Bilingualism in Jamaica is of considerable consequence, as most individuals are early bilinguals, speaking both a variety of Jamaican Creole (JC) from birth and having standardized English (sE) as the language of instruction in education. Immigrants from Jamaica to the United States are an ideal population to examine how cross-linguistic influence…

This paper undertakes a sociolinguistic analysis of slangy expressions in Nigerian Pidgin. The corpus for this study was gotten systematically through participant observation of conversational discourses in everyday contexts amongst Nigerians living in the Warri-Ughelli-Sapele axes of Delta State. These linguistic data were then recorded and…

It is generally accepted that second language (L2) acquisition becomes more difficult as one grows older and that success in adult L2 acquisition is highly variable. Nevertheless, humans in language contact situations have to cope with intergroup communication. This article examines the ways society has responded to this challenge. It describes…

Discusses the role that Europeans played in the process that led to pidginized languages, in particular to the development of Pidgin Sango, the "national language" of the Central African Republic. Contends that the manner in which the Europeans communicated with Central Africans was constrained by culturally conditioned "knowledge." (SED)

Analysis of a specific language change--the loss of the Balkan infinitive--demonstrates the inadequacy of either a language-internal or a language-contact explanation in accounting for the change. A composite explanation, in which the infinitive-loss process is explained through multiple causation, seems more appropriate. Whithin the language,…

Pidginization and creolization are addressed from a language acquisition perspective. The 18 collected papers are organized around four areas of inquiry: (1) simplification in input to pidginization and second language acquisition, (2) simplification in interlanguage, (3) creolization and language acquisition, and (4) decreolization and language…

Examines the way in which the Aboriginal "voice" was represented in colonial South Australia, particularly in the form of pidgin English. The first part of the article focuses on the first decade of settlement; the second part examines the period between 1860 and the turn of the century. Findings indicate that the Aboriginal voice in…

Cameroon, a central African state is one of the few countries in the world where, in addition to a very rich linguistically diverse landscape (a little below 300 identified indigenous languages) there is English and French (all vestiges of colonial legacy) used as official languages. Coupled with this, there is pidgin English which plays the role…

Examines the process of pidgin development within the context of the Government and Binding Theory proposed by Chomsky in 1981. Hypothesizes that the contact of various languages may produce a new experience which subsequently fixes the parameters of Universal Grammar, providing a pidgin core gammar. (SED)

Highlights similarities and variation in both form and function of English pidgins the world over. It is argued that English pidgins are related more by socio-historical conditions and directions of development than by details of their formal structure. Reference list includes 68 citations. (Author/DJD)

Analyzes the anterior tense and its interaction with object clitics in Palenquero (a creole spoken in a northern Colombia village), arguing that in Palenquero, the morpho-syntax of the anterior tense and its interaction with clitics results from a convergence of Iberian, especially Portuguese, and relevant African languages. Examples are provided…

This paper examines factors impacting the acquisition and use of the standard dialect by Australia's Aboriginal youth. It explains that acquisition of a second dialect has implications for the learner's cognitive-affective and sociocultural life and argues that preservation of an "insider" perspective (related to identity) is a key…

Recent sociolinguistic research is used to show that the American Sign Language (ASL)-English contact situation does not result in the emergence of a pidgin as supposed. Variation along the ASL-English continuum can be accounted for by interplay of foreigner talk, judgments of proficiency, and learners' attempts to master the target language.…

Reviews what is known about Esperanto as a home language and first language. Recorded cases of Esperanto-speaking families are known since 1919, and in nearly all of the approximately 350 families documented, the language is spoken to the children by the father. The data suggests that this "artificial bilingualism" can be as successful…

Examines the historical changes in agreement patterns between Old Arabic and the New Arabic dialects to see whether they support Versteegh's radical hypothesis of pidginization, creolization, and decreolization. The conclusion is reached that the changes are chiefly because of processes of normal transmissions, "drift," and diffusion. (24…