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A Study on the Origins of Pidginization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Anthony J. Naro
Anthony J. Naro*
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidade Católica and Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro
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Abstract

The history of pidgin Portuguese is divided into two temporally and geographically distinct phases: first, the period of formation in Europe, beginning around the 1440's, and second, the period of transfer and establishment in West Africa of the resultant ‘acquired code’, beginning around 1500. In the first period, pidginization did not occur as a result of the initial contacts between ocean traders and Africans; rather, native speakers of West African languages were captured and taken to Portugal—where, at the orders of Prince Henry the Navigator, they were taught Portuguese so that they could be used as translators on future voyages.

Extensive modifications, attested in contemporary sources, were introduced into their speech by the Portuguese in communicating with Africans; and this type of speech became known to the populace at large through popular plays, poems etc. Examination of 15th and 16th-century literary representations of this European pidgin shows that it had the familiar pidgin structural peculiarities. The modifications were not the result of imitation-of-error, tertiary hybridization, or substratum influences, although Eastern Sabir may have played a role as a model for them. Their ultimate origins, however, can be traced to an attempt by the base-language speakers to avoid accumulation of elements of meaning in surface units.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1978, pp. 314 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by Linguistic Society of America

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