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Copyright of Africa Spectrum is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We present evidence for iconicity as the motivation for two patterns of morphophonological alternation in Nigerian Pidgin, also known as Naijá. To express an ‘unconventional positive’ in all varieties of Naijá, some nouns with the tone melodies H-L and L-H surface with the tone melodies L-H and H-L, respectively. In addition to unconventional positive, the Wafi variety of Naijá also expresses ‘unconventional negative.’ In this case, the first syllable of bisyllabic nouns (analogously, the first foot of four-syllable nouns) is transposed with the second syllable. However, in onsetful monosyllabic nouns, the initial consonant is deleted to express an unconventional negative. We account for the metatheses and truncation using transderivational faithfulness constraints and other independent constraints. Expressing the notion of unconventionality by changing the prosaic linear order of phonological elements in a word is a kind of form-meaning resemblance. Similarly, the association of (unconventional) negative with a reduction in a string of segments is another pattern of iconicity. This suggests that crossmodal depiction of sensory imagery, in addition to articulatory and auditory factors, can motivate morphophonological patterns. The morphophonological metatheses and truncation in Naijá contribute to the typology of morphophonological alternations with iconicity as their motivation. Most importantly, these patterns run counter to the claim that pidgins and creoles have simplified morphophonology.

Customarily, studies of Early Modern Russia stress agency emanating from below or from policy-makers at the top. This investigation chooses a middle path by examining the contributions of low-ranking administrative workers to homogenizing records-keeping through the creation of surnames. This was no easy task as these government personnel, with or without central direction, had to contrive criteria to formulate surname-creation. Surnames derived from occupations, physical characteristics, and perceived personality traits were one solution but so was topography and ethnicity. This study, using anthroponymy (the study of names) and hydronymy (the study of naming bodies of water) will portray how government workers in the field were able to organize local populations for the fisc through formulating surnames. This inquiry selects the Uralic-speaking populations of Northern Russia and Northwestern Siberia as its focus. The activities described unveil how local officials, whose identities remain unknown in larger thematic and national studies, were significant contributors to realm- and state-building through their unobtrusive policy-making via surname creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joe Balaz—a writer, visual artist, and active advocate for Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (HIP)—discusses the reception of his HIP poems and art by literary magazines around the world, and presents examples of his published creative works.

This article proposes to present the issue of insularity in the archipelago of Cape Verde, an African country marked by several centuries of Portuguese colonization, with particular emphasis on the analysis of the interrelation between socio-historical factors and linguistic phenomena that occurred in this insular coun-try. Taking into consideration this context, we will draw attention to the importance of insularity in the process of miscegenation of the populations in the colonial era, to the process of the formation of Creole as a result of multilingual contacts, as well as to the long process of the construction of the social identity of Cape Verdeans in the history of this society.

Joe Balaz's Pidgin Eye (2019), which collects 35 years of poetry written in Creole English, referred to in Hawai'i as Pidgin, uses liberating humour to claim decolonizing realities, unsettling colonial myths that indigenous sovereignty has been subsumed or destroyed. The collection vaunts ways of knowing and being embodied by a language that has often been dismissed, like other creoles, as "corrupt and bastardized". "History of Pigeon", the opening poem, unveils contemporary English as itself a long-time mixture of languages in its vocabulary and syntax. Challenging the very premise of monolingualism and colonial sovereignty, the poem suggests there is no such thing as a pure language unmixed with other languages, or free from violence and trauma. The Pidgin eye reveals that the colonial homogenous is an impossibility; throughout the collection Balaz establishes Pidgin as an epistemic, aesthetic, and activist decolonizing resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the nature of Nigerian Pidgin and its roles in the nation. Pidgin English currently performs many important functions in the country via; unification of the people, improved literacy for the average Nigerian, enhanced communication among people with different native tongues / educational levels, and increased linguistic opportunity for all to participate in socio - political and economic programmes. This is not unconnected to its current status as the only parlance which is mutually intelligible by members of almost all the various speech communities across the nation. The study which is descriptive in nature ex-rays divers experts' views on the acceptability and functionality of pidgin and its contribution to development within the different sectors of the country. The work equally recommends that the Nigerian Pidgin be standardized and regarded as a major Nigerian language owing to its contributions to the nation's advancement so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes to present the issue of insularity in the archipelago of Cape Verde, an African country marked by several centuries of Portuguese colonization, with particular emphasis on the analysis of the interrelation between socio-historical factors and linguistic phenomena that occurred in this insular country. Taking into consideration this context, we will draw attention to the importance of insularity in the process of miscegenation of the populations in the colonial era, to the process of the formation of Creole as a result of multilingual contacts, as well as to the long process of the construction of the social identity of Cape Verdeans in the history of this society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following photo essay considers Hervé Youmbi’s 2017 artwork DUDH in the context of the current political crisis in Cameroon. For DUDH, Youmbi translated five articles from the Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme into Camfranglais and installed them on signs in the quartiers of New Bell Ngangue and Ndogpassi III in Douala, Cameroon. He printed one set of the five articles on a blue background for New Bell and the same articles on green for installation in Ndogpassi III. Youmbi unveiled the signs in December 2017 as part of the Salon Urbain de Douala (SUD) triennial.

Copyright of Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos is the property of Sociedad de Estudios Vascos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The authors of the book are focused on the field of creolinguistics: a relatively new but rapidly developing domain of science located within the frameworks of anthropological linguistics. The main aim of the book is to describe thoroughly the location of creolinguistics, in general, from the viewpoint of anthropological linguistics, and in particular, analyzing the key concepts and entire methodological apparatus used by creolinguists. In the first chapters, an outline focused on a new taxonomy of linguistic anthropology is proposed with a particular place given to creolinguistics. In the following chapters, a precise study of the main components of creolinguistics, as well as its theoretical background and numerous references to practical examples are given. Finally, in a broad section, an extensive list of the literature focused on creolinguistics, as well as three types of indexes are delivered. All in all, the comprehensive knowledge contained within, broadly explained with numerous references to real life examples and vivid language, makes this book an excellent academic work which may be used by both processional linguists and students interested in broadening their horizons. Moreover, equally important is the fact that this is the first academic book focused on creolinguistics fully in Polish which makes it both a unique and fundamental work for further generations of linguists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of Africans in China has been phenomenal since the late 1990s. In recent years, there has been a dramatic uptick in people from Africa coming to the major cities of China such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Yiwu, Shanghai, and Beijing. They are in the process of building linguistic, cultural, and economic bridges between their source communities and their host communities. In this process, communication problems are inevitable, since Africans and Chinese do not share a common lingua franca in most cases. However, these communities have succeeded in devising some interactive strategies that turn out to be quite effective, especially in market situations, one of them being calculator communication (CM). This paper looks at these strategies in the context of contact linguistics and the emergence of some hybrid language that has elements of African languages, Chinese, and English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Published literature on Lingua Franca contains divergent views regarding its place in the taxonomy of contact language types. While this language is traditionally regarded as a pidgin, some scholars consider it more accurate to view it as a koine. This paper shows that Lingua Franca exhibits features that are consistent with both pidginization and koineization, and proposes to view it as located on the pidgin/koine continuum.

A comparison of emerging signed languages and creole languages provides evidence that, when language is emerging, it prioritizes marking the novelty of information; is readily recursive; favors the manner of action (aspect) over the time of action (tense); develops inflection readily only in a visual, as opposed to aural, mode; and develops derivational opacity only as the result of drift over long periods of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to present some very important “ongoing” phenomena for linguists: the birth of linguistic mixtures called pidgins, creoles and mixed languages. These processes are considered by many specialists to be very similar to the formation processes of all the world’s languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes onomastic material from the map of San Escobar, which was created on the Internet, with the intention of mockery, after a slip of the diplomat Witold Waszczykowski, who in January 2017 listed the non-existent state of San Escobar among the Caribbean countries, which was publicized by the media and released huge activity of Internet users. The author argues that the material reveals the framework of the satirically created fictional Escobar language, which fills the element of the conceptual structure of San Escobar, blended from the concepts of Poland, Latin America and fictional countries. The language revealed can be perceived as a pidgin based on Polish and Spanish.

Copyright of Language Problems & Language Planning is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scientists have accumulated considerable experience in the study of the concept of “linguistic contacts”. Multidimensionality and multifunctionality of this phenomenon, its research in various fields of scientific knowledge determine the existence of various interpretations of this concept, each of which reflects its different points. The analysis of scientific works by Chinese, Russian, Western scientists in which the understanding of the concept of “linguistic contacts” is presented, made it possible to identify the following aspects in the interpretation of this concept: an emphasis on linguistic interaction and interaction in the process of linguistic contact; definition of linguistic contacts as an interaction between languages as a result of the interaction of communities speaking these languages; the study of linguistic contacts in the aspect of the existing variety of linguistic phenomena caused by the contact of languages. The paper defines the essential characteristics of the pidgin, identifies the factors of occurrence and features of the Russian-Chinese pidgin. Based on the analysis of scientific approaches to the study of pidgin, the reasons for their appearance, conditions of functioning, it was concluded that the main factor in the emergence of the Russian-Chinese pidgin was border trade, which occupied a special place in relations between Russia and China.The research materials can be applied in studying the features of language contacts, the interaction between Russia and China.

The framework of cognitive linguistics can be an efficient tool to represent the conceptual scope of meaning extension in reduced lexicons of pidgins and creoles. Image-schema based metaphors (Lakoff, 1993; Cienki, 1998) underlie the usage of English straight and its Tok Pisin counterpart stret, but the creole employs the concept in more contexts than English. The resultant variation in the scope of metaphor takes the form of a particular source domain being used to conceptualize more target domains than in the lexifier language. Functioning mainly as a compensation strategy, the variation is the effect of strong influence of English on the conceptual system of the creole.

A comparison of emerging signed languages and creole languages provides evidence that, when language is emerging, it prioritizes marking the novelty of information; is readily recursive; favors the manner of action (aspect) over the time of action (tense); develops inflection readily only in a visual, as opposed to aural, mode; and develops derivational opacity only as the result of drift over long periods of time.

Copyright of Études Inuit Studies is the property of Centre interuniversitaire d'etudes et de recherches autochtones (CIERA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Language change, shift and death are dynamic processes which happen under several sociohistorical, demographic, geographic and linguistic metamorphoses in the world. The economic romance with China Pakistan Economic Corridor is considered to be a "game and fate changer" for the regions especially South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East and even Africa. Whether this economic consecration would also result into changes in social dynamics or consequences in the forms of linguistic apocalypse, socio-cultural cataclysm and evolution in the literary produce would become a serious cause of "game and fate changer" for linguistic ecology of the regions. Perhaps, the history has not observed and witnessed pidginization, creolization and hybridization of languages at such a large scale that CPEC is going to leave nothing more than a byproduct. Here we hypothesize that this by product would change the linguistic ecology of Pakistan altogether which poses serious challenges for language maintenance in different domains of its function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs Kecskes' socio-cognitive approach to analyze the varied speech styles and cognitive dynamics of the Chinese character (Lee) in John Steinbeck's East of Eden. The discussion of the novelistic dialogue segments has shown that the Chinese interlocutor's verbal strategies vary from pidgin to English or a combination of the two, which are predominantly hearer-centered and marked by deliberate and conscious attempts on the part of the speaker to meet the cooperation principle. Lee's movement between different communication modes is partly predetermined by the disparate power relations between the interlocutors and partly determined by his own communicative needs, thus producing a unique pattern that governs his language use in the given intercultural communicative process. In particular, pidgin is used as a self-protection mechanism, a buffer and a way of identification by the Chinese character, which informs the wider socio-historical context of Chinese immigrants' victimization of racial discrimination in the American society at the turn of the twentieth century. Just like his shifting verbal strategies in intercultural communication, Lee's cultural identity is also characterized by fluidity in the in-between space of two cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Journal of African Studies is the property of Institute of African Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Macroglossum niuginiensis sp. n. and M. naispela sp. n. are described from the Tabubil area of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers whether localized language training for call centers can fruitfully challenge the homogenizing principles of call center practices by examining a training program that aimed to familiarize offshore call center workers with Pidgin, the creole language that is widely spoken in Hawaiʻi. Call center agents in Dominica were familiarized with key aspects of Pidgin relevant to call center work, including the expression of empathy in response to customer complaints. The analysis focuses on how we drew awareness to the pragmatics of Pidgin empathy through Pidgin contextualization cues in scenarios we devised. We then examine how the call center agents displayed their awareness of these cues in role plays. The agents readily demonstrated their understandings in talk about pragmatic differences during our instruction, but the role play interactions revealed the limits of their ability to deploy similar locally appropriate pragmatics due to the homogenizing confines of call center business practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the initiation and development of Pidgin English as a contact language in Sub-Saharan Africa and its controversial relationship with standard English. The perception of Pidgin English as a second-class language in comparison to standard English continues to undermine those who speak it as a primary one. However, its rich history, significance in the education system and ability to express all the needs of its speakers provide a strong case for its legitimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the variety of Russian spoken by the Nganasans, basing on the Nganasan Russian subcorpus of narratives from the larger corpus of contact-influenced Russian speech of Russian Far East and Northern Siberia. The study focuses on morphosyntactic phenomena, namely peculiarities in noun and verbal inflection, verbal derivation, preposition drop, non-standard verb argument encoding, gender disagreement and some others, that presumably are contact-induced - they could be explained by direct structural copying (with clear parallels in Nganasan) or by incomplete acquisition of Russian (with no clear parallels in Nganasan). The second aim of this paper is to speculate as to whether the varieties of Russian spoken in the 1990s (when the audiofiles were collected) by the Nganasans form a post-pidgin continuum, with Govorka as the basilect and Standard Russian as the acrolect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unable to deny the fact that social media influences the way we interact nowadays across different languages, people have to face and accept that it also changed language itself by inventing new words and combining the existing new ones. The present article explores the linguistic changes and the adverse effects social media has on grammar and spelling, making difficult the understanding of a written message which does not use capitalization, apostrophes, commas etc. Taking into account the fact that half of the online content is in English, which makes it the most common language of the Internet flowing into daily usage, this paper focuses on the creation of new Pidgin phenomena which bear different names across cultures, such as Franglais, Spanglish, Denglish or Romglish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Babu English is arguably one of the most popular varieties of Indian English and ironically the least studied too. An attempt to define the variety lands one in a mushy land of definitions that are untenable. It has been described variously by different scholars while German linguist Schuchardt classifies it as a pidgin, Kachru defines it as a register. Most descriptions emphasize on the highly overt stylistic features of the variety. This paper analyses the stylistic and syntactic features of samples from a collection of Babu English letters to identify the characteristics of the variety. It also studies various definitions of the variety and arrives at the conclusion that Babu English is in fact a non- variety and is interlanguage or learner’s language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framework of cognitive linguistics can be an efficient tool to represent the conceptual scope of meaning extension in reduced lexicons of pidgins and creoles. Image-schema based metaphors (Lakoff, 1993; Cienki, 1998) underlie the usage of English straight and its Tok Pisin counterpart stret, but the creole employs the concept in more contexts than English. The resultant variation in the scope of metaphor takes the form of a particular source domain being used to conceptualize more target domains than in the lexifier language. Functioning mainly as a compensation strategy, the variation is the effect of strong influence of English on the conceptual system of the creole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]