Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

Chapter 9
Pidgins and Creoles
JEFF SIEGEL
Pidgins and creoles are new varieties of language that emerge when people
speaking different languages come into contact with each other. The study
of these ‘contact languages’ falls mainly under the heading of sociolinguistics,
but also intersects with many other subdisciplines, such as contact
linguistics and applied linguistics. This chapter begins by providing
some background: defi nitions of key terms and information about the current
status and use of these languages. Then it describes four areas of
research in pidgin and creole studies (sometimes called ‘creolistics’). The
next section concentrates on educational policy and practice. It discusses
the use of pidgins and creoles for classroom instruction and special
programmes aimed at speakers of these languages.
Background
Defi nitions
Pidgins and creoles develop out of a need for communication among
people who do not share a common language – for example, among plantation
labourers from diverse geographic origins. Most of the words in the
vocabulary of the new language come from one of the languages of the
people in contact, called the ‘lexifi er’ (or sometimes the ‘superstrate’) –
usually the language of the group with the most power or prestige.
However, the meanings and functions of the words, as well as the way
they’re pronounced and put together (i.e. the grammatical rules) of the
pidgin or creole, are different to those of the lexifi er. These rules may
sometimes resemble those of the other languages in contact, usually
referred to in pidgin and creole studies as the ‘substrate languages’.
An example is the following sentence from Bislama, the dialect of
Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Vanuatu. This language arose among Pacifi c
Islanders working as plantation labourers in Queensland (Australia) in
the late 1800s.
232