P. Bakker re 3 factors tending against pidgins in N. America

[Mikael Parkvall]

As a pidginist/creolist with limited knowledge of the American north-west
who has recently joined the list, I find Dave Robertson's comments
interesting. Why is it that some contexts generate pidgins, whereas others
fail to do so?

One thing that struck me in Dave's suggestion that the relative rarity of
mestizos would be responsible for pidginisation, is that this would imply
that a pidgin didn't emerge until the arrival of whites in the area. What
is the evidence for or against this?

Also, while most creolists hold that limited access to the alleged target
language is responsible for pidginisation, I rather believe that it is a
question of motivation. If so, what would have made people in the
respective areas more eager to learn "proper" Huron or Cree (the eastern
lingua francas), whereas the creators of Chinook Jargon wouldn't even have
tried to learn "proper" Chinook? Is it a question of attitude towards the
Chinooks (different from that which the neighbours of the Hurons and the
Crees would have had vis a vis these tribes and their languages), or does
it rather have to do with the nature of contacts?


/MP

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Mikael Parkvall
Institutionen för lingvistik
Stockholms Universitet
S-10691 STOCKHOLM

+46 (0)8 16 14 41
Fax: +46 (0)8 15 53 89

parkvall at ling.su.se

Creolist Archives: http://www.ling.su.se/Creole