06.2 What are pidgins and creoles?

A talk in a course on variation in English

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Humanities
• Language
• sociolinguistics
• pidgins
• creoles

[Oleolenorman]

Very interesting from a scholar's point of view, however I believe the calssification is useless, creoles are structurally languages like any other languages. Aren't Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French, Latin creoles? Aren't Inglish, Norwegian, Swedish etc., German creoles in there origins? Was the way these languages was formed different from today's creoles? I believe with some scholars that creole is sociohistoric concept not a liguistic one.

[AnthionyPym]

Yes, I can agree with this.

But I hesitate to say that sociolinguistic concepts are not linguistic.

[diego30178]

Very interesting. I'd like to know if English is a mixed code and why or why not. I'll appreciate your answer.

[AnthionyPym]

All natural languages are mixtures of other natural languages, until we determine which language God spoke.

[fall2spring]

sometimes "simplified" dialects can carry important pieces of information in a single word..... he brings up "y'all"... there should be an equivalent word in formal, standard english... it's a useful word, brief and clear.... i suppose thats why "y'all" is spreading.

[AnthionyPym]

As much as I like to believe in the long-term economic determination of language (we use the structures most useful for the actions we carry out), there are all kinds of overdeterminations that mean that useless things are carried along with the useful. Witness the horrendous spelling system of English, for example.

[songsforyou00]

There are some very interesting points in this brief lecture. I do wish the videographer has taken care to make the speaker look more "telegenic;" he fools with his nose, he doesn't make eye contact with the camera or anyone else, and he is shown a bit too close for comfort. who is he? where does he teach? how does he know these things? we'd like to know that, to better enjoy his insights.

[FrankoLwizyann]

I agree, I speak French and Louisiana Creole, and I've found that while conjugation is simpler, the articles in Louisiana Creole are much more complex than those of French, English, or Spanish (which I'm learning). Creole languages are young languages, and even they, like any other language, are evolving and becoming more complex and expressive with each new generation of speakers.

[islamic22flower22ksa]

thank you for clarifying

[Oleolenorman]

Corrections: Classification, English, linguistic

[Wioleta7Maria]

thank you very much for this lecture on creoles and pidgin languages, ... had you given this video lecture 4 years earlier and had I watched it.... I wouldn't have failed my lisence exam at Silesia University... unfortnatelly this only one question about english pidgin and creoles decided about my failure...

[AnthionyPym]

Videographer? It's just me fighting with a webcam!

I teach at the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, and I know all these things because I read basic textbooks on sociolinguistics (becore teaching my classes on sociolinguistics).