questions:

Relating to “the English lexem business”, I suppose that you don’t understand the word “lexem”. A “lexem” names a group of syntactic words which share characteristics concerning meaning and part of speech. Speak, speaks, spoke and speaking > one lexem – whereas speak and speaker > are two lexems;

To your second question, I also assume that some words are kept, but as those languages differ fundamentally concerning phonetic, morphology, syntax, etc., it is spoken about ‘new languages’.

You have put me the paragraph “In former times Pidgins and Creoles were often denoted with pejorative expressions like broken English, Bastard Portuguese, Negro French, Taki Taki for Sranan Tongo, Kombuistaaltje (kitchenlanguage) or Isikula (Coolie language) for Fanakalo, which clearly points out the disrespect for these idioms.”
–-> what is it that you actually do not understand here???

Concerning the definition of Pidgins of Bakker, for me it is very clear and I do not really understand what you don’t understand in this definition. Here a short version:
Pidgins are simplified languages which arise in the need of communication. Nobody speaks Pidgins as a mother tongue, they have structural norms and the people who speak the lexifier, the Pidgin usually is not understandable.

"The word ‘Pidgin’ comes from the Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of the English word business, which war already used in 1807 and spelled as ‘pigeon’." -> "which was already used"
--> yes, the word business was already used in 1807 but spelled as ‘pigeon’.


"It is not possible to establish a clear boarder between maritime or nautical Pidgins and trade Pidgins," -> "border"
--> it is not possible to make a clear distinction between these two Pidgins, a boundary;

Concerning your last question:
A lexifier is the language from which pidgins and creoles derive most of their vocabulary.

I hope I could satisfy you with my answers. If you have any further questions just go ahead and ask me!!

"Relating to “the English lexem business”, I suppose that you don’t understand the word “lexem”. A “lexem” names a group of syntactic words which share characteristics concerning meaning and part of speech. Speak, speaks, spoke and speaking > one lexem – whereas speak and speaker > are two lexems;

Concerning your last question:
A lexifier is the language from which pidgins and creoles derive most of their vocabulary."

Can you put these definitions in the entry, please?

"You have put me the paragraph “In former times Pidgins and Creoles were often denoted with pejorative expressions like broken English, Bastard Portuguese, Negro French, Taki Taki for Sranan Tongo, Kombuistaaltje (kitchenlanguage) or Isikula (Coolie language) for Fanakalo, which clearly points out the disrespect for these idioms.”
–-> what is it that you actually do not understand here???"

Sorry about that, I copied and pasted the whole entry into my reply so I could get all the bits I wanted to comment on. I didn't have a problem with that, I just forgot to get rid of it.

"Concerning the definition of Pidgins of Bakker, for me it is very clear and I do not really understand what you don’t understand in this definition." It's not that I don't understand the definition, it's that I think you need to make it a little clearer that it's not your definition. You could just say "*first name* Bakker defines pidgins as '.....'" and get rid of his name in brackets at the end.

""The word ‘Pidgin’ comes from the Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of the English word business, which war already used in 1807 and spelled as ‘pigeon’." -> "which was already used"
--> yes, the word business was already used in 1807 but spelled as ‘pigeon’." I was correcting the typo in was, not questioning anything.

This author also seems to have disappeared, and I'm not sure the entry's ready as it stands