Pidgins and Creoles: Analysis of The Etymology, Relevant Theories and The Influence of Media

Abstract

Being a common phenomenon, bilingualism occurs when a person acquires two languages. Bilingualism can take place for commercial, political, and educational purposes. Educational purposes aside, the unwavering commercial and political ambitions of bigger civilizations coerced them to colonize smaller civilizations. For this reason, they imposed their languages on the colonized local people. Locals responded to the demands of colonizers by forming their languages called pidgin. As this common language evolved and became the native language of the contiguous generation, the language improved following its linguistic features, that is, creolized. Several theories regarding their origin exist in the literature. Thus; the present review aims to examine and explain these theories concerning their historical background and framework and mention the influence of media on pidgins and creoles appealing to antecedent studies in the relevant literature. Based on the systematic review of different studies, the present review concludes that pidgins and creoles are not inaccurate versions of standard languages, but separate languages worthy of studying. Besides, the theories of pidgin and creole origins are all useful guidelines that require holistic analysis because of their interconnectedness. Theories of polygenesis and monogenesis present this integrity complying with Stammbaum (1871) and Wellentheorie (1872). When it comes to the influence of the media, the present review concludes that mediatic tools, such as television, the Internet, and mobile phones, along with literature and music, enable locals to demonstrate their identity, but may sometimes lead to cyberbullying and illegal acts.