This week we are looking at how English has spread around the world and its effect on other peoples and cultures. How for example did this extraordinary form of English emerge in West Africa? [language sample] For the answer, I went to Leeds University to meet Loretto Todd, an authority on world Englishes. Unfortunately, I neglected to brush up on my pidgin. “Who’s there?” “Aha, Bill my brother, how are you?” “I’m very well, thank you. You must be Loretto Todd?” [Loretto asks Bill a question equivalent of: how are you?] “...very well, thank you”. [Loretto asks Bill a question equivalent of: where did you come from this morning?] “I came this morning from York”. [Loretto asks Bill a question equivalent of: where will you be going next?”] “Then from here I am going on to Leicester”. [Loretto asks another question, but Bill does not understand.] [Loretto asks if he is hungry] “Hungry real bad, yes”. “Chop sounds great”.
A pidgin is a rudimentary language that emerges when people from two different language groups come together. Usually for purposes of trade or commerce. When contact between those two groups is prolonged, the pidgin will sometimes evolve into a more formalised tongue known as a creole. To the uninitiated, there is a tendency to regard both pidgins and creoles as rather comical, sub-standard languages. In fact, as Loretto Todd makes clear, they are in their way, as sophisticated and expressive as any other language in the world. Sometimes more so.