**** Pidginization--function in slave societies

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From the perspective of the first generations of enslaved Africans in the Americas, pidginization was a process of experimenting, tentative and provisional, by which people from different cultures adapted to each other and new environments as best they could. Some pidgins serve as temporary contact languages which meet narrow and specific communication needs--often concerning trade or labor--between two unrelated cultures. The situation in slave-holding societies was more complex. Not only was a language needed for communication between slaves and their English-speaking masters, but among many of the slaves themselves. This raises issues about the effect of point of view.

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{ For recent systematic reviews of the literature and definitions of pidginization, see John A. Holm, Pidgins and Creoles, vol 1: 3-70, Cambridge, U. K. 1988; Derek Bickerton, Language and Species, Chicago: 1990; 105-129 and passim; ________, "Creole Languages;" Scientific American, 249:1; July 1983; 116-121; ________, Roots of Language, Ann Arbor: 1981, 1-42, esp. 1-8; Ronald Wardaugh, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Oxford: 1986, 70-76.