I am Haitian-American (grew up in New York City) and I was so surprised when I did college study abroad in Madagascar that I understood and could communicate with native speakers from Reunion, Mayotte, and Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean. The creole they spoke was almost exactly like Haitian Creole.
How similar would say the grammar of these creoles are? I'm just interested because they would share a common vocabulary being French creoles, but I don't know how similar the grammar of many of the other parent languages would be.
JuniorXEastNY that was all a very nice explanation he gave. Problem is, that's not how French Creole came into being. All French Creoles are "l'oil" languages which means they use the same method of saying "yes" passed down from the original Latin. Creole started from various groups of men, speaking differing dialects of old French, needing to talk to each other. They then took it to the new world where the slaves learned it without changing it. New words for things/objects were added here and there, but the verbs, adverbs, etc did not change! You can compare them side by side and see that 95% of the words are exactly the same! Spelled or pronounced a little differently, but that's it. Not at all possible according to his explanation. That's also why the pronouns of Louisiana Creole and that of Mauritius are the same. One is off East Africa in the Indian Ocean while Louisiana is in the Caribbean. There are some differences, of course, but the similarities far outnumber those and different speakers can still understand each other. France still has these different dialects that gave birth to Creole to this day.
Raymond Petit That is spectacularly fascinating! So you are saying that Creole is basically 95% 18th Century (Low-Economic Working Class)French Dialect, with just a few sprinkling a local/regional words thrown in depending on the country? I have a story: My mother's generation (1940s-1960s) hated the fact that Creole became the national language of Haiti. She felt it should have remained French. She and my aunts and uncles always felt Creole was a "low class" dialect to be spoken informally, and should not be the language of newspapers, books, media, or even taught in school. Little did she know that, ironically, Haitian Creole is the "ORIGINAL" FRENCH trapped in time!
JuniorXEastNY I didn't say it was "low class" or even "low economic". I didn't even say it was the original, but yes, it is old French-several dialects made into one. French today is Parisian French, chosen from amongst the many dialects of France. Those dialects still are spoken in their original regions in France right alongside Parisian French. So there really is no such thing as 'original French'. The fact that Creole became the language of slaves and black people is where all that nonsense aboutt being 'unworthy' come from! In Louisiana people bought into that crap also and is why so few people speak it today. In fact, places that have always been Creole are now associated with Cajun and hardly anybody speaks up about it.
TheHeroAppeared as a linguist, I would call that language that you use with ur nephew a “motherese language” which is a simply made up way of communicating with little kids who can’t process a well advanced form of a certain language.
I live in Singapore and people here speak Singlish. It's not officially recognised but it's considered a creole language. The government has tried to discourage its use in the past but I think now they just gave up XD
Translation to spanish: Vivo en Singapur y la gente aquí habla Singlish. No es reconocido oficialmente pero se considera una lengua criolla. El gobierno ha intentado desalentar su uso en el pasado, pero creo que ahora simplemente dejaron de hacerlo XD.
BRAVO!!! I'm from Jamaica, so I speak Jamaican Creole (Patwa) and there has been much that has been done in recent years to educate Jamaicans on the FACT that Jamaican Creole is in fact a distinct language from English; It's a Creole of English, various West African languages, and bits of Spanish and Portuguese for good measure. Unfortunately, many very old-fashioned Jamaicans still consider it "bad English" based on the brainwashing done by the former colonial power (England). Nevertheless, it is a LINGUISTIC FACT that Jamaican Creole is a Creole language of the Western Atlantic. Thanks for this video! It was really outstanding!
RicardoMCKN I heard that someone who speaks jamaican patois but not english can understand when english is being spoken to them,even though they won't be able to respond in english.Is this true.
@@Anon.G If that's the case then jamaican patois isn't a different language since it's not mutually unintelligible with English.I'm haitian who's fluent in haitian creole and I can tell you from personal experience that no haitian who isn't fluent in French understands french(that's my present situation).I think perhaps since nearly everybody in jamaica is exposed to english on a daily basis that's why they understand it even if they don't speak it.
Thank you sifu, you saved my time for understanding this pidgin and creoles. I have SOCIOLINGUISTICS exam tomorrow. And I bet there is a question about this topic! Have a good day, sir ;)
I never knew the difference between pidgins and creoles until today. I've already subbed to your RUclips channel... you rock, Paul, and have a NICE day!
***** Sorry, Italian habits. That's how (almost exclusively) we indicate centuries. We do it so much we don't even notice when we do it; it naturally comes up as a native reading.
I thought this was great! I teach an Intro to Sociolinguistics Course. The students found this video VERY HELPFUL. Nice job at explaining the difference between Creole and Pidgin languages.
Thanks, Erin! I'm glad to hear it. It's always weird to hear that educators are showing my videos to students. I live in Japan so I don't really have any sense of how widely viewed my videos are elsewhere.
Hey Paul, I've been a big fan of the channel for a long while and just wanted you to know that we had to watch this video in a college class I'm taking now. It's about teaching second languages and it has a mix of seniors and grad students. Keep up the scholarly-good work!
Cool! Where’s that? Instructors never tell me they use my videos. 😄 Not that they have to, it’s just weird that my face is appearing in classrooms and I have no idea it’s going on. Someone in Russia told me his prof showed one of my videos in a huge lecture hall with a 5 meter high screen. 😂
@@Langfocus I'm at the University of New Hampshire, in the US. It was homework to watch it, we're covering the pidginization hypothesis by John Schumann and your video was a good compliment to all the dry academic texts
Thank you for your so instructive videos. I've been browsing them since today morning and haven't stopped yet. As a speaker (L1) of Cape Verdean Creole, I was very glad to find a video about Creole languages. But then, I got sad, you forgot to mention Portuguese-based Creoles... The Creole languages with the bigger number of speakers are Haitian Creole (+ 12,000,000 speakers), Jamaican Creole (+ 3,000,000 speakers) and Cape Verdean Creole (+ 1,000,000 speakers). Very accurate, your description of the transition from Pidgin towards Creole. However, it may lead to the (still) widely spread misconception that Creole languages are "simple" languages (or "simplified" versions of the Lexifier language). It depends of what grammatical subject we are analysing. I can show several examples where the Lexifier languge is more complex than the Creole language, but also examples where the Creole language is more complex than the Lexifier language. If you need any help about Portuguese-based Creoles, in general, or Cape Verdean Creole in particular, I'll be glad to help.
FABULOUS!!! You've helped me to explain to the world how the previously untranslated Pictish language of Scotland is a creole which used the lexicon of the Old Irish language as its lexifier with 1:1 morpheme to meaning relationship and a different syntax and grammar. Thank you so very much. I hope you don't mind. I'm using it on my blog web-site, currently in development.
Well, In my country Cameroon, the ''pidgin language'" has a total different meaning. Since the country has 2 equal dominant languages from the colonial period (french and english, sometimes German), it is made up, not only of both of these languages, but also with the mix of native bantu languages. Example: ''Je wonder si t'as nieh ce coma'' ( I'm wondering if you have seen this movie). So, what should we name this mixture? ''Super pidgin''??? =))))))
@@KillasStayFly it's true...as a jamaican i am stunned seeing white English young people speaking patwa to me perfectly with a cocknet lilt...I am proud and confused at the same time becausr patwa go it's initial pronunciation of words from cockney speakers who migrated to Jamaica in about the 17th century.
I'm an English-speaking Cameroonian and we speak a Pidgin that's sort of similar to that spoken by Nigerians (due to geographic proximity). There are several other variations spoken in Sierra Leone, Ghana,Liberia etc
In an earlier video you told about the Sri Lankan Portuguese Creol. Despite being Sri Lankan I never realized this language existed until a while ago. Thank you very much langfocus.
Hey Paul, I love your videos! I am a fluent Spanish speaker, conversant in several other Romance languages, and I am conversant in Marshellese, the language of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a group of 32 coral atolls in Mirconesia (North Tropical Pacific). But my favorite language is Solomon Islands Pijin (Pijin), which is the lingua franca spoken in the Solomon Islands, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Pijin is virtually identical to Bislama, which is spoken in Vanuatu to the east, and to the Pidjin spoken in Papua New Guinea, to the west. Papua New Guinea Pidjin has many more Melanesian words that are intrinsic to the language, and a very strong bending of the pronunciation which make it more difficult to understand. I'll tell you one thing, Pijin is a fun language for partying! Because everyone has their own "home language" for all of the serious stuff like family relationships and nuanced emotion, Pijin is mostly used outside the house, and it has only has about 1500 words. It is therefore very easy for everyone to learn, native English speakers (like me) need only learn the Melanesian grammatical structure, and Melanesians need only learn 1500 English borrow words, that they can plug into their comfortable grammatical structure. And voilá, everyone's talking! In Peace Corps, the first thing we did was spend 6 weeks living with a local family, where we got intensive language and cultural training. I picked up Pijin in about three days, and with a few grammatical rules under my belt, I could pretty much guess how to say just about anything, But then, there were the funny; "gotcha" words, that made Pijin a fun - as in funny - language, and a great language to party in. Jokes and songs, like the Solomon Islands equivalent of Yankee Doodle, called "Wakabauti Long Sainatowni" or Walkabout Chinatown. are just a blast to sing, and feel like sugar in your mouth. And then there are the words themselves. Most are borrowed from English, and most keep their English meaning. But many take on a different meaning. For example "nating"in Pijin sounds like nothing, but it means never. And to say "nothing" in English, one says "no eni samting", from no any something. So to say "I never see you anymore because I have nothing to give" one would say "Mi nating lukim iu moa, fram mi no garem eni samting fo givim long iu". Ah, music to my ears! Tanggiu tumas fo mekem lesin ia. Bae lukim iu.
I'm very happy you did a video of creole languages. As a speaker of Papiamento (a creole language that is a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and Amerindian languages), and in my opinion one of the coolest and most unique languages in the Americas, I wish more people had a knowledge of unique creoles.
thank u so much to explain in such a precise way...... now I totally know what pidgin nd creole is...... peace and love for u.....may mother nature bless u
not everyday i go on youtube and actually find what i was looking for, thanks heaps! this was sooooo helpful and i loved the easy to understand examples :)
That's a very interesting question. I'm not sure I can answer it without looking into the history a little more. But I guess there must have been some process of creolization, but I don't think it resulted from a pidgin language.
+Langfocus The funny thing is that you can also consider French as a "creolised" Latin due to Germanic influences. A lot of Germanic words entered Old French vocabulary and influenced its phonology, while the grammar was obviously derived from Latin. Then centuries later when the Normans invaded England, French vocabulary was brought to English vernacular and influenced some aspects of English grammar.
+Jordan Mandel Considering that English sort of developed out of the need for communication between Anglo-Saxon overlords and Briton subjects, I wonder the same thing.
+Jordan Mandel You make an interesting point, but: - English basic vocabulary is all Germanic. To consider English a creole language, it should have been replaced by (old) French vocabulary. - English grammar is quite similar to that of Nordic languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian). I think modern English is the result of of two facts: - the normal evolution of a highly inflected language into "simpler" structures. - the fact that English was no longer taught at school or used outside of home and village life for three centuries. People spoke as they wished, they didn't write the language anymore and they had to use Latin or Norman French in official situations. In English there are many words of French and Latin origin but they all belong to a more cultivated register.
Mr Pellagra where? In Nigeria? The Lingua Franca is definitely English (at least formally) while pidgin English is the “unofficial” language. Hausa is only spoken in the north and some parts of the middle belt
My native language is a Spanish based creole language called Papiamento. It is spoken on 3 Dutch Caribean islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It's official language since the 1990's, aside from Dutch. Because of Dutch as my second native language, it's not difficult to learn and to pronounce with ease all Romance, Germanic and Slavic and basically languages using the a, e, i , u pronouncuation. Like Chinese, Japanese, Malay and tribal languages. But as you pointed out it's not as easy as 1, 2, 3, I have to study hard like everybody else. But I have an advantage because I have no big problem to pronounce words in diffent languages well. Not wanting to brag put this proves a point that knowing one language makes it easier to learn a sister language. e.g. because of knowing Dutch I have no difficulty with the 'kh' sound in Semitic languages. My native language has influences and lonewords from different languages like Iberian and Germanic languages as well as Amerindian languages.
TheKalihiMan funny ting is, i taught we was da only people dat talk “pidgin” lol cuz in Hawaii, to us Creole isnt a language but refer to someone who is light skinned African descent or mixed african descent.
Man! You've just saved my life! I'm supposed to deliver an essay about this and I was lost in concept 'til I found your video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Thumbs up!
wow, thanks so much for this simple explanation! AND I was finally able to find a song that I had been looking for for years - when I watched your video I realised the song was in Bislama and was able to find it, so again, thank you @Langfocus.
This is awesome. I just learned that what is popularly know as pidgin English here in Nigeria, is really Creole. And it is widely spoken throughout the country, more than the lingua franca - English. And in a country of over 120million people it may very well be the most widely spoken Creole there is. It's worth researching.
I love watching your videos. Iam from Papua New Guinea and have to say your video on the country with many languages was incredible and i thankyou for it coz we are a small country in the South Pacific. I can speak 3 of our main languages including my mother-tongue called Toaripi and that of my father-law's called Mailu, so in all i speak 5 languages of the 800+ here in PNG. Here English-Pidgin is referred to as Tok Pisin and yes it is a trade language that started during the time of Dutch colonies in the northern part of our island nation. The sentence "I have already been to town in Tok Pisin will read " Me go lon taun pinis". Us Melanesian countries i.e. Solomon Isl, Fiji, Vanuatu n New Caledonia have our unique forms of pidgin where we can understand certain words of the same meaning or context. Anyway, like i said i really enjoy and always look forward to your videos. God Bless 😊
Thanks for the message! That's interesting to hear. I'm not familiar with Toaripi or Mailu, but of course I know about Tok Pisin. If I make a video about Tok Pisin in the future, would you be interested to record a few audio sentences for the video? I can do it myself, but I'm sure you would pronounce it much authentically than me.
Hi again Theresa. I don't know if you'll see this message but I want to ask you if you'd like to help me with a Tok Pisin recording soon. I couldn't send you a message on your page. If you see this, you can reply here or leave a message for me on my channel page. Thanks!
We are at a small college in Allen Park, Mich--a few miles away from Detroit and Dearborn. We have a rich linguistic landscape here--no true pidgin language, but frequent examples of code-switching between English and Arabic, amoung other languages! Thanks again.
I traveled to Vanuatu in 2010. Besides Bislama, if I was in Port Vila they understood English better but as soon as I travelled around the island of Efate more people understood French. It was incredible how easy it was for someone like me (who at the time knew only English) to read all of the signs and understand the basics of what they were trying to tell me.
I've been interested in Pidgins and Creoles since I was high-school student, nearly half a century ago. I found they're so fascinating and amazing because they show us the very moments the new languages are going to be born. I imagine that, in some two thousand years ago or more without any letters yet, old origins of Japanese language might have been born among our ancestor as pidgins and creoles....
Hi! Very nice video. However, I believe, you should have explained in greater detail how pidgins change becoming creols: how the complexity of their grammar increases, new patterns of word-formation evolve, their vocabulry expands, etc. I am suggesting this because, I think, some people might have gotten a wrong impression of creols being "simple" languages; I know, you mentioned that, in order to become a creole, a pidgin must spread to everyday life outside of initial work/business context... but still, you should have put it a little more explicitly:). Thank you!!!
You have so many fantastic videos on this channel. I use them in several of my university courses. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into your channel.
Langfocus Yeah, i really don't understand why you don't have more subscribers yet. But your subs are growing fast, don't give up! You will have hundred of thousands subscribers someday i hope, you deserve it. ;)
I agree! I really have to ask you: are creoles actual languages nowadays or were they just steps in the process of acquaring the official languages? For example, Can we say that African slaves in Luisiana acquarided the English language, or did they kept a kind of English creole?
Creoles are actual languages, and a lot of them are still widely spoken. Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patwa, etc. But in other cases they stopped using it in favor of the dominant language. African American Vernacular English’s origins are debated (I have a video on it that you might like), but I think there was some creole influence on it. But it’s still a group of English dialects with some creole elements, rather than a creole language.
You have really taught me a lot. That's so interesting. Thank you so much for such a good information. I will look for more videos. I really like this topic. Greetings!
Before my exam, I watched this video, this is super awesome explanation. To be honest, this is 1000 times better than my university lecture 🤩 THANKS for sharing these kinds of detailed videos, It helps us a lot ❤
Portuguese has its creole, spoken in islands of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Different between them, they are the language de facto of those countries, and first language of their immigrants in Portugal. A Portuguese speaker cannot understand spoken creole, but it is comprehensible when reading. There is also a (extinct?) pidgin in Macao, called patuá and a creole in Malaka Straight, Malaysia. Ladino, or judeo-spanish, spoken by the Jews from Spain and Portugal in Thessalonika, Turkey and Amsterdam, is pretty well understood by a native Portuguese.
The Angles and the Saxons created "Old English" in Britain after the end of Roman rule. Then, from the 8th -10th centuries, Scandinavian settlers, particularly, the Danes colonized parts of England and established the Danelaw which created the socio-cultural conditions for the simplification and regularization of Old English and its grammar (a creolization of a language from the same family but not the same branch of the dominant language). This process was still ongoing right up to the Norman Invasion, which, eventually, initiated the formation a "new" English which we call "Middle English". That was the English Creole based upon Anglo-Norman French.
That is amazing. Here in Brazil, Creole refers also to the language as to the people who used it in the past. For me, the most amazing about this, is the fact that i didn't know that Creole was a language. In portuguese we use the word "crioulo" or "criolo", sadly commonly used to the african decendents, in a pejorative way.
In Singapore, they speak a language very similar to English creole or pidgin. I have heard people there say words like "go slow-slow" or "go fast-fast" and phrases like "you got go there awe-raddy (already)" and "how can lye-dat (like that) one"... it's unique and amusing.
It's called Singlish and it's classified as a creole. I'm a third generation speaker myself but can switch to Standard English when the situation calls for it. Glad you find Singlish unique and amusing - us Singaporeans are very proud of it!
When I was in Haiti last year I thought I was going to be able to communicate a little because I knew basic French. However, Haitian French is NOT French lol. It was much easier reading signs than it was talking to locals too since the grammar and words were more closely related to French (but have very strange spelling)
Interesting. I've never been there, but do you know if most people CAN speak standard French? I imagine the higher classes can, but do most people know it?
umidontno040394 Yes a Creole means it is a separate language. However there are many mutually intelligible languages in the world. For example, Norwegian and Swedish, or Skånska (dialect of Swedish) and Danish are considered to be somewhat mutually intelligible.
MrC0MPUT3R yeah i know. still did you not meet any haitians who spoke French? I know 2 haitians and they speak french and haitian creole. as well as english and spanish
It happens in all latín América, for example here in México we have around 60 native laguages mixed with spanish and in the north border they are even mixed with english; in brazil,Perú,chile,Panamá,venezuela, etc all HAVE the same with their native tongues. Saludos amigo
Yoel Niv It's a "lingua-franca'' between spanish and portuguese speakers used in the south america between brazilians and spanish speakers across the border. Some people prefer to use spanish instead, since spanish is inteligible to portuguese speakers.
Just so you know, the creole spoken in the eastern Caribbean is different from Haitian Creole. However they can understand each other. Also know that the creole spoken in Mauratius is the same creole as the eastern Caribbean even though they are thousands of miles apart
hi Paul. I am a Jamaicana "Creole/patwa" (I'm sure you'll get around to it for day) speaker. from that perspective, "Mi bin long taon finis" looks a little different to your interpretation. The "long" could be "long ago" like. "I went to town long since". Or as Jamaicana might say. "Mi done Gaan a town" maybe even adding "Lang time" for "good' measure. "Him ya has blong mi" would translate as. "Dis yah house a fi mi" or "A fi mi yard dis". think you're doing a great job. I'm an older head, long time out of school and due to a messed up British school system, never had access to grammar, do some of the academic tend you use eg preposition, personal pronouns, indefinite article, verb conjugation etc. it would be great to get a video explaining some of these academic phrases. Is that even possible or would I have to go sit in some yung pickny class fi ketch up?
Pidgins have been stripped down so far that they really don't qualify as languages anymore. A creole is the next step from a pidgin, a fully functional language. An example of this is Hawaiian Pidgin. It was created when people from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico were put on plantations to work with Portuguese formen. No one spoke each other's language so they would communicate with single words and short phrases and no real grammar. That was the pidgin. for their kids who grew up together and wanted to communicate like normal human beings that wasn't good enough. They filled in the gaps and turned it into a fully functional language. It's called Hawaiian Pidgin but in reality it's Hawaiian Creole English. Also, creoles lack prefixes and suffixes because those things take time to accumulate and creoles are simply too young to have acquired them.
Can you do a video on unusual languages, like Cherokee or The African Bantu languages that have clicking sounds? Also, what's the difference between Hawaiian and Native New Zealand Māori language?
Excellent video, thank you for explaining the distinction between pidgins and a creoles using case studies. Really shows the evolution and the vibrance of living languages.
I just thought of something. Since English evolved after the Norman Conquest when French was mixed with Old Anglo-Saxon, does that mean it could be considered a Creole?
+Sam Cotten i don't think that would make it a creole. korean, japanese, and vietnamese have had huge influxes of chinese vocabulary over the centuries, but they still aren't creoles because there was never an original pidgin language. it's the same with english I think; lots of foreign influence, but it's not based on a pidgin so it's not a creole.
+Sam Cotter I agree that English is a Creole, but the process began about 200 years earlier with the Norse invasion (from what is currently Norway and Denmark). Speakers of Old English and Old Norse found they could just about communicate as the root words of both languages were just about the same. The differences had to do with word inflections and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter forms). The solution was to drop almost all inflections and gender forms, and reorganize the language based on word order. THEN the Norman French invaded, and started the first of two injections of French into English. That's my story and I'm sticking to it (I think).
It has also been influenced by Goidelic and Brythonic Gaelic, Latin, Danish ( in the Danelaw) and the languages from everywhere else its been. I am not sure if it is a creole at this point, it is more of a language aggregate.
I enjoy these 'universal' insights you provide, along with the specifics. It provides a framework of understanding the nuances of language vs dialect and the sub dialects, along with the interrelationships
I'm from Cabo Verde, off the coast of Senegal. Supposedly, our Creole (Kriolu/Kriol) is the oldest in the world, the closest relatives being Creole from Guinea Bissau (pretty much completely mutually intelligible) and Papiamentu from Curaçao, with varying degrees of intelligibility. Here's an example of our language (The Santiago Island variant - each one of the 9 inhabited islands has got its own. ruclips.net/video/979o9hWCtq0/видео.html
This is so fascinating, I would like to see you make a language on sociolect, thank you! Your videos really inspired me to take up linguistic in my University.
Neema Paxima I don't think they are. I just mean do you base the language family assignation after the most of the vocabulary overall simmilarity, maybe after grammar? Or whut?
Vjorp I searched Papiamento... a creole language spoken in ABC Islands. It is categorized as a Portugese-based Creole... so I think creole languages are categorized after the vocabulary
I remember that you have used the "pidjin" term before) And I was wondering what you were talking about, maybe as an adjective "Pigeon" means something like "Fancy" or "Stylish" (In Russian there is a word "Pijon" (Пижон) or as an adjective "Pijonskiy" (Пижонский) that means "Showy" and really have an origin in French word "pigeon"). This is really funny how my brain figured it out and made me believe than I am right XD
I'm from Cameroon and speak pidgin which is a mixture of several languages and native dialects. Pidgin is spoken along the coast of West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo to name but a few. One we discover is the differences in certain aspects of the language. When a Nigerian speaks pidgin you definitely see difference with that of Cameroon but we understand each other.
Hi!,i'm from the Republic of Mauritius,in the Indian Ocean,and the official language is Creole,but a very different Creole,closed to French language with a mix of English,Dutch,Arabic,Chinese,Hindi,Urdu,African and Turquish!.
+Varoon the word "Arak" which is "Larak" meaning alcoholic beverage in Creole is from Dutch language.The word "Bakshisch" which is "Baksis" in Creole meaning a bonus is from Turkey.. .
bakhshesh is a persian, if its in the turkish language, then its a persian loanword. even your name khodadin is persian. khoda means god, din is arabic and means religion.
Comparison of Chavacano (The Philippines), Papia Cristang (Malacca, Malaysia) and Papiamentu (Aruba, Curaçao and Aruba): ■ English: "What are you doing now in his house?" ■Chavacano (Zamboanga, Philippines): "Cosa ba tu ta hace na su casa ahora?" ■Chavacano (Cavite City, Philippines): "Cosa ba tu ta hace na su casa ahora?" ■Chavacano (Ternate, Cavite, Philippines): "Cosa ba bo ta haci na su casa agora?" ■Papia Cristang (Malacca, Malaysia): "Que bos ta fazeh na eli se casa agora?" ■Papiamentu (ABC islands): "Kiko bo ta haciendo na su cas awo?"
I have found interesting how children from different countries speaking different languages, when come together to play on seaside, they start to communicate very quick.
Your example of a pidgin language using the Australian plantation where you mentioned they bought over plantation workers, well they didn't come voluntary. Its called black-birding, they were pretty much kidnapped and forced to come to Australia. Just saying.
Hey man. Sorry, I can't send you a message (RUclips doesn't allow them anymore). I might make a video about Tok Pisin soon. If you would like to help record the audio samples let me know. The easiest way to contact me is to send me a private message on Instagram. Cheers!
I am Haitian-American (grew up in New York City) and I was so surprised when I did college study abroad in Madagascar that I understood and could communicate with native speakers from Reunion, Mayotte, and Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean. The creole they spoke was almost exactly like Haitian Creole.
The Island of Seychelles in Africa speak a ceole similar to Haitian creole.
How similar would say the grammar of these creoles are? I'm just interested because they would share a common vocabulary being French creoles, but I don't know how similar the grammar of many of the other parent languages would be.
JuniorXEastNY that was all a very nice explanation he gave. Problem is, that's not how French Creole came into being. All French Creoles are "l'oil" languages which means they use the same method of saying "yes" passed down from the original Latin. Creole started from various groups of men, speaking differing dialects of old French, needing to talk to each other. They then took it to the new world where the slaves learned it without changing it. New words for things/objects were added here and there, but the verbs, adverbs, etc did not change! You can compare them side by side and see that 95% of the words are exactly the same! Spelled or pronounced a little differently, but that's it. Not at all possible according to his explanation. That's also why the pronouns of Louisiana Creole and that of Mauritius are the same. One is off East Africa in the Indian Ocean while Louisiana is in the Caribbean. There are some differences, of course, but the similarities far outnumber those and different speakers can still understand each other. France still has these different dialects that gave birth to Creole to this day.
Raymond Petit That is spectacularly fascinating! So you are saying that Creole is basically 95% 18th Century (Low-Economic Working Class)French Dialect, with just a few sprinkling a local/regional words thrown in depending on the country? I have a story: My mother's generation (1940s-1960s) hated the fact that Creole became the national language of Haiti. She felt it should have remained French. She and my aunts and uncles always felt Creole was a "low class" dialect to be spoken informally, and should not be the language of newspapers, books, media, or even taught in school. Little did she know that, ironically, Haitian Creole is the "ORIGINAL" FRENCH trapped in time!
JuniorXEastNY I didn't say it was "low class" or even "low economic". I didn't even say it was the original, but yes, it is old French-several dialects made into one. French today is Parisian French, chosen from amongst the many dialects of France. Those dialects still are spoken in their original regions in France right alongside Parisian French. So there really is no such thing as 'original French'. The fact that Creole became the language of slaves and black people is where all that nonsense aboutt being 'unworthy' come from! In Louisiana people bought into that crap also and is why so few people speak it today. In fact, places that have always been Creole are now associated with Cajun and hardly anybody speaks up about it.
I'm pretty sure my 2 year old nephew and I have a pidgin language going on.
TheHeroAppeared 😀
HuckleB680
Yeah, because it’s true.
TheHeroAppeared
as a linguist, I would call that language that you use with ur nephew a “motherese language” which is a simply made up way of communicating with little kids who can’t process a well advanced form of a certain language.
@@ouhsaine9570 Oh Em Gee! Get a sense of humor will yah.
@@tkeosaksith if you type oh em gee I refuse to believe you have a sense of humour sorry not sorry
I live in Singapore and people here speak Singlish. It's not officially recognised but it's considered a creole language. The government has tried to discourage its use in the past but I think now they just gave up XD
Translation to spanish:
Vivo en Singapur y la gente aquí habla Singlish. No es reconocido oficialmente pero se considera una lengua criolla. El gobierno ha intentado desalentar su uso en el pasado, pero creo que ahora simplemente dejaron de hacerlo XD.
Wah lah wayyy ah?
BRAVO!!! I'm from Jamaica, so I speak Jamaican Creole (Patwa) and there has been much that has been done in recent years to educate Jamaicans on the FACT that Jamaican Creole is in fact a distinct language from English; It's a Creole of English, various West African languages, and bits of Spanish and Portuguese for good measure. Unfortunately, many very old-fashioned Jamaicans still consider it "bad English" based on the brainwashing done by the former colonial power (England). Nevertheless, it is a LINGUISTIC FACT that Jamaican Creole is a Creole language of the Western Atlantic. Thanks for this video! It was really outstanding!
You are correct. Remember: out of many one.
RicardoMCKN I heard that someone who speaks jamaican patois but not english can understand when english is being spoken to them,even though they won't be able to respond in english.Is this true.
Are we gonna talk about how it's not Patwa ? Cause it's Patois. Don't ask me how it's spelled that way and pronounced the other. :P
@@rouskeycarpel8652 patois speakers can understand English, but not all English speakers can understand patois
@@Anon.G If that's the case then jamaican patois isn't a different language since it's not mutually unintelligible with English.I'm haitian who's fluent in haitian creole and I can tell you from personal experience that no haitian who isn't fluent in French understands french(that's my present situation).I think perhaps since nearly everybody in jamaica is exposed to english on a daily basis that's why they understand it even if they don't speak it.
Thank you sifu, you saved my time for understanding this pidgin and creoles. I have SOCIOLINGUISTICS exam tomorrow. And I bet there is a question about this topic!
Have a good day, sir ;)
It's my pleasure. Good luck on your exam!
I never knew the difference between pidgins and creoles until today. I've already subbed to your RUclips channel... you rock, Paul, and have a NICE day!
Thanks, I'm glad to have you as a subscriber!
@@Langfocusthey didn’t bring labourers, they brought slaves, the picture depicted were slaves, let’s try not to tell history differently
let's be honest here; you're awsome
Thanks! :) So are you!
+Langfocus I second Ibrahim's motion.
third
fifth
Great brother
In XVII century there was a Basque-Icelandic pidgin: a creole would have been awesome!
Hell yeah haha
a conlang would suffice for that
That was when Iceland legalised killing Basque people D:
That law was only overturned May 2015.
Already on it!
***** Sorry, Italian habits.
That's how (almost exclusively) we indicate centuries. We do it so much we don't even notice when we do it; it naturally comes up as a native reading.
You just KISS it.
Thank you so much for explicitly short content
I thought this was great! I teach an Intro to Sociolinguistics Course. The students found this video VERY HELPFUL. Nice job at explaining the difference between Creole and Pidgin languages.
Thanks, Erin! I'm glad to hear it. It's always weird to hear that educators are showing my videos to students. I live in Japan so I don't really have any sense of how widely viewed my videos are elsewhere.
Hey Paul, I've been a big fan of the channel for a long while and just wanted you to know that we had to watch this video in a college class I'm taking now. It's about teaching second languages and it has a mix of seniors and grad students. Keep up the scholarly-good work!
Cool! Where’s that? Instructors never tell me they use my videos. 😄 Not that they have to, it’s just weird that my face is appearing in classrooms and I have no idea it’s going on.
Someone in Russia told me his prof showed one of my videos in a huge lecture hall with a 5 meter high screen. 😂
@@Langfocus I'm at the University of New Hampshire, in the US. It was homework to watch it, we're covering the pidginization hypothesis by John Schumann and your video was a good compliment to all the dry academic texts
Same here ✋🏻✋🏻
Thank you for your so instructive videos. I've been browsing them since today morning and haven't stopped yet.
As a speaker (L1) of Cape Verdean Creole, I was very glad to find a video about Creole languages. But then, I got sad, you forgot to mention Portuguese-based Creoles... The Creole languages with the bigger number of speakers are Haitian Creole (+ 12,000,000 speakers), Jamaican Creole (+ 3,000,000 speakers) and Cape Verdean Creole (+ 1,000,000 speakers).
Very accurate, your description of the transition from Pidgin towards Creole. However, it may lead to the (still) widely spread misconception that Creole languages are "simple" languages (or "simplified" versions of the Lexifier language). It depends of what grammatical subject we are analysing. I can show several examples where the Lexifier languge is more complex than the Creole language, but also examples where the Creole language is more complex than the Lexifier language.
If you need any help about Portuguese-based Creoles, in general, or Cape Verdean Creole in particular, I'll be glad to help.
Verdade, el xksse portugues e kex criol derivod del
Obrigadu. I am learning Cape Verde Kriol.
Ta prop t spia sel ta soma n vid kk
FABULOUS!!! You've helped me to explain to the world how the previously untranslated Pictish language of Scotland is a creole which used the lexicon of the Old Irish language as its lexifier with 1:1 morpheme to meaning relationship and a different syntax and grammar. Thank you so very much. I hope you don't mind. I'm using it on my blog web-site, currently in development.
Well, In my country Cameroon, the ''pidgin language'" has a total different meaning. Since the country has 2 equal dominant languages from the colonial period (french and english, sometimes German), it is made up, not only of both of these languages, but also with the mix of native bantu languages. Example: ''Je wonder si t'as nieh ce coma'' ( I'm wondering if you have seen this movie).
So, what should we name this mixture? ''Super pidgin''??? =))))))
VanRoostand That really sounds interesting :D
I like how languages evolve. It's living evidence of history of certain region.
Like Jamaican creole that mixed with Portuguese and Spanish because of trade
Kum ya pikney
Kum = come ( English)
Ya = unk
Pikney = pequeno ( Portuguese means small)
Translates : come here child
It also has Indian like
A bhei
And the music industry words are being borrowed .
There's a somali/cockney/arabic/jamaican mixture language being developed in London right now believe it or not. Its been developing for years
ava lawrence I have to hear this LOOOOOL
@@KillasStayFly it's true...as a jamaican i am stunned seeing white English young people speaking patwa to me perfectly with a cocknet lilt...I am proud and confused at the same time becausr patwa go it's initial pronunciation of words from cockney speakers who migrated to Jamaica in about the 17th century.
Same as Toronto but without the cockney
Yes, i noticed this too, i call this London talk Jamockney.
What?
I'm an English-speaking Cameroonian and we speak a Pidgin that's sort of similar to that spoken by Nigerians (due to geographic proximity). There are several other variations spoken in Sierra Leone, Ghana,Liberia etc
Sierra Leone don't have pidgin language
In an earlier video you told about the Sri Lankan Portuguese Creol. Despite being Sri Lankan I never realized this language existed until a while ago. Thank you very much langfocus.
How come?.. Just by Herad your names and surnames you should guess something like portugueses creole should exists there
Hey Paul, I love your videos! I am a fluent Spanish speaker, conversant in several other Romance languages, and I am conversant in Marshellese, the language of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a group of 32 coral atolls in Mirconesia (North Tropical Pacific). But my favorite language is Solomon Islands Pijin (Pijin), which is the lingua franca spoken in the Solomon Islands, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Pijin is virtually identical to Bislama, which is spoken in Vanuatu to the east, and to the Pidjin spoken in Papua New Guinea, to the west. Papua New Guinea Pidjin has many more Melanesian words that are intrinsic to the language, and a very strong bending of the pronunciation which make it more difficult to understand.
I'll tell you one thing, Pijin is a fun language for partying! Because everyone has their own "home language" for all of the serious stuff like family relationships and nuanced emotion, Pijin is mostly used outside the house, and it has only has about 1500 words. It is therefore very easy for everyone to learn, native English speakers (like me) need only learn the Melanesian grammatical structure, and Melanesians need only learn 1500 English borrow words, that they can plug into their comfortable grammatical structure. And voilá, everyone's talking!
In Peace Corps, the first thing we did was spend 6 weeks living with a local family, where we got intensive language and cultural training. I picked up Pijin in about three days, and with a few grammatical rules under my belt, I could pretty much guess how to say just about anything,
But then, there were the funny; "gotcha" words, that made Pijin a fun - as in funny - language, and a great language to party in. Jokes and songs, like the Solomon Islands equivalent of Yankee Doodle, called "Wakabauti Long Sainatowni" or Walkabout Chinatown. are just a blast to sing, and feel like sugar in your mouth.
And then there are the words themselves. Most are borrowed from English, and most keep their English meaning. But many take on a different meaning. For example "nating"in Pijin sounds like nothing, but it means never. And to say "nothing" in English, one says "no eni samting", from no any something. So to say "I never see you anymore because I have nothing to give" one would say "Mi nating lukim iu moa, fram mi no garem eni samting fo givim long iu".
Ah, music to my ears!
Tanggiu tumas fo mekem lesin ia. Bae lukim iu.
Ron Cannarella Amazing!
I'm very happy you did a video of creole languages. As a speaker of Papiamento (a creole language that is a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and Amerindian languages), and in my opinion one of the coolest and most unique languages in the Americas, I wish more people had a knowledge of unique creoles.
thank u so much to explain in such a precise way...... now I totally know what pidgin nd creole is...... peace and love for u.....may mother nature bless u
+Sammul Sammo Thanks, Sammul!
not everyday i go on youtube and actually find what i was looking for, thanks heaps! this was sooooo helpful and i loved the easy to understand examples :)
+CoPpErPiLlZ Great! I`m glad you like it. This video isn`t viewed as much as a lot of my others, but it`s one of my favorites.
I speak French and trying to work on learning Haitian Creole. It is surprising how easy for me to learn the language already knowing French.
I could help if you want....
I love it when people show interest in haitian culture
salut.
+Gedais Bathlette aussi j'aime Haitian language beaucoup.
I am also learning Haitian Creole, my brother is learning French. It is easier to learn them through Spanish than in English.
Would you say that English is a Creole between old Germanic languages and French?
That's a very interesting question. I'm not sure I can answer it without looking into the history a little more. But I guess there must have been some process of creolization, but I don't think it resulted from a pidgin language.
+Langfocus The funny thing is that you can also consider French as a "creolised" Latin due to Germanic influences. A lot of Germanic words entered Old French vocabulary and influenced its phonology, while the grammar was obviously derived from Latin. Then centuries later when the Normans invaded England, French vocabulary was brought to English vernacular and influenced some aspects of English grammar.
+Jordan Mandel Considering that English sort of developed out of the need for communication between Anglo-Saxon overlords and Briton subjects, I wonder the same thing.
+Jordan Mandel
You make an interesting point, but:
- English basic vocabulary is all Germanic. To consider English a creole language, it should have been replaced by (old) French vocabulary.
- English grammar is quite similar to that of Nordic languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian).
I think modern English is the result of of two facts:
- the normal evolution of a highly inflected language into "simpler" structures.
- the fact that English was no longer taught at school or used outside of home and village life for three centuries. People spoke as they wished, they didn't write the language anymore and they had to use Latin or Norman French in official situations.
In English there are many words of French and Latin origin but they all belong to a more cultivated register.
Yes!
That was wonderful. I am such amazed with your way of explaining. No one could teach it better.
Thank you very much, Emircan!
Pidgin English is basically how Nigerians survive with all those languages
The lingua franca there is Hausa tho.
Mr Pellagra where? In Nigeria? The Lingua Franca is definitely English (at least formally) while pidgin English is the “unofficial” language. Hausa is only spoken in the north and some parts of the middle belt
❤️
Yeah !!!
aswr
My native language is a Spanish based creole language called Papiamento. It is spoken on 3 Dutch Caribean islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It's official language since the 1990's, aside from Dutch.
Because of Dutch as my second native language, it's not difficult to learn and to pronounce with ease all Romance, Germanic and Slavic and basically languages using the a, e, i , u pronouncuation. Like Chinese, Japanese, Malay and tribal languages.
But as you pointed out it's not as easy as 1, 2, 3, I have to study hard like everybody else. But I have an advantage because I have no big problem to pronounce words in diffent languages well. Not wanting to brag put this proves a point that knowing one language makes it easier to learn a sister language. e.g. because of knowing Dutch I have no difficulty with the 'kh' sound in Semitic languages.
My native language has influences and lonewords from different languages like Iberian and Germanic languages as well as Amerindian languages.
As a speaker of Pidgin (Hawaiian Creole), I got really excited when I saw this video.
TheKalihiMan funny ting is, i taught we was da only people dat talk “pidgin” lol cuz in Hawaii, to us Creole isnt a language but refer to someone who is light skinned African descent or mixed african descent.
@@keokikahumokukoa8832 If one hapa popolo stay talking pidgin, what den? Get dakine creole pidgin!
Man! You've just saved my life! I'm supposed to deliver an essay about this and I was lost in concept 'til I found your video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Thumbs up!
I am from Sierra Leone we speak english in school,but we speak krio on the streets
Amara Dumbuya
Kushe !
Aw di bodi
Rohan M.
Di bodi wel, aw yusef ?
I used to live in Sierra Leone. I’m Nigerian though
I read your country as an example of Pidgin English on a textbook of study of language..
Excellent. Thanks a lot. Saludos desde Nicaragua.
wow, thanks so much for this simple explanation! AND I was finally able to find a song that I had been looking for for years - when I watched your video I realised the song was in Bislama and was able to find it, so again, thank you @Langfocus.
This is awesome. I just learned that what is popularly know as pidgin English here in Nigeria, is really Creole. And it is widely spoken throughout the country, more than the lingua franca - English. And in a country of over 120million people it may very well be the most widely spoken Creole there is. It's worth researching.
Over 200 million you mean?
@@charlesubochi2603 more or less.
It's still pidgin cuz we still have our native language like Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ebira and so on
Fyi, the most widely spoken creole language is actually Haitian Creole with 12 million native speakers
@@belle_pomme Nah stop that. Come to Nigeria and see
Came for English Exam tomorrow. You have explained very nicely. Thanks!
I love watching your videos. Iam from Papua New Guinea and have to say your video on the country with many languages was incredible and i thankyou for it coz we are a small country in the South Pacific. I can speak 3 of our main languages including my mother-tongue called Toaripi and that of my father-law's called Mailu, so in all i speak 5 languages of the 800+ here in PNG. Here English-Pidgin is referred to as Tok Pisin and yes it is a trade language that started during the time of Dutch colonies in the northern part of our island nation. The sentence "I have already been to town in Tok Pisin will read " Me go lon taun pinis". Us Melanesian countries i.e. Solomon Isl, Fiji, Vanuatu n New Caledonia have our unique forms of pidgin where we can understand certain words of the same meaning or context. Anyway, like i said i really enjoy and always look forward to your videos. God Bless 😊
Thanks for the message! That's interesting to hear. I'm not familiar with Toaripi or Mailu, but of course I know about Tok Pisin. If I make a video about Tok Pisin in the future, would you be interested to record a few audio sentences for the video? I can do it myself, but I'm sure you would pronounce it much authentically than me.
You welcome and it would be my pleasure. Cheers.
Great, thanks!
Hi again Theresa. I don't know if you'll see this message but I want to ask you if you'd like to help me with a Tok Pisin recording soon. I couldn't send you a message on your page. If you see this, you can reply here or leave a message for me on my channel page. Thanks!
" Me go ' in Cape vert kreole means: I don't mind!💡😁
We are at a small college in Allen Park, Mich--a few miles away from Detroit and Dearborn. We have a rich linguistic landscape here--no true pidgin language, but frequent examples of code-switching between English and Arabic, amoung other languages! Thanks again.
Haitian isn't the only French creole out there...there's creole from Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana
There's also the French creole in Louisiana from when it was a slave owning French territory.
Saint Lucia also
La Réunion, Mauritius, Seychelles, etc
@@Aurelingua Réunion abd Madagascar not the same creole than Guadeloupe Martinique Guyane Haïti
I have been searching for infromation on creol from wikipedia but I learnt much more here in this video than anywhere else so far... awesome man
I traveled to Vanuatu in 2010. Besides Bislama, if I was in Port Vila they understood English better but as soon as I travelled around the island of Efate more people understood French. It was incredible how easy it was for someone like me (who at the time knew only English) to read all of the signs and understand the basics of what they were trying to tell me.
What a great explanation. This makes this topic easier to understand. Thank you very much!
I've been interested in Pidgins and Creoles since I was high-school student, nearly half a century ago.
I found they're so fascinating and amazing because they show us the very moments the new languages are going to be born.
I imagine that, in some two thousand years ago or more without any letters yet, old origins of Japanese language might have been born among our ancestor as pidgins and creoles....
Nagamese has become an Assamese creole in Nagaland and neighbouring areas in north east India. Always look forward to your uploads.
Hi! Very nice video. However, I believe, you should have explained in greater detail how pidgins change becoming creols: how the complexity of their grammar increases, new patterns of word-formation evolve, their vocabulry expands, etc. I am suggesting this because, I think, some people might have gotten a wrong impression of creols being "simple" languages; I know, you mentioned that, in order to become a creole, a pidgin must spread to everyday life outside of initial work/business context... but still, you should have put it a little more explicitly:). Thank you!!!
You have so many fantastic videos on this channel. I use them in several of my university courses. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into your channel.
You’re very welcome! I’m glad you like the channel. 🙂
Great video! I love the amount of effort you put in your videos, they are very informative and well done.
+Adam Ivory Hi Adam. Thanks! A lot of people probably don`t realize what goes into the editing process, etc. so I`m glad when people recognize that!
Langfocus Yeah, i really don't understand why you don't have more subscribers yet. But your subs are growing fast, don't give up! You will have hundred of thousands subscribers someday i hope, you deserve it. ;)
Adam Ivory Thanks Adam! I`m not the type to give up. :D
Hello. I've just watched this video after five years it was published, and I loved it!
Better late than never! 😃 I’m glad you liked it!
I agree! I really have to ask you: are creoles actual languages nowadays or were they just steps in the process of acquaring the official languages? For example, Can we say that African slaves in Luisiana acquarided the English language, or did they kept a kind of English creole?
Creoles are actual languages, and a lot of them are still widely spoken. Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patwa, etc. But in other cases they stopped using it in favor of the dominant language.
African American Vernacular English’s origins are debated (I have a video on it that you might like), but I think there was some creole influence on it. But it’s still a group of English dialects with some creole elements, rather than a creole language.
You have really taught me a lot. That's so interesting. Thank you so much for such a good information. I will look for more videos. I really like this topic. Greetings!
Thank you, I’m glad to hear that!
You're a life saver sir
Before my exam, I watched this video, this is super awesome explanation. To be honest, this is 1000 times better than my university lecture 🤩
THANKS for sharing these kinds of detailed videos, It helps us a lot ❤
Portuguese has its creole, spoken in islands of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Different between them, they are the language de facto of those countries, and first language of their immigrants in Portugal. A Portuguese speaker cannot understand spoken creole, but it is comprehensible when reading. There is also a (extinct?) pidgin in Macao, called patuá and a creole in Malaka Straight, Malaysia. Ladino, or judeo-spanish, spoken by the Jews from Spain and Portugal in Thessalonika, Turkey and Amsterdam,
is pretty well understood by a native Portuguese.
Papiementu/Papiemento could be classified as a Portuguese Créole too.
The Angles and the Saxons created "Old English" in Britain after the end of Roman rule. Then, from the 8th -10th centuries, Scandinavian settlers, particularly, the Danes colonized parts of England and established the Danelaw which created the socio-cultural conditions for the simplification and regularization of Old English and its grammar (a creolization of a language from the same family but not the same branch of the dominant language). This process was still ongoing right up to the Norman Invasion, which, eventually, initiated the formation a "new" English which we call "Middle English". That was the English Creole based upon Anglo-Norman French.
That is amazing. Here in Brazil, Creole refers also to the language as to the people who used it in the past. For me, the most amazing about this, is the fact that i didn't know that Creole was a language.
In portuguese we use the word "crioulo" or "criolo", sadly commonly used to the african decendents, in a pejorative way.
being an English Language student, this man here rlly help me a lot of things. Thankyou so much sir.
Speaker of Hawaiian Creole here! lol
thank you soo much Bro, that was very informative. I am a CHAVACANO from Zamboanga City, Philippines.. Muchisimas, gracias.
In Singapore, they speak a language very similar to English creole or pidgin. I have heard people there say words like "go slow-slow" or "go fast-fast" and phrases like "you got go there awe-raddy (already)" and "how can lye-dat (like that) one"... it's unique and amusing.
It's called Singlish and it's classified as a creole. I'm a third generation speaker myself but can switch to Standard English when the situation calls for it. Glad you find Singlish unique and amusing - us Singaporeans are very proud of it!
Most of your videos are really help me as students, thanks a lot
When I was in Haiti last year I thought I was going to be able to communicate a little because I knew basic French. However, Haitian French is NOT French lol. It was much easier reading signs than it was talking to locals too since the grammar and words were more closely related to French (but have very strange spelling)
Interesting. I've never been there, but do you know if most people CAN speak standard French? I imagine the higher classes can, but do most people know it?
Langfocus In my experience I would say most can't speak standard French, but I could be wrong
+MrC0MPUT3R well aren't haitian creole and french separate languages? the country speaks both
umidontno040394 Yes a Creole means it is a separate language. However there are many mutually intelligible languages in the world. For example, Norwegian and Swedish, or Skånska (dialect of Swedish) and Danish are considered to be somewhat mutually intelligible.
MrC0MPUT3R yeah i know.
still did you not meet any haitians who spoke French?
I know 2 haitians and they speak french and haitian creole. as well as english and spanish
Big help for our report! Thank you!😊
Jopará is probably the biggest creole currently developing in South America, the mixture of Guaraní and Spanish, in Paraguay.
it is mix language and not creole
It happens in all latín América, for example here in México we have around 60 native laguages mixed with spanish and in the north border they are even mixed with english; in brazil,Perú,chile,Panamá,venezuela, etc all HAVE the same with their native tongues. Saludos amigo
Well explained! Thank you sir
Make a video about Spanglish, Portuñol or Svorsk.
Jorge Murcia Where is Portunhol used?
Yoel Niv It's a "lingua-franca'' between spanish and portuguese speakers used in the south america between brazilians and spanish speakers across the border. Some people prefer to use spanish instead, since spanish is inteligible to portuguese speakers.
Ricardo Moura isn't Portuguese intelligible for Spanish too? I know it's less than Spanish because of the phonology but I think it's too.
Yoel Niv i´m a native spanish Speaker and i can underdtand portugueses
Yoel Niv no, portuguese and spanish are not mutually intelligible, at least not a 100%.
You've explained the two variations of languages very welll. Good job.
Just so you know, the creole spoken in the eastern Caribbean is different from Haitian Creole. However they can understand each other. Also know that the creole spoken in Mauratius is the same creole as the eastern Caribbean even though they are thousands of miles apart
Thank you so much for making this video, it has helped me so much getting through a hard part of my essay for school!
hi Paul. I am a Jamaicana "Creole/patwa" (I'm sure you'll get around to it for day) speaker. from that perspective, "Mi bin long taon finis" looks a little different to your interpretation. The "long" could be "long ago" like. "I went to town long since".
Or as Jamaicana might say. "Mi done Gaan a town" maybe even adding "Lang time" for "good' measure.
"Him ya has blong mi"
would translate as. "Dis yah house a fi mi" or "A fi mi yard dis".
think you're doing a great job.
I'm an older head, long time out of school and due to a messed up British school system, never had access to grammar, do some of the academic tend you use eg preposition, personal pronouns, indefinite article, verb conjugation etc. it would be great to get a video explaining some of these academic phrases. Is that even possible or would I have to go sit in some yung pickny class fi ketch up?
currently studying for my CSETS and this has helped me out considerably. I appreciate ya!
Pidgins have been stripped down so far that they really don't qualify as languages anymore. A creole is the next step from a pidgin, a fully functional language. An example of this is Hawaiian Pidgin. It was created when people from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico were put on plantations to work with Portuguese formen. No one spoke each other's language so they would communicate with single words and short phrases and no real grammar. That was the pidgin. for their kids who grew up together and wanted to communicate like normal human beings that wasn't good enough. They filled in the gaps and turned it into a fully functional language. It's called Hawaiian Pidgin but in reality it's Hawaiian Creole English.
Also, creoles lack prefixes and suffixes because those things take time to accumulate and creoles are simply too young to have acquired them.
Ken MacMillan Thanks, this was the answer to my question.
I have a test in two days and you literally saved me! I couldn't tell the difference between both ternes but you made it so clear! Thanks a lot!
Can you do a video on unusual languages, like Cherokee or The African Bantu languages that have clicking sounds?
Also, what's the difference between Hawaiian and Native New Zealand Māori language?
It's just a different language.
Not sure what makes Cherokee weird. Also Hawaiian and Māori are related languages, like French and Spanish.
***** Cherokee was using during WW2 as a secret code language.
***** No that was Navajo
Qopel unusual? what?
Excellent video, thank you for explaining the distinction between pidgins and a creoles using case studies. Really shows the evolution and the vibrance of living languages.
I just thought of something. Since English evolved after the Norman Conquest when French was mixed with Old Anglo-Saxon, does that mean it could be considered a Creole?
+Sam Cotten i don't think that would make it a creole. korean, japanese, and vietnamese have had huge influxes of chinese vocabulary over the centuries, but they still aren't creoles because there was never an original pidgin language. it's the same with english I think; lots of foreign influence, but it's not based on a pidgin so it's not a creole.
+Sam Cotten It is. The brits will just never admit that.
+Sam Cotter I agree that English is a Creole, but the process began about 200 years earlier with the Norse invasion (from what is currently Norway and Denmark). Speakers of Old English and Old Norse found they could just about communicate as the root words of both languages were just about the same. The differences had to do with word inflections and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter forms). The solution was to drop almost all inflections and gender forms, and reorganize the language based on word order.
THEN the Norman French invaded, and started the first of two injections of French into English.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it (I think).
It has also been influenced by Goidelic and Brythonic Gaelic, Latin, Danish ( in the Danelaw) and the languages from everywhere else its been. I am not sure if it is a creole at this point, it is more of a language aggregate.
Englic Creole
Very, very interesting! The first time I've heard about some pidgin English was reading Malinowski's The Argonauts of Western Pacific.
I speak a Malay creole called Manado Malay here in North Sulawesi, Indonesia! :)
I really love how this is so simple,thank you! You are awesome
Thanks for the video,its very helpful 😊😇
I enjoy these 'universal' insights you provide, along with the specifics. It provides a framework of understanding the nuances of language vs dialect and the sub dialects, along with the interrelationships
I remember Chavacano. It may be a pidgin first, then developed into a creole language.
To be sincere, you're a wonderful teacher and I've learnt alot from this. Thank you very much
This was very helpful..thank u so much
I'm from Cabo Verde, off the coast of Senegal. Supposedly, our Creole (Kriolu/Kriol) is the oldest in the world, the closest relatives being Creole from Guinea Bissau (pretty much completely mutually intelligible) and Papiamentu from Curaçao, with varying degrees of intelligibility. Here's an example of our language (The Santiago Island variant - each one of the 9 inhabited islands has got its own.
ruclips.net/video/979o9hWCtq0/видео.html
This is so fascinating, I would like to see you make a language on sociolect, thank you! Your videos really inspired me to take up linguistic in my University.
The question is. What language family does the creole blong to afterwards?
+Vjorp Neither... it's a constructed language... I think
Neema Paxima
I don't think they are.
I just mean do you base the language family assignation after the most of the vocabulary overall simmilarity, maybe after grammar? Or whut?
Vjorp I searched Papiamento... a creole language spoken in ABC Islands. It is categorized as a Portugese-based Creole... so I think creole languages are categorized after the vocabulary
Neema Paxima
Good to know. thank you.
Oleksandr Mukhalov
So I got two different answers... awesome...
Im a Pacific islander & in my language pidgin(pichin) means “fast”/“fast way”/“fast kine”/“simplified”/“broken”
I remember that you have used the "pidjin" term before) And I was wondering what you were talking about, maybe as an adjective "Pigeon" means something like "Fancy" or "Stylish" (In Russian there is a word "Pijon" (Пижон) or as an adjective "Pijonskiy" (Пижонский) that means "Showy" and really have an origin in French word "pigeon"). This is really funny how my brain figured it out and made me believe than I am right XD
+Elan Askerov The origin of the term Pidgin has not been proven, but many say it's a Chinese adaptation of the English word "Business" .
Langfocus thank you so much for this. Very informative!
I'm from Cameroon and speak pidgin which is a mixture of several languages and native dialects. Pidgin is spoken along the coast of West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo to name but a few. One we discover is the differences in certain aspects of the language. When a Nigerian speaks pidgin you definitely see difference with that of Cameroon but we understand each other.
Anybody studying languages would definitely love your channel!!
Hi!,i'm from the Republic of Mauritius,in the Indian Ocean,and the official language is Creole,but a very different Creole,closed to French language with a mix of English,Dutch,Arabic,Chinese,Hindi,Urdu,African and Turquish!.
+Varoon the word "Arak" which is "Larak" meaning alcoholic beverage in Creole is from Dutch language.The word "Bakshisch" which is "Baksis" in Creole meaning a bonus is from Turkey.. .
bakhshesh is a persian, if its in the turkish language, then its a persian loanword. even your name khodadin is persian. khoda means god, din is arabic and means religion.
i wish this channel had existed in the begining of 2000s, back in the i studied english language teaching. the young ones are really lucky...
I also thought so.
I'm from Reunion island and we speak creole too. I can understand mauritian creole and seychellois creole too.
hawks974 koz sérieux ? àmwin mi comprend pas inn merde zot zhistoire la la
Maloyaman wé mi koz serieu.mi lé bilingue seychellois
@Bantu Piscies . Bu ka komprêndi?
You helped me a lot understanding my linguistic lesson about pidgins ana creoles
Comparison of Chavacano (The Philippines), Papia Cristang (Malacca, Malaysia) and Papiamentu (Aruba, Curaçao and Aruba):
■ English: "What are you doing now in his house?"
■Chavacano (Zamboanga, Philippines): "Cosa ba tu ta hace na su casa ahora?"
■Chavacano (Cavite City, Philippines): "Cosa ba tu ta hace na su casa ahora?"
■Chavacano (Ternate, Cavite, Philippines): "Cosa ba bo ta haci na su casa agora?"
■Papia Cristang (Malacca, Malaysia): "Que bos ta fazeh na eli se casa agora?"
■Papiamentu (ABC islands): "Kiko bo ta haciendo na su cas awo?"
Cape vert was first krioulo country in the world!
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■Spanish: "¿Qué estás haciendo en su casa?"
This zamboanga and Cavite are closest to spanish but the caribbean and malaysian creole are more portuguese
"Caboverde Mindel " Cose bo ba faze na casa d,el ?
Great performance, Greetings from Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, Here also having few , Portuguese descendants and kaffri people use Thx a lot for the presentation
60% of Nigerians can speak English, 75% can speak pidgin English, 25% can speak Hausa, 15% can speak Yoruba and 12% can speak Igbo
I just watched your video first time & just subscribed your channel. That's so helpful mayn. Keep doing great things ✌️
I have found interesting how children from different countries speaking different languages, when come together to play on seaside, they start to communicate very quick.
super helpful, this was a great description of both, i appreciate it
Respect From Cameroon we spaek Pidgin and Frananglaise
i rate you 10/10 sir. from University Of Limpopo (studying linguistics) . your explanation is simple and straight forward. thank you
Your example of a pidgin language using the Australian plantation where you mentioned they bought over plantation workers, well they didn't come voluntary. Its called black-birding, they were pretty much kidnapped and forced to come to Australia. Just saying.
Ok, I've never heard of the term "black-birding". Was it like a kind of indentured servitude scam? Or were they literally kidnapped?
it's basically kidnapping they didn't even have the audacity to call indentured servitude. the latter was a nice version
I'm from PNG and speak pidgin (Tok Pisin) and this is such a great breakdown. Cheers.
Hey man. Sorry, I can't send you a message (RUclips doesn't allow them anymore). I might make a video about Tok Pisin soon. If you would like to help record the audio samples let me know. The easiest way to contact me is to send me a private message on Instagram. Cheers!