On Selected Origins of Contact Languages. A Socio-Historical Perspective

Abstract

The external socio-historical factors that determine the rise of contact languages define the new varieties and decide on their form and structures. Pidgin languages arise as a consequence of many social and historical processes which involve political and economic factors in the creation of quite new and distinct social situations. William Washabaugh and Sidney Greenfield suggest that pidgin and “[c]reole languages (…) developed to provide a world of meaning for those caught in this new life situation and thus to enable them to adapt to the constrains of that situation” (Washabaugh and Greenfield 1983: 106). These are the language users who seek a common means of communication in various situations: when people from different linguistic backgrounds are thrown into a ship together they need a mutual platform of communication. Any jargon form or pidgin they come up with will be the resultant of all the languages they speak.

Keywords

• pidgin
• relexification
• lingua franca
• contact linguistics
• language change