Pidgins & Creoles and Obstacles of Standardisation

1. Pidgins & Creoles and
Obstacles of
Standardisation
Submitted by:
-Abdelghani Elmitry
- Ahmed Ouazzani
Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University
Faculty of Letters
Department of English & cultural studies
stream
Professor : M.Ouakrime
.

2. - CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Definitions
a- Pidgins
b-Creoles
 Pidginazation: theories & process
a- Monogenetic theory
b- Polygenetic theory
 Creolization : development& standardisation
 Obstacles
 Conclusion

3. Introduction
1- Pidgin
« a pidgin language is, by definition, one whose
structure and lexicon have been drastically reduced,
and which is a native to none of those who use it »1
«
these (pidings) are varieties created for very practical
and immediate purposes of communication between
people who otherwise would have no common
langauge whatsoever. »2
1 : Hall, R. A. Jr. (1976) «
Pidgins and creoles as standard languages »
in J. Pride & J. Holmes (eds)
Sociolinguistics Middlesex : Penguin Books Ltd (p142)
2 : Hudson, R. A. (1980) Sociolinguistics Cambridge : Cambridge University Press (p61)

4. 2- Creole:
“A creole is a pidgin language which has become
the native language of a speech community”1
“A creole is often defined as a pidgin that has
become the first language of a new generation
of speakers”2
1- Hall, R. A. Jr. (1976) «
Pidgins and creoles as standard languages »
in J. Pride & J.
Holmes (eds) Sociolinguistics Middlesex : Penguin Books Ltd (p142)
2-Wardhauph, R. (2002) An Introduction to Linguistics 4th
Edition Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers

5. Pidginazation theories & process
Adapted from : Wardhaugh, R. (2002) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics 3ed
chapter
Theories:
a- Monogenetic
(first formulated by Hugo
Schuchardt 19th
century then
popularized in the late 1950s
and early 1960s by Taylor
(1961) and Thompson (1961
b- Polygenetic
Hall (1966)
a- reduction
b- simplificatin
c- admixture

6. Creolization: development&
standardisation
Adapted from : Wardhaugh, R. (2002) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics 3ed
chapter

7. Obstacles
The problem of status
The problem of development
The problem of orthography:
- The etymological approach
- The phonemic approach

8.  CONCLUSION
Recently linguists have realized that Pidgins and
Creoles are not wrong versions of other languages
but rather new languages. Their words were largely
taken from an older language (similarly to many
standard languages ) during a period of linguistic
“crisis” to fill an urgent need for communication.

9. Abdelghani & Ahmed

10. Abdelghani & Ahmed