A Study on the Origins of Pidginization

Bibliographic Data

ID2913506
AuthorsAnthony J Naro (corresponding author)
Year1978
Volume54
Issue2
Pages314
Publication date1978-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/412950
OpenAlexW2322782529
LanguageEN
Citations received39
References cited5

The history of pidgin Portuguese is divided into two temporally and geographically distinct phases: first, the period of formation in Europe, beginning around the 1440's, and second, the period of transfer and establishment in West Africa of the resultant ‘acquired code’, beginning around 1500. In the first period, pidginization did not occur as a result of the initial contacts between ocean traders and Africans; rather, native speakers of West African languages were captured and taken to Portugal—where, at the orders of Prince Henry the Navigator, they were taught Portuguese so that they could be used as translators on future voyages. Extensive modifications, attested in contemporary sources, were introduced into their speech by the Portuguese in communicating with Africans; and this type of speech became known to the populace at large through popular plays, poems etc. Examination of 15th and 16th-century literary representations of this European pidgin shows that it had the familiar pidgin structural peculiarities. The modifications were not the result of imitation-of-error, tertiary hybridization, or substratum influences, although Eastern Sabir may have played a role as a model for them. Their ultimate origins, however, can be traced to an attempt by the base-language speakers to avoid accumulation of elements of meaning in surface units

Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Psychology · Travel Writing and Literature

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