Pidgins and Creoles: A Course Blog

Pidgins and Creoles: Issues for Development

theduc — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:39:41 +0000

Discuss the arguments for and against having primary and/or secondary education through the medium of a specific pidgin or creole (for example Tok Pisin or Sranan).

Make sure you are clear about who would benefit or be disadvantaged in each case.

The White Creole Speaker

theduc — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:37:42 +0000

In class, we talked about recreolisation and in particular, we looked at London Jamaican. As indicated, the phenomenon of recreolisation cannot be understood independently from an awareness of the social context surrounding the recreolisation.

What type of motivations can you imagine, would account for the ‘White Creole Speaker’?

Theories on Creole Origins

theduc — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:27:30 +0000

What can you say about the following:

Bickerton’s Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
Explain the theories between abrupt and gradual creolisation. You could briefly explain the Gradualist Hypothesis

Pidgins and Creoles: Issues for Development II

theduc — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:39:43 +0000

Should pidgins / creoles be made official languages? Discuss this with reference to specific cases.

A Dialect Continuum

theduc — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:27:32 +0000

Sebba (1997) points out that one of the problems facing the linguist trying to describe the language of Jamaicans is the fact that the language is so varied / variable. De Camp (1971) was the first to describe the Jamaican situation as a dialect continuum linking the broadest creole with the local variety of Standard English.

We can view the dialect continuum as a ladder, with the acrolect at one end and the basilect at the other. In the middle, there are the mesolects, which are display varying degrees of similarity to either the creole or standard. The acrolect is the variety closest to the standard languae, while the basilect the the variety closest to the creole. Can you think / find other examples of creoles that exist in a similar continuum?

Creoles

theduc — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:53:24 +0000

One contribution per person please!

Name a creole, its lexifier language and the socio-cultural background of its formation. Don’t forget to quote your sources.

Sources search

theduc — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:32:29 +0000

Surf the web and try to find:

associations for the study of pidgins and creoles
conferences on pidgins and creoles (indicate the date and place of the next meeting)
journals
notable dissertations on any issue in pidgin or creole linguistics

A good place to begin your search would be the LinguistList. I will be setting up the blog roll as soon as I get your responses.

Concepts search

theduc — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:28:55 +0000

When talking about pidgins and creoles, the following concepts are important. What do they mean? Don’t forget to state your sources! (no wikipedia please)

substrate language
superstrate language
lexifier
‘common core’ hypothesis
monogenesis
relexification
polygenesis

Note: you do not have to define every single term, just pick one.

Foreigner Talk

theduc — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:22:04 +0000

We touched very briefly on foreigner talk in our first session.

What exactly is foreigner talk, and what would be typical instances of simplification in foreigner talk? Don’t forget to state your sources.

Gastarbeiterdeutsch II

theduc — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:19:54 +0000

In Germany, the term is applied to the simplified German of so-called ‘guest workers’. These were migrant workers mainly from the Mediterranean countries.

There is disagreement among scholars (and as indicated by the previous discussion) as to whether GAD should really be termed a pidgin. These doubts arise partly from the questionable stability of GAD.

Look at the extract below and list / highlight the features which characterise pidgins:

Interviewer: Sie waren krank, hat es da Probleme gegeben mit der Firma, wenn Sie krank gewesen sind?

Miguel (Spanish migrant worker):

Wann ich krank, Ingenieur mir sagen, ‘meine Büro kommen, Arbeit?

Ich sag ‘ah, ich krank, ich nicht kommen Arbeit.’

- ‘Warum? Wieviel Wochen du krank?’

Ich sag ‘ah, ich weiss nichts, ich nicht Doctor.’

Und dann Ingenieur sagen ‘nächste Monat nicht kommen Arbeit, du fort Spanisch auch’

- ‘Warum? Das Monat bezahle, warum ich fort?’

(from Sebba, M. (1997). Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Basingstoke: Palgrave)