Re: Creole vs. Pidgin

Nik Taylor wrote:

> > The critical difference between a creole and a pidgin is that a creole is
> > a pidgin which has gained a large enough* body of native speakers, such
> > as Tok Pisin in New Guinea, to become "self-actualized"
>
> In most uses, but I've seen _creole_ used for contact languages with no
> native speakers
Well, that's not only how I've seen it used, but that's also how they
taught us in my sociolinguistics class.  Perhaps you are thinking of the
nontechnical usages, in which case, you're right: creoles are often used
synonymously with pidgins, much as "linguist" often means someone who
knows (or studies) a lot of languages.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
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<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Things just ain't the way they used to was."
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