What are these terms?

In learning Varieties of English (VoE), there are some terms that we need to be familiar with and they are:

• Pidgins
• Creoles
• Dialects
• Slang

What is pidgins? Well according to DeCamp (1971), he defines a pidgin as a contact vernacular, normally not the native language of any of its speaker. It is characterized by a limited vocabulary, an elimination of many grammatical devices such as number and gender, and a drastic reduction of redundant features. DeCamp (1971) says that more than two languages in contact are required for the development of a true pidgin.

What is creole? The term Creole originally meant a white man of European descent born and raised in a tropical or semitropical colony. The meaning was later extended to include indigenous natives and others of non-European origin. The term was then subsequently applied to certain languages spoken by creoles in and around the Caribbean and in West Africa, and then more generally to other languages of similar types which had arisen in similar circumstances. The development from Pidgin into Creole involves an expansion of expressive forces in response to communicative needs.

The main difference between a pidgin and a Creole lies in terms of the feature referred to as vitality. This means whether the language has a viable community of native speakers. Pidgins and Creoles share some features. That is, they lack standardization, historicity, and autonomy, but are reduced, mixed languages.

Pidgins and Creoles are considered as language. Therefore both have linguistics features which describe them:

• The sounds of pidgins or creoles are likely to be fewer and less complicated in their possible arrangements than those of the corresponding standard languages.
• Another typical feature of pidgins and creoles is consonantal cluster reduction. This results in a rather simple syllable structure of pidgins and creoles (CV-structure), which also makes the pronunciation of words simpler.
• There is almost a complete lack of inflection in nouns, pronouns, verbs and adjectives in pidgins and creoles.
• Another feature of Creole and pidgin morphology is the reduction or elimination of gender distinctions.
• Another linguistic feature of pidgins and creoles is their use of reduplication. Reduplication is a morphological process by which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated

What is dialect? When there are systematic differences in the way groups speak a language, we say that each group speaks a dialect of that language. Dialects are mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways. It is not always easy to decide whether the differences between two speech communities reflect two dialects or two languages. Sometimes this rule-of-thumb definition is used: When dialects become mutually unintelligible – when the speakers of one dialect group can no longer understand the speakers of another dialect group – these dialects become different languages.

Bored with lengthy words? Too many words to read? Then enjoy the video provided to understand what is pidgins and creoles.