Languages of India: Pidginization/Creolization

Source: Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 14, A Bibliography of Pidgin and
Creole Languages (1975), pp. 632-635
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20006659
Accessed: 27-04-2019 13:23 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications

This content downloaded from 112.134.148.237 on Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:23:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 99. Languages of India: Pidginization/Creolization

The Indian subcontinent, with its multiplicity of languages belonging to several families
and its variety of cultural and linguistic accommodations, is one of the most promising
regions for the study of pidginization and creolization. Except for cre?le Portuguese it is
also one of the most neglected.
Grierson in his monumental Linguistic survey of India (1903-28) mentions many lan?
guages and dialects which he terms 'mixed,' 'corrupt,' 'decadent,' 'a mongrel form,'
'broken,' 'a jargon,' etc., and in one case a pidgin. Although he provides texts of several
of them, he does not analyze the nature and extent of pidginization of any one. The only
full-length study of a pidgin is Chatterji's monograph (1931) on the Bazaar Hindustani of
Calcutta. Apte (1969) has an unpublished paper on the pidginization of Hindi in Bombay,
Poona, and elsewhere. See also the references in Khubchandani (1963) and Pandey (1970).
Jeff Siegel of the University of Hawaii has studied the pidgin Hindustani of Fiji, and
Domingue (1971) has written on the Bhojpuri of Mauritius.
There are many indications that tribesmen have pidginized and creolized the languages
of more advanced peoples which they have adopted. De Silva (1965) arrives at this conclu?
sion for Vedda. Peterson (1912), as summarized by Grierson, 'maintains that the Prakrits
represent Sanskrit as mispronounced by the enslaved aborigines of India,' a theory which
no other writer appears to share.
Gumperz & Wilson (1971) show that syntactic and other convergence of languages in a
multilingual village has resulted in something at least strongly resembling creolization.
Southworth (1971) from his study of Marathi concludes that 'pidginization took place
throughout the Indo-Aryan area' with results similar to the classic modern cases of creol?
ization.
The pidgin Assamese of Nagaland (Naga-Assamese, Broken Assamese, Nagamese,
Pidgin Naga) is of long standing and considerable importance. Nagaland, with an area of
6366 square miles and a population of ca. 516,000, contains about twenty-three languages,
of which thirteen are recognized by the state government. Nagamese consequently is the
lingua franca of all Nagaland and is spoken even in the Legislative Assembly. It is becom?
ing the creolized mother tongue of an Assamese community settled in Dimapur subdivi?
sion of Kohima division.
Pidgin Assamese has been mentioned by several writers, e.g. Hutton (1921) and F?rer
Haimendorf (1946), but except for a locally published polyglot word list (Baruah 1969),
no specimens have been available, and there is no published description. M. V. Sreedhar,
research officer, Central Institute of Indian Languages at Mysore, has, however, under?
taken 'A socio-linguistic study of Nagaland with reference to its interlingual communica

632

This content downloaded from 112.134.148.237 on Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:23:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 99. LANGUAGES OF INDIA: PIDGINIZATION/CREOLIZATION [12.
tion pattern.' In the near future he expects to publish a mimeographed phonetic reader of
Pidgin Naga, and by 1974 an English-Pidgin Naga dictionary and a grammar of the pid?
gin as spoken by the Angami Nagas, with comparison with the variations found among ten
other Naga groups.
Grierson (Vol. I, Part I, p. 156) mentions Jharw? as a pidgin mixture of Bengali, Garo,
and Assamese spoken in a section of Assam, but he gives no description or text.

ABBAS, Khwaja Ahmad. 1969. 'A link 'Calcutta Hindustani: a study of a

language for the common man', in
Language and society in India, p. 29-36.
[1.
Simplified 'cinema Hindustani,' p. 32-33.
APTE, M[ahadev] L[axman]. 1965.
jargon dialect', Indian Linguistics, vol.
1, parts 2/4. 57 p. [7.
A competent monograph: historical and socio?
logical background; a clear description of pidgin?
ized Calcutta Hindustani with several texts illus?
trating the usage of various ethnic groups.

'Linguistic acculturation and its relation -. 1935. 'The oldest grammar of

to urbanization and socio-economic Hindustani', Indian Linguistics 5:68
factors', Indian Linguistics 23:5-25. [2. 83. [8.
Shows adoption of standard Marathi in Bom?
A description
bay rather than its pidginization. grammar of H
-. ?1969. 'Pidginization of a published
The
in
speech
La
he d
lingua franca: a linguistic analysis of
with the typica
Hindi spoken in Maharashtra.' Paper
Koine or Verkeh
the towns of N
read at annual meeting of AAS, March
towns of South
1969. To be published in revised form.
[3. DAHMAN,
hill-tribe of
'. . . [B]ased primarily on the material I had
collected over the years in Bombay city and also Anthropos 3
other areas of Maharashtra, notably Poona.'? At p. 20-21 call
Apte. Tamil jargon' w
limited vocabul
BARUAH, D[utta]. 1969. Nagamese into
Anglo?Hindi?Ao. Mokokchung, Naga? DE SILVA, M
land: the author, vi, 137 p. [4. A structural
Parallel lists of words and some sentences in the age spoken in
four languages. A few notes on tense formation. Dambulla d
Two-page preface with some information on use of of London,
the pidgin.
'De Silva conc
BHATTACHARYA, Sudhibhushan. 1957. cre?le based on
'Field-notes on Nah?l?', Indian Linguis? Sinhalese as th
tics 17:245-258. [5. Gumperz.

Nah?l? is termed by Grierson (Vol. IV, p. 184?
186) a mixed Munda language.
BLOCH, Jules. ?1919. La formation de
la langue marathe. [3e ?d.] Paris: Edou?
ard Champion, xv, 432 p. [6.
Bloch first pointed out the extensive Tamiliza
tion of Marathi, but with no mention of pidgini?
zation.
CHATTER Jl, Suniti Kumar. 1931.
DHALL, G. B. 1957. 'The languages
and dialects spoken in Orissa', Indian
Linguistics 17:39-43. [11.
Points out various mixed dialects, particularly
Sambalpuri Oriya and the macaronic Bengali
Oriya of North Balsore.
ELWIN, Verrier. 1961. Nagaland.
Shillong: P. Dutta for the Research
Dept., Adviser's Secretariat. 108 p. [12.
633

This content downloaded from 112.134.148.237 on Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:23:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
[13. 99. LANGUAGES OF INDIA: PIDGINIZATION/CREOLIZATION
Notes long-standing use of broken Assamese
as lingua franca, p. 12. The Nagas number ca.
357,000 in several language groups ranging from
5000 to 63,000.
FERGUSON, Charles A., and John J.
GUMPERZ. 1960. 'Introduction',
in Ferguson & Gumperz (1960), p. 1-18.
[13.
Discusses the great variety of regional, social,
and literary dialects of the major Indian lan?
guages.
F?RER-HAIMENDORF, Christoph von.
1946. The Naked Nagas: head-hunters
of Assam in peace and war. Calcutta:
Thacker, Spink & Co., Ltd. xiv, 216
P. [14.
Linguistic diversity and Naga-Assamese, p. 25,
43, 191.
GRIERSON, Sir George Abraham (ed.
and partial author). 1903-28. Linguis?
tic survey of India. Calcutta : Office of
the Superintendent of Government
Printing. 11 vols, in 19. [15.
Vol. I. Part I. Introductory. 1927. xvi,
517 p.
Vol. I Part II. Comparative vocabulary.
1928. viii, 340 p.
Vol I. Supplement II. Addenda et cor?
rigenda minora. 1927. iv, 48 p.
Vol. II. Mdn-Khm?r and Siamese
Chinese families (including Khassi and
Tai). 1904. ii, 233 p.
Vol. III. Tibeto-Burman family. Part I.
General introduction, specimens of
the Tibetan dialects, the Himalayan
dialects, and the North Assam group.
1909. xx, 641 p.
Vol. III. . . . Part II. Specimens of the
Bodo, N?g?, and Kachin groups. 1903.
ii, 528 p.
Vol. III. . . . Part III. Specimens of the
Kuki-Chin and Burma groups. 1904.
viii, 403 p.
Vol. IV. Mund? and Dravidian languages.
1906. xiv, 681 p.
Vol. V. Indo-Aryan family. Part I.
Specimens of the Bengali and Assamese
languages. 1903. ii, 446 p.
634
This content downloaded from 112.134.148.237 on Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:23:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Vol. V. . . . Part II. Specimens of the
Bihar ? and Oriya languages. 1903. x,
449 p.
Vol VI. . . . Specimens of the Eastern
Hindi language. 1904. ii, 227 p.
Vol. VII. . . . Specimens of the Marathi
languages. 1905. x, 409 p.
Vol. VIII. Part I. . . . Specimens of
Sindhl and Lahnd?. 1919. x, 584 p.
Vol. VIII. Part II. Specimens of the
Dardic or Pi sacha languages (including
Kashmiri). 1919. x, 567 p.
Vol. IX. Indo-Aryan family. Part I.
Specimens of Western Hindi and
Pa?jabi. 1916. ix, 823 p.
Vol. IX. . . . Part II. Specimens of the
R?jasth?ni and Gujarati. 1908. viii,
477 p.
Vol. IX. . . . Part III. The Bhil language
. . . 1907. viii, 235 p.
Vol. IX. Indo-Aryan family. Central
group. Part IV. Specimens of the
Pahari languages and Gujuri. 1907.
viii, 981 p.
Vo. X. Specimens of languages of the
Eranian family, xii, 549 p.
Vol. XI. Gipsy languages. 1922. ix, 213
P.
Covers the former Empire of India except for
several Dravidian languages. Contains more or
less extensive grammatical sketches, texts includ?
ing versions of the parable of the Prodigal Son,
and comparative vocabularies. Notes the gradual
transition from one Indo-Aryan language to
another through dialects often so mixed as to be
hard to classify. Vol. I, Part I, written by Grierson,
summarizes the series.
GUMPERZ, John J., and Robert WIL?
SON. 1971. 'Convergence and creoli?
zation: a case from the Indo-Aryan/
Dravidian border in India', in Hymes
(1971), p. 151-167. Revised from a
paper by Gumperz, with the same title,
presented at CPCL, Mona, 1968. Re?
printed in Anwar S. Dil (ed.), Language
in social groups ; essays by John J. Gum?
perz (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press,
1971), p. 251-273. [15bis.
Describes the situation in a Maharashtra village
where three main languages are spoken, Dravidian
 99. LANGUAGES OF INDIA: PIDGINIZATION/CREOLIZATION [23.
Kannada and Indo-Aryan Urdu and Marathi. Foreword by Su
All have converged through phonetic and struc?
tural borrowings, but have retained their separate Edited with no
lexicons. There has been reduction of structure, and biblography
especially in Kannada. 'The present state of the by Mahadev
varieties is creole-like, in that one finds gram?
matical structure and lexical shape pointing to Calcutta: K. L. M
different sources, quite like the stereotype of a [20.
pidgin or cre?le . . . '?this although 'We have
no evidence of a pidgin-stage in the history of the Reproduces the first edition, London: J. Skir
village, or reason to suspect one.' See Hymes' ven, 1801. Chatterji points out that Lebedeff
discussion of the theoretical implications of this attempted a description of Bazaar Hindustani
study, p. 74-76. influenced by Bengali.

HUTTON, J[ohn] H[enry]. 1921. The PANDEY, I. 1970. Teaching of Hindi

Angami Nagas, with some notes on to other linguistic groups and the prob?
neighboring tribes. London: Macmillan lem of standardisation', in ACIL, X,
& Co. xv, 480 p. [16. 4:995-1001. [21.
A sketchy discussion of partially pidginized
Refers to 'a fantastically simple Hindi which is
Assamese lingua franca, p. 327. being used in the cities of Bombay and Calcutta.
The Bombay Hindi has only one gender, i.e.,
INDIA. Linguistic Survey. See George
masculine, one number, i.e., plural, and three
Abraham GRIERSON simple modes of time.' 'With the little smattering
of Hindi that he has picked up from the Bazars,
KAUFFMAN, H. E. 1939. Ueber dasin India thinks that he knows
almost everybody
Hindi. . .'
Schreiben der Naga-Sprachen und ?ber
SOUTHWORTH, Franklin C. 1971.
die Verkehrssprache der Naga-Berge
'Detecting
(Assam, Brit. Indien)', in Congr?s ISAE prior creolization: an an?
(1939), p. 378-379. [17. alysis of the historical origins of Mara?
One paragraph on 'Naga-Assamesisch.'
thi', in Hymes (1971), p. 255-273.
Much revised from a paper presented at
KELLEY, Gerald. 1966. The status of April 1968. 67 p. pro?
CPCL, Mona,
Hindi as a lingua franca', in cessed.
Bright A less developed draft was
(1966), p. 299-308. [18. presented at Cornell Univ., April 1964.
*. . . [M]any would agree that if there is now in [22.
India a lingua franca other than the English of the
educated elite, it is the bazaar pidgin version'Southworth
of reviews the social history, and the
Hindi' (p. 301). linguistic characteristics, that make Marathi a
candidate for what he calls a quasi- or semi
creole . . . and for whose formation he provides
KHUBCHANDANI, Lachman Mulchand.
an important model in his conclusions.'?Hymes.
1963. The acculturation of Indian Sindhi
'The hypothesis proposed here assumes that
pidginization took place throughout the Indo
to Hindi, a study of language in contact.
Aryan
Univ. of Pennsylvania, unpub. Ph. D.area, but that its long-range linguistic
effects were tempered or reinforced by other
diss. xxxi, 295 p. Summary in DAsocial
25:factors . . . [which] have led, at the ex?
463. [19.
treme end of the spectrum, to a result which is
similar to the classic modern cases of pidginiza?
Discussion of tion known from the Caribbean Hindustani
Bazaar and the Pacific'
(p. 270-271).
reduced the grammar in some esse
(gender, number, declensions, etc.)
ZOGRAF, G. A. ?1963. 'Kal'kuttskij
LEBEDEFF, xindustani
Herasim knoca XVIII v. v. osvescenii(i.e.,
G. S. Lebedeva', Kratkii Soobsceniia
Gerasim Stepanovich). 19
A grammar Institu?a
of Narodov Azii
the 61:142-153. [23. and m
pure
Indian dialects, by Herasim

635

This content downloaded from 112.134.148.237 on Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:23:32 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms