Social Sciences and History / Unit 11 SSH 1024 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Pidgin, Creole, Lingua Franca: Naming the Contact Language
The idea
The exam describes a language situation and asks the term, and the anchor's key terms sort it. A pidgin is a composite language with a simplified grammar and a limited vocabulary, made for contact. A creole is a blended language distinguished from a pidgin by more complex grammar and by its status as a first language, learned by children. A lingua franca is a language used to make communication possible between people who do not share a native language, and it may be anyone's full language. A dialect is a variant of a single language. Bilingualism is use of two languages at varying fluency, and intergenerational language shift is the pattern by which immigrant groups move from monolingual in the old language to monolingual in English.
In practice
Given "traders on two sides of a river built a stripped-down tongue for bargaining", pidgin. Given "their grandchildren speak that tongue as their mother language, now with full grammar", creole. Given "pilots worldwide use English on the radio", lingua franca. Given "a family's third generation speaks only English", intergenerational shift. Ask whether the language is simplified, native, or shared.
Where people slip
The trap is calling a creole a dialect; a creole is a language of its own with native speakers. The second trap is treating lingua franca as a kind of language; it is a role a language plays.
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