You've probably heard of these terms all your life but do you understand the differences. This is a facinating subject and hence I'm going to put down a few words about them. Linguist estimate that there are about 6000 or more languages around the world and these do not include local dialects. The most spoden language in the world is Mandarin Chinese which has more than 800 million speakers. The next four most populous languages, not necesarily in this order are: English, Spanish, Hindi, and Bengali. However, what about when these languaes come into contact with one another or what about when the opposite occurs, when languages are isolated from others.
Trade, colonization, confinement in concentration camps have cause people to create a unique form of communication called pidgin Pidgins come about when there is no common form of language. Pidgins are characterized by fewer words and simple grammar to facilitate communication under these unique circumstances. Yet Pidgin is a language with its own linquistic system. Since Pidgins are given birth because of unique circumstances, if those circumstances go away pidgins may fall out of use. On the other hand a pidgin may become a main language of a given population. If so new words are added and grammar becomes more organized, or reorganized. At that point it becomes a Creole. Creoles express the culture of a people. There are many pidgins or creoles throughout the world based on languages such as English, French, Portuguese, Swahili, and others. Some Creoles become the dominant language of a population. Another bridge-type languages are "Lingua Francas". A lingua franca is a common language used by groups whose mother tongues are different, such as the Central African republic. where speakers of various local languages can communicate by means of Sango. Diplomats my use English or French as lingua francas. Pidgins are lingua francas, and creoles can be also.
Dialects are local varieties of a local language. Sometimes, because of isolation and other factors, a dialect may be become a new language. Since each of these languages, pidgins, creoles, or lingua francas served their purpose in human communication, they all deserve our respect. (This information was taken from August 2000 is of Awake! magazine.
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