Re: Creole vs. Pidgin
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, July 23, 1999, 1:14 |
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Daniel Seriff wrote:
>
> Can someone give me a definition of creoles and pidgins, and the
> differences between the two?
There are actually several, related, definitions used by different
linguists. My preferred definition is also the simplest. A pidgin is
used solely as an auxiliary language, with no native speakers, while a
creole has native speakers. Others define creole as simply a
more-well-developed contact language, and therefore, has no absolute
difference.
Also, used by some linguists is "Creoloid", for languages such as
English which were never *actually* creoles, but nevertheless did have
major external influences changing its structure.
--
"[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
William Caxton
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