Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin. Grammatical Similarities and Differences Between English Based Creole Languages E-Book

Maximilian Bauer

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Würzburg (Neuphilologisches Institut), course: Dialects of English, language: English, abstract: As Colonization in Europe emerged more and more countries all over the world were seized by Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish and English troops. As there was a problem of communication a new language between the English troops and settlers and the native people came up that is nowadays called a Pidgin language. It was a mixture of the indigenous language and the language of the invaders from Europe. When later the British brought the first slaves from other colonies mostly in Africa they also had a huge impact on this Pidgin language. As the time went by more and more of these colonies declared their independence but most of the influences to the life and the country in the colonies seemed irreversible. A very important impact was the one on the language of the former natives by African slaves and European settlers that inhabited the colonies for a long time. These influences can still be seen in modern times in education, lifestyle and of course the language. The Pidgin languages all over the world – today most of them developed to creoles – are still spoken. They have some distinct features in common but they also show differences concerning grammatical or syntactical features even if the spelling seems to be nearly the same. Therefore in my opinion it is worthwhile taking a closer look to those similarities and differences between Pidgin and Creole languages all over the world and to pick out some appropriate examples that maybe do not share a continent, but instead share linguistic features derived from actions and happenings of a former time whose impacts are still seen today.

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Table of Contents

1. English Pidgins – from the beginning until today

2. Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole - A Comparison of two modern Creole languages

2.1. Historical overview of Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin

2.1.1. Linguistic History of Jamaican Creole

2.1.2. Linguistic History of Tok Pisin

2.2. Grammatical Similarities between Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole

2.2.1. Nouns

2.2.2. Pronouns

2.2.3. Verbs

2.2.4. Syntax

2.3. Grammatical Differences between Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole

2.3.1. Nouns

2.3.2. Pronouns

2.3.3. Verbs

2.3.4. Syntax

3. Practical approach on Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole grammar

3.1. Vybz Kartel – Life we Living as an example of Jamaican Creole

3.2. Oshen featuring Ugly B. – Acting fancy as an example of Tok Pisin

4. Creole languages all over the world

5. Bibliography

6. Appendix

1. English Pidgins – from the beginning until today

As Colonization in Europe emerged more and more countries all over the world were seized by Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish and English troops. The colonial powers hoped to find gold, silver and other trade worthy goods in the new colonies and wanted to increase their power and reputation among each other. The British Empire sent out troops to Africa, Australia and the Caribbean Islands to conquer parts of these continents for the sake of their motherland’s glory. As there was a problem of communication a new language between the English troops and settlers and the native people came up that is nowadays called a Pidgin language. It was a mixture of the indigenous language and the language of the invaders from Europe. When later the British brought the first slaves from other colonies mostly in Africa they also had a huge impact on this Pidgin language.

As the time went by more and more of these colonies declared their independence but most of the influences to the life and the country in the colonies seemed irreversible. A very important impact was the one on the language of the former natives by African slaves and European settlers that inhabited the colonies for a long time. These influences can still be seen in modern times in education, lifestyle and of course the language. The Pidgin languages all over the world – today most of them developed to creoles – are still spoken. They have some distinct features in common but they also show differences concerning grammatical or syntactical features even if the spelling seems to be nearly the same.

Therefore in my opinion it is worthwhile taking a closer look to those similarities and differences between Pidgin and Creole languages all over the world and to pick out some appropriate examples that maybe do not share a continent, but instead share linguistic features derived from actions and happenings of a former time whose impacts are still seen today.

2. Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole - A Comparison of two modern Creole languages

2.1. Historical overview of Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin

2.1.1. Linguistic History of Jamaican Creole

The first people living in Jamaica were the Arawaks and their language was Taino (Coutsoukis2001). When in 1509 Spanish colonists came to the island they tried to communicate with the natives but as they did not share a language this appeared as difficult task. A new language was born, a mixture of the Taino language of the indigenous Arawaks and the Spanish language of the conquerors was created mostly for the purpose of trade and communication. When later the first settlers came to Jamaica to build up a new life they brought along their slaves, they had shipped out from African colonies. By this time the African slaves and their owners spoke a mixture of Spanish and several African languages and this kind of speech of course would now influences the language spoken on the Jamaican island all the years before.

 In 1655 English troops seized Jamaica and just one year later the first English settlers who had mostly been living on other Caribbean Islands came to the Jamaica (Viereck 2002: 193). These new inhabitants also brought their own slaves, who came mostly from Africa, too but they spoke other dialects or even languages, because they originally had come from other parts of Africa than the slaves of the Spanish population. By this time the Spanish language had almost completely disappeared and a new English based Pidgin was created to ensure communication between natives, the new settlers and their slaves. In 1670 Jamaica became an English colony and member of the Commonwealth. The English Standard was used for official purposes but meanwhile the English based Pidgin language developed to a lingua franca everybody was supposed to understand and speak.

 In 1734 the number of slaves in Jamaica had increased to 92% of the population and the influence of the African language on English Pidgin even increased (Viereck 2002: 193). Finally in the 18th century it developed to Jamaican Creole as the first Jamaican people spoke the mixture based on Standard English and African dialects as a mother tongue.

When in 1962 Jamaica declared its independence (Kortmann/Schneider 2004: 407) the language should not be influenced any longer. Jamaican English was kept as the official language and Jamaican Creole still is spoken by most of the inhabitants of the Caribbean island and can be seen as a lingua franca.

2.1.2. Linguistic History of Tok Pisin

Papua New Guinea, the country where Tok Pisin is spoken today, also has its language from colonial times even if its history is shorter in time than the one of Jamaican Creole. At the beginning of the 18th century the English language was brought to the area of New Guinea by traders and whale hunters. As the indigenous people needed to communicate with the English sailors, mostly for the purpose of trading, a first pidgin language in the area was created. It was called Melanesian Pidgin. (Mühlhäusler 2003: 5)

When in 1884 big parts of the country got under German control as a colony, the German imposters tried to repress the English bases pidgin language, but they had no success. One important reason for this had been the imported labourers who had worked on plantations in Queensland and Samoa. These workers spoke English and other Melanesian languages like the natives and their only way of communicating with other plantation workers was a mixture of English and the Melanesian languages. So the English impact on Melanesian Pidgin became even greater when the imported labourers returned and brought the English based pidgin from the plantations back to their home countries. (Siegel: Grammar)

The importance of Melanesian Pidgin grew and it became a creole as the first children of former plantation workers learned it as a mother tongue. When in 1914 the First World War broke out, the colony of Papua New Guinea got under Australian administrative and the German influences totally stopped, which can be seen in the lexicon of the language today. Under the Australian administration Tok Pisin spread. It was used at work, but also in daily life for communication purpose. (Mühlhäusler 2003: 5f)

The development of Tok Pisin came to a harsh end when Japanese soldiers invaded the country during the Second World War. Most of the plantations all over the country were destroyed and as those were still important places for learning the language, this was a huge impact on the language. Also the contact to other Pidgin language speakers and Australian and American dialects influenced Melanesian Pidgin. But the war also had some positive influence, because the language used for communication by the allies was Tok Pisin and so “its status changed from that of a language of workers and servants to a medium of liberation and self-assertion (Mühlhäusler 2003: 7).” Beginning after the World War in 1945 the first newspaper was published in Tok Pisin and it became the official language for governmental institutions and politics. (Mühlhäusler 2003: 7)

In 1953 the UN tried to abandon Tok Pisin because the language was seen as a remnant of oppressiveness of colonial times, but the language did not disappear. Until the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975 the language spread further by virtue of new media, church, literature and an “increasingly positive attitude among […] Native people and expatriates” (Mühlhäusler 2003: 7). Since 1975 Tok Pisin has undergone several phases of decline, but it is still spoken in wide areas of Papua New Guinea as official language and lingua franca.

2.2. Grammatical Similarities between Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole

2.2.1. Nouns

In the English Standard language nouns express their plural with an s at the end of the word. In Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin the plural form of nouns was not adapted, but it is still built similar with a plurality indicator. These are words or fragments of words placed in front of the verb of the sentence to express plurality. Which indicators are used in the pidgin languages Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin in particular is referred to in the section of differences between the two creoles.

 The English Standard expresses the possession of a noun in a sentence with an ‘s at the end of the subject of it or a construction with of as seen in the following example: That man’s house. That is the house of the man. In both creole languages, in Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin, the grammatical feature of possession is expressed in a similar way. One possibility is to express possession with a construction alike the one in Standard English but no ‘s is added: “dat man house” (Crystal 2009: 347). The other possibility is to add a particle that shows possession. The use of this particle is explained in the section of differences of nouns.

2.2.2. Pronouns

The English standard divides its pronouns in different categories. Personal pronouns appear alongside to reflexive, possessive and demonstrative pronouns only to name the most important ones (Patrick 2003: 24ff). In Jamaican Creole as in Tok Pisin the number of pronouns in general is reduced as the grammatical rules in total. Jamaican Creole personal pronouns are:

 It can be seen that not only one pronoun is listed, but for example for the first person singular different pronouns can be used. The third person pronoun instead does not show any indication of gender as it does in Standard English.

 Tok Pisin personal pronouns show several similarities to the Jamaican ones (Mühlhäusler 2003: 17):

 In Tok Pisin the third person singular shows no variation regardless of whether a person or an object is referred to. In Jamaican Creole im is used for addressing persons and i is used for addressing objects (Patrick 2003: 24f).

2.2.3. Verbs

The English Standard is varying its verbs to express different tenses. For those purposes in some cases auxiliary verbs are needed or the verbs’ past participle. Not in all creole languages auxiliary verbs do occur and as it would be difficult to express as much tenses as the English Standard the number of tenses is radically reduced to one future and one past tense. Continuous action is in both creoles expressed with an additional word. (Patrick 2003: 6[1])/ (Siegel: Grammar)

 The two past tenses have different meaning. In both creoles one past tense expresses English Standard simple past and the other one expresses that something happened before another event that already happened in the past, meaning it is similar to Standard English past perfect. For building those tenses a marker in front of the verb is needed. As those markers and some other features of building the tenses diversify in Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin they are referred to in the paragraph subordinated the grammatical differences of the two languages.

 Expressing completed action is very similar in both languages. In Jamaican Creole the word don meaning done is integrated in the sentence. It appears in position before or after the verb. (Patrick, 2003: 7f)

In Tok Pisin another word is used for the purpose of showing a completed action. Referring to Siegel Ben i wok pinis means Ben is finished working. The rule extracted from this example is that when the verb of the sentence is followed by pinis the action expressed in the sentence is seen as completed. As a conclusion can be said, that both creole languages use an auxiliary verb for the purpose of showing completed action and even if a different word is used, the structure shows similarity.

2.2.4. Syntax

As Patrick states Jamaican Creole word order “is uniformly Subject-Verb-Object, like most Atlantic English-lexicon Creoles” (2003: 15) and according to Brown exactly the same can be said about Tok Pisin (2009: 1077). Jamaican Creole and Tok Pisin word order can be seen in several examples. The sentence Nabadii na a kom ina mai aus is translated to Nobody is going to come into my house (Patrick, 2003: 15). The sentence starts with Nobody, the subject of the sentence followed by a predicate construction expressing future time and ends with the object mai aus.

For stating the word order used in Tok Pisin Siegel can be taken as a reference. Ben worked yesterday, a simple Standard English constructing following the Subject – Verb – Object order, is in Tok Pisin Beni bin wok asde (Grammar). Ben is a person and subject of the sentence, i bin wok is the predicate construction, which in this case expressed past tense and asde is an object.

 Inversion is not used in both creole languages even not for forming questions. The word order in Tok Pisin stays the same in any situation and as seen in Brown yu-pela gat brus a? is a question for tobacco (2009: 1077). Standard English speakers would form this question with an auxiliary verb construction with to do for example: Do you have tobacco?

 In Jamaican Creole questions have the same word order as a normal declarative sentence. Patrick gives an example of a question in Jamaican Creole but to see the actual form it has to be translated and reformed. A dis yah kind a life yuh want? is translated to Is this the kind of life you want? Reforming the sentence in Standard English would for example look like this: Do you want this kind of life? Retranslating this question to Jamaican Creole would lead to the following result: Yuh want dis kind a life? The sentence could also be a declarative sentence according to word order but the question mark shows that the sentence is questioning for something.

2.3. Grammatical Differences between Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole

2.3.1. Nouns

In Tok Pisin nouns build their plural form with a word that indicates the number like in “tripela pik – three pigs” (Siegel: Grammar) or a small word that has the function of indicating the plural form to the reader. The Papua New Guinean language uses the word ol (Siegel: Grammar) for this purpose in difference to Jamaican Creole where the plural is shown through dem (Crystal 2009: 347) in front of the verb of the sentence.

 Possession can, as already explained in 2.2.1., be expressed in two different ways in Jamaican Creole. The second of these possibilities is to add a particle in the sentence. In front of the possessive pronoun a fi is added: “De coat a fi me. – the coat is mine.” (Crystal 2009: 347) In Tok Pisin there is no construction to express possession with a particle.

2.3.2. Pronouns

A remarkable difference between the two creoles concerning pronouns is that in some varieties of Jamaican Creole a gender is shown in 3rd person singular but in Tok Pisin there is no gender variation of this pronoun as it can be seen in the charts on page 6 of this seminar paper.

 But the most striking difference surely is that in Tok Pisin several personal pronouns appear in plural forms. They are used to express a number of two or three persons and diversify to normal plural forms of the pronouns. So for a first, second or third person plural situation where two persons are addressed the pronouns are yumitupela/mitupela, yutupela and (em) tupela. The same pattern can be seen as three persons are addressed. Concerning Mühlhäuser the pronouns are yumitripela/mitripela, yutripela and (em) tripela (2003: 17)

 Another difference that should be mentioned and that can already be seen in the previous paragraph is that in Tok Pisin one form of the first person plural is insufficient. The first person plural form distinguishes between a form that includes or excludes the person that is spoken to. As an example for this grammatical feature Mühlhäuser states:

If the addressee is not included, one says mipela; if he is, one says yumi. Failure to observe the distinction can lead to misunderstanding: thus a missionary must say Jisas i- dai long yumi ‘Jesus died for us’, that is, for Europeans and Natives alike; if he said Jisas i- dai long mipela it would mean ‘Jesus died for us (missionaries, and not for the congregation)’.(2003: 17)

2.3.3. Verbs

Quite different is the future tense in both creoles. In Jamaican Creole a verb form of to go is added just like the English going-to-future. I am going to run is translated to Mi a go ron (Patrick, 2003: 6). In Tok Pisin the sentence to be set in future tense is supplemented with a form which refers to the word baimbai what means by and by (Wohlgemuth, 1999: 3.1.1): Mi bai wok is translated to I will work (Siegel: Grammar). As a conclusion can be said, that Jamaican Creole future tense is not far from English Standard going-to future and an auxiliary verb is used to construct it. In contrast to this Tok Pisin is building its future tense with a tense marker that does not refer to any English Standard auxiliary verb.

 Another difference appearing in the section of verbs is the way to express continuous action. According to Siegel Ben is working now is translated to Ben i wok i stap nau but I’m working now is translated to Mi wok nau. This shows that in Tok Pisin a difference is made whether the speaker is doing an action himself or not. Subject and predicate are just completed to a continuous action clause by a time expressing word that shows that the action is done right in the moment. Does the speaker talk about another person doing an action a time word is not sufficient and after the verb i stap has to be added. (Siegel: Grammar)

 In Jamaican Creole the progressive aspect is expressed in a more simple way. There is only one form either the speaker refers to himself doing an action or to another person. I am running in Jamaican Creole is Mi a ron (Patrick, 2003: 7).

2.3.4. Syntax

Negation is in both creole languages created similar but not in every case. In the position in front of the verb a no can be added to negate a sentence. Brown for example states that mi no save means I don’t know (2009: 1077) in Tok Pisin as already known mi is the first person singular personal pronoun and save meaning to know is the predicate of the sentence.

 In Jamaican Creole negation can be expressed exactly the same way, the negation marker no can be attached to the sentence in front of the verb. But as Patrick states “[m]ost speakers also have tense-neutral duont. Duont may occur with any time-reference or aspect” (2003: 13). The following example shows the use of a form of duont for the purpose of negating a sentence:

Up to now, Spangler don’t come back in di area.

Until this day Spangler has not come back into the area. (Patrick, 2003: 13)

As a conclusion can be said, that syntactical structures of both creole languages have been reduced to a minimum for creating a language easy to learn for the purpose of communication.

3. Practical approach on Tok Pisin and Jamaican Creole grammar

3.1. Vybz Kartel – Life we Living as an example of Jamaican Creole

Vybz Kartel is a singer and song writer from Jamaica. He sings his songs mostly situated in the reggae and hip-hop area in a mixture of Jamaican Creole and Jamaican Standard English and his texts show several grammatical features of both languages.

 At the beginning an example of the word order in the Jamaican Creole shall be stated. In the first paragraph of the song the line Di politician come pon tv (Kartel) is sung which can be translated to The politician(s) come(s)/is (are) on tv. The word order is clearly the same as in Standard English, the subject di politician is followed by the verb to come and the object on tv is added to the sentence at the end.

 Also the word order in questions can be seen in the text. Already in the fourth line the singer forms the question: How mi fi send him go school in this time [?] what can be translated to How can i send him to school in this time? In this example the word order in Jamaican Creole is not the same as in Standard English. Jamaican Creole speakers do not use auxiliary verbs in several interrogating constructions and so the interrogation pronoun how is directly followed by the first person singular personal pronoun mi.

 Another grammatical feature appearing in the text is negation. It appears in two different examples, one of them is just a single negation, the other one is a double negation. In line 19 the artist explains that he has no money left: Weekend a come mi nuh have a red cent. By adding nuh to the sentence it is negated. Another form of the negation is the double negation seen in line eight within the sentence Notin nuh funny. The speakers probably wants to say that nothing is funny is funny for him because of his problems he refers to in the whole text but for emphasizing it he negates the sentence twice.

 In line 18 the singer gives an example for possession building: Becah me owe bout four months rent. The sentence would be translated to: because i owe him (the landlord) about four months’ rent. This example shows that possession is not expressed with apostrophic constructions.

Another grammatical feature that can be seen in the text is the building of a past form in line 22. And di likkle money weh mi have done spend is translated to and the little money I have is (already) spent. Done spend in this example expresses that the process of spending the money is already finished, it is already done.

3.2. Oshen featuring Ugly B. – Acting fancy as an example of Tok Pisin

Oshen and Ugly B are two artists from Papua New Guinea mostly located in the reggae area of music. They are very proud of their country and it’s language and that is why they perform their songs in Tok Pisin.

The word order follows the same pattern as Standard English: It is spicy is translated to em i pait (Oshen, 19). The subject em is followed by the verb i which is followed by the object pait.

 In line 38 a question shows a construction for interrogational purposes: Why yu laik… is translated to Why do you like…. This construction shows that also in Tok Pisin no auxiliary verbs are used for forming questions the personal pronoun yu just stands right behind the why.

 Negation of a sentence is used in line 29 when the artists sing na yu mekim ol no bilong PNG. The sentence probably is translated to a construction like you make them not to be part of PNG. No is added to the sentence to negate it.

 In the third line a form of continuous action seems to come up but as the word stap builds continuous action forms it cannot be assured that the singer wants to express continuity because stap has several meanings in Tok Pisin: luksave em stap, yeh.

 In the whole text also several forms of personal pronouns appear, for example 1st person singular mi in line 4, 2nd person singular in line six, 3rd person singular em in line 19 and 2nd person plural yupela in line five.

4. Creole languages all over the world

All over the world creole languages have developed during colonial times. And even if they are placed in very different locations in the world lots of similarities can be seen in sections of vocabulary, phonology, spelling and grammar as stated in this work. But there are also several differences those languages because all of them have their own roots and origins, even when parallels in history cannot be denied.

 But as those languages I am talking about are rooted in a historical time they still influence our modern daily life. Not only in the countries where Creole languages are spoken by a majority of the people and where they are used as a lingua franca but also in other countries worldwide creole languages are making its contributions. Reggae music for example is listened to in many countries on the globe and often the texts are from artists who speak creole languages like the famous Rastafarian Bob Marley whose music influenced whole generations in the United States and also in Europe. His music did not only shape an era of young people it also helped creole languages to spread all over the world.

5. Bibliography

Brown, Edward K. 2009. Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Crystal, David. 2009. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Holm, John A. 2000. An introduction to pidgins and creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Kortmann, Bernd; Edgar W. Schneider (eds.). 2004. A handbook of varieties of English. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

McArthur, Tom. 1996. The Oxford companion to the English language. Oxford: Oxford UP.

McArthur, Tom. 2002. The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Metrolyrics (ed.) “Life we Living”. <http://www.metrolyrics.com/life-we-living-lyrics-vybz-kartel.html> (July 27, 2011)

Mühlhäusler, Peter. 2003. Tok Pisin texts from the beginning to the present. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

O-shen; Ugly B. February 9, 2010. “Acting Fancy”. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9VzoC1yZbM> (July 27, 2011)

Patrick, Peter L. 2003. “Jamaican Creole morphology and syntax”. <http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/papers/JamCreoleGrammar.pdf>(July 22, 2011)

Photius Coutsoukis. 2001. “Caribbean Islands. Historical Setting”. <http://workmall.com/wfb2001/caribbean_islands/caribbean_islands_history_historical_setting.html> (July 22, 2011)

Siegel, Jeff. February 7, 2011. “Tok Pisin”. <http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/tokpisin.html#bkgd-hce> (July 22, 2011)

Viereck, Wolfgang; Karin Viereck; Heinrich Ramisch. 2002. dtv-Atlas Englische Sprache. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.

Vybz Kartel. November 5, 2009. “Life we Living”. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRZmrdzprOM> (27. Juli 2011)

Wohlgemuth, Jan.

6. Appendix

Lyrics Life We Living – Vybz Kartel

Jamaica we need a way

Tell mi Mill

A how mi youth fi survive

How mi fi send him go school in this time

If mi don't mek money

Di politician come pon tv

A show we this big pretty smile

Notin nuh funny (nuh funny, nuh funny)

Look pon di life we living

Look pon di life we living

Look pon di life we living

Is a betta way we seekin

Look pon di life we living

Look pon di life we living

Look pon di life we living

Notin nuh funny (nuh funny, nuh funny)

Mi haffi hide from the landlord

Becah mi owe bout four months rent

Weekend a come mi nuh have a red cent

Cry mi cry when mi hear mi son seh

Daddy can you please buy me a Nike Air

And di likkle money weh mi have done spend

Di last grand mi have mi pay di light but wata