A Dying Language
A Created Language
Amy Peche
Colorado Technical University Online
Abstract African Americans have been forced to change, adapt, and conform their culture, traditions, customs, and beliefs since the days of slavery. One of the major ways African Americans adapted to the new culture, which they were forced into through slave trade, was by creating their own language commonly referred to as pidgin. Throughout this paper I will define pidgin, what transpired in the African Americans culture to cause this language, where one can still hear the language, and why a group cannot maintain a strong identity with a common language.
Pidgin Pidgin is a form a language that has been used by many cultures in the world. Pidgin is defined as, “ an auxiliary language that has come into existence through the attempts by the speakers of two different languages to communicate and that is primarily a simplified form of one of the languages, with reduced vocabulary and grammatical structure and considerable variation in pronunciation,” (Dictionary.com, 2012). One of the most common and most heard of forms of pidgin is that of the African Americans. Many people believe that African Americans, created their form of the pidgin language, in order to communicate with one another during the United States use of slavery.
African American Use In 1619 slavery began in the United States. The first known slaves were actually Native Americans, but shortly after the Dutch arrived in America slave trade became very prominent and African American became the most commonly traded. Many slave owners mixed groups of African Americans together that spoke marginally different languages to discourage any use of their languages and force the use of English. In order to conform to their new ways of life, away from the many different cultures, customs, and traditions they had been raised around they found a way to communicate and they created the pidgin language, which has developed today
Amy Peche
Colorado Technical University Online
Abstract African Americans have been forced to change, adapt, and conform their culture, traditions, customs, and beliefs since the days of slavery. One of the major ways African Americans adapted to the new culture, which they were forced into through slave trade, was by creating their own language commonly referred to as pidgin. Throughout this paper I will define pidgin, what transpired in the African Americans culture to cause this language, where one can still hear the language, and why a group cannot maintain a strong identity with a common language.
Pidgin Pidgin is a form a language that has been used by many cultures in the world. Pidgin is defined as, “ an auxiliary language that has come into existence through the attempts by the speakers of two different languages to communicate and that is primarily a simplified form of one of the languages, with reduced vocabulary and grammatical structure and considerable variation in pronunciation,” (Dictionary.com, 2012). One of the most common and most heard of forms of pidgin is that of the African Americans. Many people believe that African Americans, created their form of the pidgin language, in order to communicate with one another during the United States use of slavery.
African American Use In 1619 slavery began in the United States. The first known slaves were actually Native Americans, but shortly after the Dutch arrived in America slave trade became very prominent and African American became the most commonly traded. Many slave owners mixed groups of African Americans together that spoke marginally different languages to discourage any use of their languages and force the use of English. In order to conform to their new ways of life, away from the many different cultures, customs, and traditions they had been raised around they found a way to communicate and they created the pidgin language, which has developed today