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The word pidgin, formerly also spelled pigion, [9] was first applied to Chinese Pidgin English, but was later generalized to refer to any pidgin. [11] 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 ...
According to the monogenetic theory of pidgins, sabir was a basic word in Mediterranean Lingua Franca, brought to West Africa through Portuguese pidgin. An English cognate is savvy .) Also, pikin or " pickaninny " comes from the Portuguese words pequeno and pequenino , which mean "small" and "small child" respectively.
Keith Whinnom pinpointed the idea that a proto-pidgin "spread via normal linguistic diffusion" [2] and claimed that there are many similarities between Spanish contact vernaculars and languages of this type used in the Philippines and a Portuguese Creole in India.
The term "pidgin" itself is believed by some etymologists to be a corruption of the pronunciation of the English word "business" by the Chinese (see Pidgin § Etymology). [ 5 ] Chinese Pidgin English began to decline in the late 19th century as standard English began to be taught in the country's education system.
West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the transatlantic slave trade as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as sabi ('to know'), a derivation of the Portuguese saber. [3]
Tok originates from English talk, but has a wider application, also meaning 'word, speech, language'. Pisin derives from the English word pidgin; the latter, in turn, may originate in the word business, which is descriptive of the typical development and use of pidgins as inter-ethnic trade languages.
West African Pidgin English, from the Guinea Coast. Kru Pidgin English; Liberian Interior Pidgin English; Nigerian Pidgin; Cameroonian Pidgin English; Asia South Asia Butler English (India)
Pidgins that are spoken as first languages become creoles. English-based pidgins that became stable contact languages, and which have some documentation, include the following: Aboriginal Pidgin English; Native American Pidgin English; Cameroonian Pidgin English; Chinese Pidgin English; Butler English (India) Ghanaian Pidgin English; Hawaiian ...