Pidgins are contact languages that develop for communication between groups with no shared language. They are simplified mixtures of existing languages, prioritizing ease of learning over complete grammar. Pidgins form where trade or migration brings groups together, adopting vocabulary from dominant groups but syntax from subordinate ones. They lack morphology and replace inflections with separate words. Pidgins have their own structured rules and communities of users, making them independent languages rather than "bad varieties" of the languages they incorporate.

1. Altaf Ahmad Khan

2. Pidgin

A variety of language
- created for very practical and
immediate purpose to communicate
between people who otherwise would
have no common language whatsoever,
- learned by one person from another
within the communities concerned as
the accepted way of communicating with
members of other community.

3. In short

Pidgin is a mixture of two or more
existing varieties, created jointly for
some special purpose, and different
from both varieties in terms of lexicon,
syntax and morphology.

4. Why Pidgin is created?
1.
Trade:
Pidgin is created where two (or more)
communities with languages
incomprehensible to each other start
trade and business.
Here, the need to communicate with members of other
community arise, resulting in a PIDGIN- mixture of two
different languages of both trading communities.

5. BUT

Not all pidgins are restricted to being
used as trade languages, only.

Nor all trade languages are PIDGINS.
e.g. English and French are widely used
as trade languages in many parts of
Africa.

6. Why Pidgin is created?
2. General Communication:
Pidgin may be created specially for the
purpose of communicating with some
other group, and not used by any
community for communication among
themselves.
e.g. There are a large number of pidgins
spread all over the world- where migrants
have developed pidgin varieties based on
national languages for example in Germany.

7. Characteristics of Pidgin Variety

Each pidgin is specially constructed to
suit the needs of its users.
i.e. The terminology and constructions
developed are according to the kind of
contact among the communities.
e.g. if the contact is restricted to the
dealing of cattle only, then only linguistic
items to do with this are needed and there
will be no way of talking about vegetables,
emotions etc.

8. Characteristics of Pidgin Variety

It should be as simple to learn as possible.
(specially for those who benefit least from learning it)

That is why vocabulary is generally based on
the vocabulary of dominant group.
e.g. in colonial situation, vocabulary is based
on colonial power.
That is the reason a very large number of
pidgins spread round the globe, are based on
English, French, Portuguese and Dutch.

9. Characteristics of Pidgin Variety

Syntax and Phonology is based on subservant languages.
It makes the pidgin easier for other
communities to learn, than the dominant
language in its ordinary form.

10. Characteristics of Pidgin Variety


Pidgins lack Morphology.
Differences of tense, number case etc
are marked by the addition of separate
words.

11. An example from Tok Pisin- An
English based Pidgin spoken in Papua New
Guinea
Bai em I no lukim mi.
He will not see me.
Bai

Em
 i

no
 luk -im





mi




From by and by. (to indicate
future tense- will)
From him, meaning he.
From he, added to verb whose
subject is 3rd person (like –s)
From no, used instead of does not.
From look, but means see.
From him, added to a verb with
object.
From me.

12. Example shows:
I.
Syntax is different from English
(Dominant group).
II.
Syntax is rigidly rule-governed. (look at ‘I’
and ‘-im’)
III.
Example also shows that its not a
variety of English language but is a
different language, nearly complete in it
self.

13. Pidgin v/s other varieties

A Pidgin is itself a language and not a ‘bad
variety’ of the language on which it is
based.
- it has its own community of speakers and
is passed from one generation to the next.
- and hence, has its own history.
- many pidgins may have a common origin
as Portuguese based pidgins in far east
and west Africa.

14. Pidgin v/s other varieties

Pidgin is not simply a result of borrowing
from one variety into another as there is no
pre existing variety into which items may
be borrowed.
o
X based pidgin is not a variety of X which as
borrowed a lot of syntactic constructions and
phonological features from other varieties.
o
Nor is it a variety of some other language which
has borrowed a lot of vocabulary from X.

15. Pidgin v/s other varieties

Unlike ordinary languages, Pidgin has
no native speakers.
o
It is used only for communication
between members of different
communities.