The essential linguistic processes involved are reduction and restriction in form and use for pidgins, and later expansion and extension in form and use for creoles. Pidgin was defined as a makeshift adaptation, reduced in structure and limited in use, and most importantly no one’s first language, i.e., a contact vernacular creole was a pidgin that had become a primary language in that it was a language of the home and learned by children directly from their parents. His definition, although subject to much recent debate, embodies the essence of the current concepts concerning these languages. Finally, creole was applied to some of the languages spoken around the Caribbean and in West Africa and was then extended to include all similar languages throughout the world.Īs language types, pidgins and creoles were first distinguished and defined by Leonard Bloomfield over forty years ago. Later, the term was extended to include natives and other people of non-European background. Creole, however, comes originally from the Portuguese crioulo and initially referred to a white man of European descent who had been born and raised in a tropical or semitropical colony. It was first applied to Chinese Pidgin English, and later came to denote languages of similar type. The term pidgin is thought to have been derived from the English word business. In concert with social change has come linguistic innovation Pidgin English (Bislama) and creole languages are spoken throughout the group and are direct products of early contact with Europeans. Being propelled into articulation with the Western world by the Age of Exploration, being exploited by both the blackbirders and the early settlers, and being a major stage for the Pacific Theater in the Second World War, have all had profound effects upon the aboriginal culture of this archipelago.

New Hebrides is an area in the throes of rapid culture change.

White guy speaking pidgin english