Pidgins and creoles are new varieties of language that emerge when people speaking different languages come into contact with each other. The study of these ‘contact languages’ falls mainly under the heading of sociolinguistics, but also intersects with many other subdisciplines, such as contact linguistics and applied linguistics. This chapter begins by providing some background: definitions of key terms and information about the current status and use of these languages. Then it describes four areas of research in pidgin and creole studies (sometimes called ‘creolistics’). The next section concentrates on educational policy and practice. It discusses the use of pidgins and creoles for classroom instruction and special programmes aimed at speakers of these languages.

Background

Definitions

Pidgins and creoles develop out of a need for communication among people who do not share a common language – for example, among plantation labourers from diverse geographic origins. Most of the words in the vocabulary of the new language come from one of the languages of the people in contact, called the ‘lexifier’ (or sometimes the ‘superstrate’) – usually the language of the group with the most power or prestige. However, the meanings and functions of the words, as well as the way they’re pronounced and put together (i.e. the grammatical rules) of the pidgin or creole, are different to those of the lexifier. These rules may sometimes resemble those of the other languages in contact, usually referred to in pidgin and creole studies as the ‘substrate languages’.

An example is the following sentence from Bislama, the dialect of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Vanuatu. This language arose among Pacific Islanders working as plantation labourers in Queensland (Australia) in the late 1800s.