Creole language
Categories: Linguistics | Pidgins and creoles
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A Creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. The majority of creole languages are based on English, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Spanish as the superstrate language, with local or immigrant languages as substrate languages.
Pidgins are rudimentary languages improvised by non-native speakers; when pidgins creolize, however, they develop fully-formed and stable grammar structures, usually as a result of the pidgin being natively learned by children (see Nicaraguan Sign Language). In some cases the group of people who speak such a language are called Creoles.
General Features of Creoles
- Main article: Syntactic similarities of creoles
Study of Creole languages around the world (in particular by Derek Bickerton) has suggested that they display remarkable similarities in grammar and are developed uniformly from pidgins in a single generation, lending support to the theory of a Universal Grammar; critics, however, argue that his examples are largely drawn from creoles derived from European languages, and that non-European-based creoles such as Nubi or Sango display fewer similarities.
Even considering only creoles from European languages, the similarities in grammatical structure are striking, especially considering that they evolved in communities which were isolated from one another. For example, these creoles tend to have similar usage patterns for definite and indefinite articles, and similar movement rules for phrase structures.
Below are described some of the better-known creoles.
Arabic creoles
Nubi
An Arabic-based creole spoken by descendants of Sudanese soldiers mainly in Kenya and Uganda, formed in the nineteenth century from a Sudanese Arabic-based pidgin used for intercommunication among southern Sudanese ethnic groups. See also Varieties of Arabic.
Juba Arabic
A major language of inter-ethnic communication in Equatoria (southern Sudan), creolized from the same pidgin Arabic as Ki-Nubi.
Babalia Creole Arabic
A Shuwa Arabic-based creole spoken in 23 villages of the Chari-Baguirmi Prefecture in southwestern Chad; the substrate language was Berakou.
Native American creoles
Dutch creoles
In Guyana, the two Dutch-based creoles Berbice Dutch Creole and Skepi Dutch Creole were formerly widespread; the latter is extinct, and the former declining fast. In the US Virgin Islands, Negerhollands, now extinct, was also a Dutch-based creole. There is also a Dutch-influenced creole spoken in Netherlands Antilles, called Papiamento, but it is originally a Portuguese-based creole.
English Creoles
Singlish
Singlish is a creole based on British English. It originated in Singapore, and spread to parts of Malaysia. It is a mixture of mainly Malay, Mandarin, Hokkien (a Chinese dialect), Tamil (a south Indian Dravidian language), and British English.
Belizean Creole
Belizean "Kriol", is one of the main branches of Central American Creole English, closely related to Miskito Coastal Creole , Colón Creole, and Providencia Creole English.It is a Creole language based on English.Spoken in Belize. The Creole is used as lingua franca in Belize; it is spoken by 70% of the population.To speak it is to be Belizean.
Bislama
Bislama (older Bêche-la-mar) is an English-based creole, and is the national language of Vanuatu.
Gullah
Gullah is an English-based creole spoken in the Sea Islands and the adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida.
Hawaiian Creole English
Hawaiian Pidgin began as a pidgin jargon used in the early European colonization of the Hawaiian Islands. English served as the superstrate language, with Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Hawaiian elements incorporated. Children started using it as a lingua franca, and by the 20's it had creolized and become a minor language of Hawaii, as it still is today.
Krio
Spoken in Sierra Leone.
Kriol
Also known as Roper River Creole, has become the major non-English language among Aboriginal Australians with over 10,000 first language speakers.
Miskito Creole English
From contact of Miskito Indians of the coasts of Nicaragua and the Honduras with the British. Spoken in the coastal areas. Also known as NORTHERN CENTRAL AMERICA CREOLE ENGLISH
Pitkern, Norfuk
Spoken exclusively by the inhabitants of the Pitcairn Islands and Pitcairnese migrants in Norfolk Island, an 18th century dialect of English is spoken with the Tahitian language to form the Creole language known as Pitkern, or Norfuk in Norfolk Island.
Sranan Tongo
in Suriname.
Tok Pisin
is spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. English is the superstrate language, with various Papuan languages providing grammatical and lexical input.
Torres Strait Creole
Spoken by Torres Straits Islanders.
Hibradin Krayolle
Spoken in the Deep South of the United States. It relies heavily on Scots English, Gaelic, English, French, Cherokee and Carribean Creoles of Northern Florida. This Creole was spoken by the groups of early immigrants from the Western Isles of Scotland (Hebrides) to the Southern states of the USA (The Carolinas, Alabama, Northern Mississippi and Tennessee).
It relies heavily on Scottish-Gaelic for the lexicon and on a Franco-German patois for the noun usage but uses Carolinian Cherokee for adjectives. A varient of this was believed to have been spoken in the ancient Scottish colony of Dalriada (near modern day Panama and Honduras) except with a Spannish-Portugeus patois instead of the Franco-German one and an Amerindian one instead of Cherokee but retaining the Northern Carribean Creole.
French Creoles
Haitian creole
or Kreyol ayisyen, is a language spoken primarily in Haiti. French is its superstrate language, with numerous African languages and some local indigenous languages providing substrate input.
Antillean Creole
is a language spoken primarily in the French (and some of the English) Lesser Antilles, such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia and many other smaller islands. Although all of the creoles spoken the these islands are considered to be the same language, there are noticible differences between the dialects of each island.
Kreyol Lwiziyen
Louisiana creole, spoken mainly by African American Creoles in Louisiana.
Mauritian Creole
Spoken as the lingua franca in Mauritius
Réunion Creole
Spoken on Réunion Island.
Seychellois Creole
Also known as Seselwa, Seychellois Creole is an official language, along with English and French, as well as the lingua franca of the Seychelles.
Lanc-Patuá
Spoken in Brazil, mostly in Amapá state. It has influenced by Portuguese as a substrate. It was developed by immigrants from neighboring French Guiana and French territories of Caribbean Sea.
German Creoles
Unserdeutsch
or Rabaul Creol German. Unserdeutsch means "our German". It is a language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea and the northeast of Australia and almost extinct. It was formed among the New Guinean children residing in a German-run orphanage. Only a few native speakers are still alive. ISO-Code 639-2: crp
Malay Creoles
For further information, see on Malay Creole
Ngbandi-based Creoles
Sango, the national language of the Central African Republic, is considered by many linguists to be a Ngbandi-based creole with some French influence. Other linguists do not regard it as a creole.
Portuguese Creoles
- Main article: Portuguese Creole
There are several Portuguese Creoles:
Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole
Also known as Sri Lanka Portuguese (Creole). Spoken in Sri Lanka, local languages are the substrate.
Creoles of Cape Verde
Spoken in Cape Verde, at least, two creoles. Some locals refer 10 different creoles, one for each inhabited island and two for the island of Santiago. Several African substrate languages.
Creoles of India
Various creoles were largely spoken in India, the remaining are under threat: Crioulo de Diu, Crioulo de Vaipim, Língua da Casa and Kristi.
Creoles of São Tomé and Príncipe
Three different Creole languages are spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe, all based in Portuguese: Forro, Lunguyê and Lungua N'golá, several African languages work as substrate. Lunga N'Golá is based on Bantu languages.
Annobonnese
Language of the island of Annobón, Equatorial Guinea, related to Forro from São Tomé and Príncipe.
Upper Guinea Creole
Ancient creole and the first Portuguese creole. Also known as Crioulo it is spoken in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal the local African languages are the substrate. Divided into three dialectal groups. It is the Lingua franca of Guinea-Bissau.
Macanese
Spoken in Macao, and Hong-Kong. Chinese, Malay and Indian languages as substrate. Also influenced by English, Spanish, and Japanese.
Kristang
Spoken in Malacca, Malaysia. Malay is substrate.
Papiamento
Spoken in Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, the Dutch West Indies. Spanish and Portuguese influenced with some Dutch vocabulary.
Portuguese/English Creole
Saramaccan
Spoken in Suriname; of all creoles, it is one of the most divergent from its source languages. It has developed tones. Linguists dispute whether it is a heavily English-influenced Portuguese creole, supported by SIL Surinam and Ian Hancock; or a somewhat Portuguese-influenced English creole; the latter view is supported by Derek Bickerton and John McWhorter. It is heavily influenced by Kongo and Gbe.
Spanish Creoles
For information on Spanish-based Creole languages see Spanish Creole.
References
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