The contact of the society in a particular community makes language be interested when investigated in sociolinguistics. The aftermath of this investigation results to new languages, those are Creole and Pidgin language. The languages emerge when two people have a conversation, and they do not speak each other’s language. It is all clear that people from different tribes, nations and ethnic groups can meet for various objections such as business, trade, sports, or plantation work. This calls for a quick means of communication. Pidgin and Creole languages have their characteristics that are capable of being used in differentiate between the two languages. Creole languages can be singled out as a structural form of languages (Alatis, 1996). Pidgin and Creole languages are variable that is there is unlimited non-uniformity and variability within a given language.
A Pidgin is a reduced linguistic that result from the interaction between ethnic groups with different languages, while a Creole is a pidgin that has become an entire or native language of a complete communication in the community. Frequently, this happens after population displacement or slavery in a particular location. Primary, Pidgin and Creole are commonly used in developed nations, mostly the third world country. Having an aim of responding to changes in the social environment and political factors in the community where Pidgin and Creole languages are spoken (Andersen, 1983). Currently, there are over a hundred Pidgins and Creoles spoken globally. Mostly, most Pidgins and Creoles are based on European languages, mainly on Hawaiian, Spanish, Cantonese, English, Portuguese, Japanese, and French.There is a typical difference between a pidgin and a creole, and, however, linguistics is used the terms to differentiate between two different types of speech. It is noted that people who also speak pidgin also are aware of another language as their local language. In contrast, creoles are the vocabularies that are established by the children of pidgin speakers (Mühlhäusler, 1986). As the children grow up, they create chances of expanding pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary so that they can use it as the primary language of communication.
Pidgin
Let’s open the paper with Pidgin, which frequently serve as the means of communication among two language groups. For instance, they are commonly used by locals and immigrants, or natives and missionaries with an aim of bringing understanding of each other without having learned the local language. Pidgin languages typically arose from the trade colonies which established trade routes, for example on the coast of West Africa. In the 19th century, alongside Hawaiians plantations, there were many laborers who were brought in from Japan, China, the Philippines, Portugal, and many other nations. Hawai'i was first visited by Europeans in 18th, and it rapidly became an essential stopover for ships that were involved in sailing and trading within Asia (Alatis, 1996).
Theories of origin
Pidgin Hawaiian was among the first pidgin to be developed on plantations, due to the free trade conditions that boosted business on the island of Americans and native people there were the need to come up with a common language. There was also the establishment of English-medium schools where laborers’ children also attended. The language of plantations was more influenced by English and the pidgin by then moved from Pidgin Hawaiian to Pidgin English. At this particular moment, the massive majority of the population was at least multi-lingual, since they applied Pidgin English on plantations as well as in interethnic communications (Mühlhäusler, 1986). In addition, they spoke ethnic languages such as Hawaiian, Okinawan, Cantonese, Tagalog, Portuguese, and Japanese in their homes and ethnically homogeneous societies.
Over a century, there have been various proposed theories about the origin of the Hawaiian pidgins. The theories can be presented as a basic group that shows a degree of overlapping. From the baby-talk theory, Charles Leland noted that there were many similarities between the speeches of the children. For instance, He noted that there were a high percentage of content words with a consistently small number of used words and number of infections minimized (Alatis, 1996). Additionally, there was a characteristic that supported the theory that stated word classes in children language were more flexible than in adult language. Later, notably linguists maintained that the features of pidgins outcomes of imperfect mastery of a language which in its original stage are shown as following. In a child with there is use of their mother tongue while in the grown-up using their second language learnt by imperfect methods. As a result, this leads to a superficial knowledge of the most essential word, with total contempt of grammar.
The second theory is the independent parallel development theory, from the linguistic point of view, it state that the similarities between the world’s pidgins and creoles emerged in independent, however, parallel lines due the fact that they are derived from Indio-European language (Andersen, 1983). Some linguistics specifies that the related physical and social conditions under which pidgins ascended were accountable for the growth of similar language structures. The third theory is nautical jargon theory, it states that due to the fact that many of the initial journeys of discovery to the developing world was done by combination of many nationalities, there was a sense of having a core vocabulary and simplified grammar for the neutral items (Sakoda & Siegel, 2003).
The theory, therefore, led to the origin of the pidgin language. The fourth theory is monogenetic and relexification theory, it assumes that some kind of pidgin language named West African Pidgin Portuguese was based on Portuguese that was spoken between 15th to 18th centuries in the strongholds that was started by the Portuguese on the West Africa coast and marked to be the point of departure of the pidgin languages. Lastly, Universalist theory which is the current view on the origin of the pidgin languages. The theory argues that due to similarities of universal tendencies of humans there was a need to create languages of a similar type.
The pidgin language in which the majority of the vocabulary is based is known as the base, usually the European language. Similarly, the language on which the grammatical structure is founded is known as a substrate. In the pidgin, case and gender as well as in conjunction with other elements of the language are frequently dropped from the base European language. The phonology is tremendously changes and not stable always (Alatis, 1996). Features of a pidgin differ remarkably from speaker to speaker. From the theory, same case happened in the plantations, the role of Pidgin English transformed due to the second generation of locally born speakers.
The generations emerge and developed to be equal in numbers to the foreign-born residents. Additionally, there was an upsurge in the number of locally born Japanese who were attending to public school, this resulted to use of Hawaiian pidgin. The pidgin developed to be the main language of several people who grew up in Hawai'i. In addition, children began to obtain Pidgin English as their mother tongue (Andersen, 1983). Currently, the language is and was known as Pidgin, this is because the recent Pidgin carries all the traces of its past. The pidgin appears to fluctuate with the change in generations to generations, and this will make the creole also to fluctuate.
Creole
The name originated from the Latin word that means to create. The term was invented in the 16th century in European during the great expansion of maritime power. In addition, it was used in the trade as well as in the formation of European colonies in the coast of many African, American and Asian countries. The language resulted from the generation of pidgin lead to a new language as a mother tongue which becomes the creole. Similarly, to pidgin, creole is a different language which has derived its vocabulary from other language, the lexifier. However, have its unique and special grammatical rules (Alatis, 1996). In Hawai’i, there was a stopover for ship that was used in trading and whaling, there was the introduction of Pidgin English in the Pacific and China. Due to increase of foreigners in resulted to born of a new generation that was first to learn the Pidgin English as mother tongue. The second generation made Pidgin English to be the dominant language in the homes, community, and school. Eventually, as these generations grow older, the language advanced to be the creole that later linguists name it as the Hawai‘i Creole language. This marked the beginning of Hawai'i Creole English, which later developed to be the language of the majority of Hawai'i's residents (Mühlhäusler, 1986).
Hawaiian Pidgin English is founded on English and other numbers of language spoken in Hawai‘i. The group that started speaking in Hawai‘i Creole were the workers in the pineapple and sugar plantations (Sakoda & Siegel, 2003). Besides of the workers coming from a variety of language backgrounds, their mother tongue was influenced by other languages to form Pidgin English that was later transferred to their kids. Hawai‘i Creole is spoken by resident of Hawai‘i island, and it has changed U.S language since Hawai‘i Creole is spoken on the U.S mainland (Andersen, 1983). However, the state of Hawai’i has two co-official languages that are English and Hawaiian. But the majority of the residents prefer Hawai‘i Creole, and their say is understandable to some extent. Majority of linguists code-switch Hawai‘i Creole and Standard America English depending on the situation they are in.
The Future of Hawaiian Creole, the standard view of creole growth is that the decreolization is inevitable since there are factors propelling the prosperous of Hawaiian Creole English. Ethnic identity and dialect maintenance, change in ethnic identity among foreigners is closely tied to the role of Hawaiian native language in day-to-day life. In order to attain upward social mobility Hawaiian have discard their native language, instead of preserving it as a symbol of their ethnic identity. The research conducted emphasizes that the role of ethnic identity in the Hawaiian Creole English language is to increase changes in the direction of so-called Standard English (Alatis, 1996). According to longitudinal studies of urban Black English in Hawai’i, has a big difference and distance that is influenced by members of the black community as an act of identity and as a way of supporting their ethnic pride.
Foreign language instruction in Hawaii is another factor that has led to decreolization. According to the research, conducted noted that Hawaii’s potential role in the Pacific and Asia is strictly restricted by the lack of focus on Asian-Pacific languages at all scholarly levels in Hawaii curriculum (Schuchardt & In Gilbert, 1980) . It has noted by editors that the local newspapers cannot be written in Hawaii English only. In Hawaiian high schools, they teach Japanese language to more student than in any other state in the United States. Eventually, it seems that learning of foreign languages will have an important influence on the next phases of Hawaiian Creole English in Hawaii.
Hawaiian and Hawaiian Creole English is another factor that has contributed to effects of decreolization. There are two unrelated movements that have a developed a considerable following in Hawaii that is Hawaiian Language Immersion education and Hawaiian sovereignty. The two movements will influence the acquisition, evolution and status of Hawaiian Creole English in the future. In conclusion, pidgin has no native speakers, have simple grammatical structures while creole has native speaker with complex grammatical structures with wider range of vocabulary (Sakoda & Siegel, 2003). Pidgin languages do not be used for any group identification while on the other hand creole may take on official and national functions.
References
Alatis, J. E., & Georgetown University. (1996). Georgetown University round table on languages and linguistics 1996: Linguistics, language acquisition, and language variation : current trends and future prospects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Andersen, R. W., & Linguistic Society of America. (1983). Pidginization and creolization as language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Mühlhäusler, P. (1986). Pidgin & Creole linguistics. Oxford, OX: B. Blackwell.
Sakoda, K., & Siegel, J. (2003). Pidgin grammar: An introduction to the Creole English of Hawai'i. Honolulu, HI: Bess Press.
Schuchardt, H., & In Gilbert, G. G. (1980). Pidgin and Creole languages: Selected essays by Hugo Schuchardt. London: Cambridge University Press.
