Section outline

  • The course  introduces students to  contact varieties as outcomes of intense multilingual interaction, especially in colonial and post‑colonial settings. It explains how pidgins arise as simplified contact codes with no native speakers and how some of them develop into creoles, fully‑fledged native languages with their own stable grammar and vocabulary.

    Objectives 

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    By the end of the course, students will be able to:

    • Define pidgin and creole and clearly distinguish them from other contact varieties.

    • Describe, in broad terms, how pidgins arise and how some develop into creoles through nativisation and functional expansion.

    • Identify key structural features typically associated with pidgins and creoles (e.g. reduced morphology in pidgins, stabilised grammar in creoles).

    • Explain the historical and sociolinguistic contexts in which pidgins and creoles emerge (trade, colonisation, forced labour, migration).

    • Discuss the social status and language attitudes surrounding pidgins and creoles (stigma vs recognition) and their role in identity and education.

    • Use appropriate technical terminology when describing examples of pidgin and creole languages in oral and written work.