Pidgins and creoles in the history of English

AbstractEnglish colonial expansion and pursuit of trade during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries gave rise to a wide array of colonial Englishes, among them the pidgin and creole varieties that arose in the plantation colonies of the Atlantic and Pacific. This article examines the processes of change that produced these pidgins and creoles, and what they imply for the place of these languages in the history of English, and for their genetic relationship to their lexifier language. It argues that the processes of change that led both pidgins and creoles were not that different from those which have affected most languages, including English, at one time or another. Such changes include simplification, admixture, and both internally and externally-motivated grammaticalization. Since pidgins and creoles only carry further the same tendencies that have operated in the history of English and other languages, it seems odd to deny them status as continuations of their lexifiers, while granting such status to other colonial Englishes.