Summary pidgin and creole languages

A pidgin is a restricted language which arises for the purposes of communication between two social groups of which one is in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one which develops the pidgin.

Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations where the representatives of the particular colonial power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. The latter developed a jargon when communicating with the former. This resulted in a language on the basis of the colonial language in question and the language or languages of the natives. Such a language was restricted in its range as it served a definite purpose, namely basic communication with the colonists. In the course of several generations such a reduced form of language can become more complex, especially if it develops into the mother tongue of a group of speakers. This latter stage is that of creolisation. Creoles are much expanded versions of pidgins and have arisen in situations in which there was a break in the natural linguistic continuity of a community, for instance on slave planatations in their early years.

A pidgin language is a mixed language that enables limited communication between two groups that don’t share a common language. So that is the advantage.

The disadvantages are that the languages are limited, e.g. to trade, and that they have to be created over time.

Some languages that are referred to as pidgins are in fact creoles, which are full languages derived from pidgins. They are comparable to any other natural language in terms of pros and cons

Register is a style or variety of language determined by such factors as social occasion,context, purpose, and audience, also called stylistic variation. Practically, the term refers to the degrees of formality with which populations use language; these formal variations are sometimes called codes.

Registers are marked by a variety of specialized vocabulary and turns of phrases, colloquialisms and the use of jargon, and a difference in intonation and pace; in "The Study of Language," linguist George Yule describes the function of jargon as helping " to create and maintain connections among those who see themselves as 'insiders' in some way and to exclude 'outsiders.'"