Misplaced Pages

#263736

70-548: African-American Vernacular English ( AAVE ) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working - and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians . Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of

140-536: A Chinese pronunciation of the English word business , and all attestations from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean "business; an action, occupation, or affair" (the earliest being from 1807). The term pidgin English ('business English'), first attested in 1855, shows the term in transition to referring to language, and by

210-472: A controversial resolution for AAVE, which was later called "Ebonics". The Oakland School board approved that Ebonics be recognized as a language independent from English (though this particular view is not endorsed by linguists), that teachers would participate in recognizing this language, and that it would be used in theory to support the transition from Ebonics to Standard American English in schools. This program lasted three years and then died off. Although

280-422: A language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from several languages. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade , or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups). Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it

350-402: A standard variety , some lect that is selected and promoted prescriptively by either quasi-legal authorities or other social institutions, such as schools or media. Standard varieties are accorded more sociolinguistic prestige than other, nonstandard lects and are generally thought of as "correct" by speakers of the language. Since the selection is an arbitrary standard , standard forms are

420-472: A body of writing) from isolated enclaves in Samaná and Nova Scotia peopled by descendants of migrations of early AAVE-speaking groups (see Samaná English ) that suggests that the grammar of early AAVE was closer to that of contemporary British dialects than modern urban AAVE is to other current American dialects, suggesting that the modern language is a result of divergence from mainstream varieties, rather than

490-510: A language characterized by its own phonological , syntactic , and lexical properties." A variety spoken in a particular region is called a regional dialect (regiolect, geolect ); some regional varieties are called regionalects or topolects, especially to discuss varieties of Chinese . In addition, there are varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes called ethnolects ), socioeconomic classes (sometimes called sociolects ), or other social or cultural groups. Dialectology

560-408: A minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African creole languages spoken around the world that it could have originated as a creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing decreolization . African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) may be considered a dialect , ethnolect or sociolect . While it is clear that there

630-506: A pidgin need not always precede a creole nor a creole evolve from a pidgin. Pidgins, according to Mufwene, emerged among trade colonies among "users who preserved their native vernaculars for their day-to-day interactions". Creoles, meanwhile, developed in settlement colonies in which speakers of a European language, often indentured servants whose language would be far from the standard in the first place, interacted extensively with non-European slaves , absorbing certain words and features from

700-466: A pidgin usually requires: Keith Whinnom (in Hymes (1971) ) suggests that pidgins need three languages to form, with one (the superstrate) being clearly dominant over the others. Linguists sometimes posit that pidgins can become creole languages when a generation of children learn a pidgin as their first language, a process that regularizes speaker-dependent variation in grammar. Creoles can then replace

770-425: A specific community". More recently, sociolinguists have adopted the concept of the community of practice , a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group within which dialects develop and change. Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain: "Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus, it

SECTION 10

#1732765780264

840-416: Is a grammatically inferior form of English, which linguistics research of the twentieth century has debunked. However, educators and social commentators traditionally have advocated for eliminating AAVE usage through the public-education system for a variety of reasons, ranging from a continued belief that AAVE is intrinsically deficient to arguments that its use, by being stigmatized in certain social contexts,

910-455: Is a strong historical relationship between AAVE and earlier Southern U.S. dialects , the origins of AAVE are still a matter of debate. The presiding theory among linguists is that AAVE has always been a dialect of English, meaning that it originated from earlier English dialects rather than from English-based creole languages that "decreolized" back into English. In the early 2000s, Shana Poplack provided corpus -based evidence (evidence from

980-560: Is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or "melody", which characterizes even the most "neutral" or light African-American accent. A handful of multisyllabic words in AAVE differ from General American in their stress placement so that, for example, police , guitar , and Detroit are pronounced with initial stress instead of ultimate stress. The following are phonological differences in AAVE vowel and consonant sounds. Final consonant groups or clusters in AAVE have been examined as evidence of

1050-604: Is commonly referred to by its speakers as "Pidgin". The term jargon has also been used to refer to pidgins, and is found in the names of some pidgins, such as Chinook Jargon . In this context, linguists today use jargon to denote a particularly rudimentary type of pidgin; however, this usage is rather rare, and the term jargon most often means the specialized vocabulary of some profession. Pidgins may start out as or become trade languages , such as Tok Pisin . Trade languages can eventually evolve into fully developed languages in their own right, such as Swahili , distinct from

1120-417: Is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin is not the native language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language. A pidgin may be built from words, sounds, or body language from a multitude of languages as well as onomatopoeia . As the lexicon of any pidgin will be limited to core vocabulary, words with only a specific meaning in

1190-428: Is defined as "the language use typical of an individual person". An individual's idiolect may be affected by contact with various regional or social dialects, professional registers and, in the case of multilinguals , various languages. For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence , essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user,

1260-619: Is general social acceptance that gives us a workable arbitrary standard, not any inherent superiority of the characteristics it specifies." Sociolinguists generally recognize the standard variety of a language as one of the dialects of that language. In some cases, an authoritative regulatory body , such as the Académie Française , maintains and codifies the usage norms for a standard variety. More often, though, standards are understood in an implicit, practice-based way. Writing about Standard English, John Algeo suggests that

1330-430: Is intensifying with the grammatical features exemplified in these sentences: "He be the best" (intensified equative be ), "She be done had her baby" (resultative be done ), and "They come hollerin" (indignant come ). On the other hand, rural AAVE alone shows certain features too, such as: "I was a-huntin" ( a -prefixing); "It riz above us" (different irregular forms); and "I want for to eat it" ( for to complement). Using

1400-443: Is more common in speech than it is in writing. AAVE also has words that either are not part of most other American English dialects or have strikingly different meanings. For example, there are several words in AAVE referring to White people that are not part of mainstream American English; these include gray as an adjective for Whites (as in gray dude ), possibly from the color of Confederate uniforms; and paddy , an extension of

1470-447: Is socially limiting. Some of the harshest criticism of AAVE or its use has come from African Americans themselves. A conspicuous example was the " Pound Cake speech ", in which Bill Cosby criticized some African Americans for various social behaviors, including the way they talked. Educators traditionally have attempted to eliminate AAVE usage through the public education system, perceiving the dialect as grammatically defective. In 1974,

SECTION 20

#1732765780264

1540-450: Is stressed and semantically distinct from the unstressed form: She BIN running ('She has been running for a long time') and She been running ('She has been running'). This aspect has been given several names, including perfect phase , remote past , and remote phase (this article uses the third). As shown above, been places action in the distant past. However, when been is used with stative verbs or gerund forms, been shows that

1610-473: Is the noun–noun combination. There is also the adjective–noun combination, which is the second most commonly occurring type of combination found in AAE slang. AAE also combines adjectives with other adjectives, less frequently, but more so than in standard American English. AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip . In many cases, the postulated etymologies are not recognized by linguists or

1680-459: Is the study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution. Traditionally, dialectologists study the variety of language used within a particular speech community , a group of people who share a set of norms or conventions for language use. In order to sidestep the vexing problem of distinguishing dialect from language , some linguists have been using the term communalect – defined as "a neutral term for any speech tradition tied to

1750-494: Is unknown. Kitchen refers to the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck, and siditty or seddity means "snobbish" or "bourgeois". AAVE has also contributed many words and phrases to other varieties of English, including chill out , main squeeze , soul , funky , and threads . African-American Vernacular English has influenced the development of other dialects of English. The AAVE accent, New York accent , and Spanish-language accents have together yielded

1820-496: Is used to emphasize the completed nature of the action. ^b I'ma , also commonly spelled Imma , is pronounced as / ˈ aɪ m ə / . Harvard professor Sunn m'Cheaux claims I'ma originated in the Gullah language (an English creole), which uses "a-" instead of "-ing" for this type of verb inflection. Other sources suggest it is a further shortening of I'm gonna . As phase auxiliary verbs, been and done must occur as

1890-477: Is within communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities." The words dialect and accent are often used synonymously in everyday speech, but linguists define the two terms differently. Accent generally refers to differences in pronunciation , especially those that are associated with geographic or social differences, whereas dialect refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary as well. Many languages have

1960-592: The American South (see Great Migration and Second Great Migration ) as well as to long-term racial segregation that kept these speakers living together in largely homogeneous communities. Variety (linguistics) Variation at the level of the lexicon , such as slang and argot , is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also called registers ), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties as well. O'Grady et al. define dialect : "A regional or social variety of

2030-506: The LOT vowel, matching the cot-caught merger of White Pittsburgh accents , though AAVE accents traditionally do not have the cot-caught merger. Memphis , Atlanta , and Research Triangle AAVE incorporates the DRESS vowel raising and FACE vowel lowering associated with White Southern accents . Memphis and St. Louis AAVE are developing, since the mid-twentieth century, an iconic merger of

2100-489: The Oxford English Dictionary , such as to dig , jazz , tote , and bad-mouth , a calque from Mandinka . African American slang is formed by words and phrases that are regarded as informal. It involves combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing, and creating new words. African American slang possess all of the same lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms as any other language. AAVE slang

2170-614: The historical enslavement of African Americans primarily in that region. Mainstream linguists see only minor parallels between AAVE, West African languages , and English-based creole languages , instead most directly tracing back AAVE to diverse non-standard dialects of English as spoken by the English-speaking settlers in the Southern Colonies and later the Southern United States . However,

African-American Vernacular English - Misplaced Pages Continue

2240-450: The lexifier language may acquire a completely new (or additional) meaning in the pidgin. Pidgins have historically been considered a form of patois , unsophisticated simplified versions of their lexifiers, and as such usually have low prestige with respect to other languages. However, not all simplified or "unsophisticated" forms of a language are pidgins. Each pidgin has its own norms of usage which must be learned for proficiency in

2310-590: The non-standard accent . AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American. As with most English varieties spoken by African Americans , African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the regional dialects of the Southern United States , and especially older Southern American English , due to

2380-403: The "correct" varieties only in the sense that they are tacitly valued by higher socio-economic strata and promoted by public influencers on matters of language use , such as writers, publishers, critics, language teachers, and self-appointed language guardians. As Ralph Harold Fasold puts it, "The standard language may not even be the best possible constellation of linguistic features available. It

2450-426: The 1860s the term pidgin alone could refer to Pidgin English. The term came to be used in a more general linguistic sense to refer to any simplified language by the late 19th century. A popular false etymology for pidgin is English pigeon , a bird sometimes used for carrying brief written messages, especially in times prior to modern telecommunications . The word pidgin , formerly also spelled pigion ,

2520-560: The African American English (AAE) took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to name a few. These studies concluded that the African American Language (AAL) was homogeneous, which means that AAE was spoken the same way everywhere around the country. Later, sociolinguists would realize that these cities lacked the influence of the rural south; the early studies had not considered

2590-403: The action began in the distant past and that it is continuing now. Rickford (1999) suggests that a better translation when used with stative verbs is "for a long time". For instance, in response to "I like your new dress", one might hear Oh, I been had this dress , meaning that the speaker has had the dress for a long time and that it isn't new. To see the difference between the simple past and

2660-701: The course of a communicative event as the relationship between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift styles, as their perception of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC . Caller: ¿Es la embajada de Cuba? ( Is this the Cuban embassy? ) Receptionist: Sí. Dígame. ( Yes, may I help you? ) Caller: Es Rosa. ( It's Rosa. ) Receptionist: ¡Ah Rosa! ¿Cóma anda eso? ( Oh, Rosa! How's it going? ) At first,

2730-496: The distinction between AAVE and General American dialects is clear to most English speakers, some characteristics, notably double negatives and the omission of certain auxiliaries (see below) such as the has in has been are also characteristic of many colloquial dialects of American English. There is general uniformity of AAVE grammar, despite its vast geographic spread across the whole country. This may be due in part to relatively recent migrations of some African Americans out of

2800-797: The existing mix of languages to become the native language of a community (such as the Chavacano language in the Philippines , Krio in Sierra Leone , and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea ). However, not all pidgins become creole languages; a pidgin may die out before this phase would occur (e.g. the Mediterranean Lingua Franca ). Other scholars, such as Salikoko Mufwene , argue that pidgins and creoles arise independently under different circumstances, and that

2870-401: The first auxiliary; when they occur as the second, they carry additional aspects : The latter example shows one of the most distinctive features of AAVE: the use of be to indicate that performance of the verb is of a habitual nature. In most other American English dialects, this can only be expressed unambiguously by using adverbs such as usually . This aspect-marking form of been or BIN

African-American Vernacular English - Misplaced Pages Continue

2940-466: The following sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect that is used with the technical register of physical geography: There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys. Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers. The appropriate form of language may also change during

3010-523: The gerund when used with been , consider the following expressions: Auxiliaries in African American Vernacular English are related in a typical pattern. They can be grouped into negative forms and affirmative forms for each of the words. For example, "had" is an affirmative form, while "hatn" is the corresponding negative form. These same auxiliaries can be used to mark sentences for the anterior aspect. As another example,

3080-408: The idiolect, is a way of referring to the specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, the idiolect is more like a dialect with a speech community of one individual. Pidgin A pidgin / ˈ p ɪ dʒ ɪ n / , or pidgin language , is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have

3150-438: The language. For example, the word "tes" in AAVE originates from "test", with the final "t" of the "st" consonant cluster being deleted in word-final position. McWhorter discusses an accent continuum from "a 'deep' Black English through a 'light' Black English to standard English," saying the sounds on this continuum may vary from one African American speaker to the next or even in a single speaker from one situational context to

3220-557: The languages they were originally influenced by. Trade languages and pidgins can also influence an established language's vernacular , especially amongst people who are directly involved in a trade where that pidgin is commonly used, which can alternatively result in a regional dialect being developed. Pidgins are usually less morphologically complex but more syntactically rigid than other languages, and usually have fewer morphosyntactic irregularities than other languages. Characteristics shared by most pidgins: The initial development of

3290-410: The next. McWhorter regards the following as rarer features, characteristic only of a deep Black English but which speakers of light Black English may occasionally "dip into for humorous or emotive effect": Although AAVE does not necessarily have the simple past-tense marker of other English varieties (that is, the -ed of "work ed "), it does have an optional tense system with at least four aspects of

3360-712: The origins of AAVE "agree that the West African connection is quite minor." However, a creole theory, less accepted among linguists, posits that AAVE arose from one or more creole languages used by African captives of the Atlantic slave trade , due to the captives speaking many different native languages and therefore needing a new way to communicate among themselves and with their captors. According to this theory, these captives first developed what are called pidgins : simplified mixtures of languages. Since pidgins form from close contact between speakers of different languages,

3430-453: The past tense and two aspects of the future tense. The dialect uses several Tense-Aspect-Mood markers integrated into the predicate phrase, including gon or gonna (future tense), done (completive aspect), be (habitual aspect, state of being), and been (durative aspect). These can function separately or in conjunction. ^a Syntactically, I bought it is grammatical, but done (always unstressed, pronounced as / d ən / )

3500-454: The pidgin. A pidgin differs from a creole , which is the first language of a speech community of native speakers that at one point arose from a pidgin. Unlike pidgins, creoles have fully developed vocabulary and patterned grammar. Most linguists believe that a creole develops through a process of nativization of a pidgin when children of speakers of an acquired pidgin learn it and use it as their native language. Pidgin derives from

3570-647: The population movements during the Great Migration, resulting in a broadly South-to-North pattern, albeit with founder effects in cities that already had existing African American populations at the beginning of the Great Migration. There is no vowel for which the geographic variation in AAVE patterns with that of White American English. New York City AAVE incorporates some local features of the New York accent , including its high THOUGHT vowel; meanwhile, conversely, Pittsburgh AAVE may merge this same vowel with

SECTION 50

#1732765780264

3640-418: The receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies herself, the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and she shifts to an informal register of colloquial Cuban Spanish . The shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching , but since it involves styles or registers, it is considered an example of style-shifting. An idiolect

3710-482: The recordings of former slaves to demonstrate that negation was inherited from nonstandard colonial English. AAVE shares most of its lexicon with other varieties of English, particularly that of informal and Southern dialects; for example, the relatively recent use of y'all . As statistically shown by Algeo (1991: 3–14), the main sources for new words are combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing, and creating. However, it has also been suggested that some of

3780-423: The representation of the south of America, which caused the AAE studies to change. To make those changes, the newer studies used the diversity of the country and took into consideration the rural south. African-American Vernacular English began as mostly rural and Southern, yet today is mostly urban and nationally widespread, and its more recent urban features are now even diffusing into rural areas. Urban AAVE alone

3850-627: The result of decreolization from a widespread American creole. Linguist John McWhorter maintains that the contribution of West African languages to AAVE is minimal. In an interview on National Public Radio 's Talk of the Nation , McWhorter characterized AAVE as a "hybrid of regional dialects of Great Britain that slaves in America were exposed to because they often worked alongside the indentured servants who spoke those dialects..." According to McWhorter, virtually all linguists who have carefully studied

3920-507: The slang use for "Irish". "Red bone" is another example of this, usually referring to light skinned African Americans. " Ofay ", which is pejorative , is another general term for a White person ; it might derive from the Ibibio word afia , which means "light-colored", from the Yoruba word ofe , spoken in hopes of disappearing from danger. However, most dictionaries simply say its etymology

3990-530: The slave trade would have been exactly such a situation. Creolist John Dillard quotes, for example, slave ship captain William Smith describing the sheer diversity of mutually unintelligible languages just in The Gambia . By 1715, an African pidgin was reproduced in novels by Daniel Defoe , in particular, The Life of Colonel Jacque . In 1721, Cotton Mather conducted the first attempt at recording

4060-659: The sound of New York Latino English , some of whose speakers use an accent indistinguishable from an AAVE one. AAVE has also influenced certain Chicano accents and Liberian Settler English , directly derived from the AAVE of the original 16,000 African Americans who migrated to Liberia in the 1800s. In the United States, urban youth participating in hip-hop culture or marginalized as ethnic minorities are also well-studied in adopting African-American Vernacular English, or prominent elements of it: for example, Southeast-Asian Americans embracing hip-hop identities. The first studies on

4130-631: The speech of slaves in his interviews regarding the practice of smallpox inoculation. By the time of the American Revolution, varieties among slave creoles were not quite mutually intelligible . Dillard quotes a recollection of "slave language" toward the latter part of the 18th century: "Kay, massa, you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad; den me sit very still, until another great fish jump into de canoe; but me fall asleep, massa, and no wake 'til you come...." Not until

4200-566: The standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good". A register (sometimes called a style ) is a variety of language used in a particular social setting. Settings may be defined in terms of greater or lesser formality, or in terms of socially recognized events, such as baby talk , which is used in many western cultures to talk to small children or as a joking register used in teasing or playing The Dozens . There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon refers specifically to

4270-490: The systematic nature of this language variety, governed by specific rules. Additionally, such analyses have been utilized to bolster arguments concerning the historical origins of AAVE. Consonant cluster reduction is a phonological process where a final consonant group or cluster, consisting of two consonant sounds, is simplified or reduced to a single consonant sound. The analysis of consonant cluster reduction in AAVE assumes that, initially, final clusters are present and intact in

SECTION 60

#1732765780264

4340-571: The teacher-led Conference on College Composition and Communication issued a position statement affirming students' rights to their own dialects and the validity of all dialects. Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this view about dialects. In 1979, a judge ordered the Ann Arbor School District to find a way to identify AAVE speakers in the schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English." In 1996, Oakland Unified School District made

4410-741: The time of the American Civil War did the language of the slaves become familiar to a large number of educated Whites. The abolitionist papers before the war form a rich corpus of examples of plantation creole. In Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870), Thomas Wentworth Higginson detailed many features of his Black soldiers' language. Opponents of the creole theory suggest that such pidgins or creoles existed but simply died out without directly contributing to modern AAVE. Many pronunciation features distinctly set AAVE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American ). McWhorter argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents

4480-489: The vocabulary associated with such registers. Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or social groupings, registers are associated with particular communicative situations, purposes, or levels of formality, and can constitute divisions within a single regional lect or standardized variety. Dialect and register may thus be thought of as different dimensions of linguistic variation . For example, Trudgill suggests

4550-538: The vocabulary unique to AAVE has its origin in West African languages, but etymology is often difficult to trace, and without a trail of recorded usage, the suggestions below cannot be considered proven. Early AAVE and Gullah contributed a number of words of African origin to the American English mainstream, including gumbo , goober , yam , and banjo . Compounding in AAVE is a very common method in creating new vocabulary. The most common type of compounding

4620-555: The vowels in SQUARE and NURSE , making there sound like thurr . Californian AAVE often lacks a cot-caught merger , especially before nasals. African-American Vernacular suffers from persistent stigma and negative social evaluation in American culture. By definition, as a vernacular dialect of English, AAVE has not received the social prestige of a standard dialect , leading to widespread and long-standing misconceptions that it

4690-592: The whole thing ("Don't try to act as if you don't know what happened, because you started the whole thing"). The irrealis mood marker be , having no intrinsic tense refers to a current or future event that may be less than real. Modals The dialect uses double modals, such as might could , which can function in various ways, including as adverbs. Negatives are formed differently from most other varieties of English: While AAVE shares these with Creole languages, Howe & Walker (2000) use data from early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, and

4760-717: The word bees even in place of be to mean is or are in standard English, as in the sentence "That's the way it bees" is also one of the rarest of all deep AAVE features today, and most middle-class AAVE speakers would recognize the verb bees as part of only a deep "Southern" or "country" speaker's vocabulary. There are at least 10 distinct regional accents in AAVE, and regional patterns of pronunciation and word choice appear on social media. Regional variation in AAVE does not pattern with other regional variation in North American English, which broadly follows East-to-West migration patterns, but instead patterns with

4830-667: Was marks type 1 sentences, which by default are present tense, and transforms them to a time before the present. Take, for instance, "She at home": the word was can be inserted to mark this sentence, making the marked equivalent "She was at home". Auxiliaries such as these also have opposing negative and affirmative forms. In its negative form the auxiliary verb "wadn" is used to convey the opposing affirmative form. In addition to these, come (which may or may not be an auxiliary) may be used to indicate speaker indignation, such as in Don't come acting like you don't know what happened and you started

4900-424: Was first applied to Chinese Pidgin English , but was later generalized to refer to any pidgin. Pidgin may also be used as the specific name for local pidgins or creoles , in places where they are spoken. For example, the name of the creole language Tok Pisin derives from the English words talk pidgin . Its speakers usually refer to it simply as "pidgin" when speaking English. Likewise, Hawaiian Creole English

#263736