How New Languages Come About

A creole language is one that arises from a mixture of two or more other languages that becomes a primary language with its own stable grammar and syntax. A pidgin language is one that simplifies a language that is foreign to the speakers to enable communication. A pidgin language can grow into a creole if it is standardized and used long enough. You can see from those definitions that many languages are creoles, but some are looked down upon, because of how recently they were formed, or more pointedly, who speaks these creole languages. That brings us to the question of English. It was formed by a combination of several European languages with plenty of loan words from all over the world. Yet linguists will argue about whether English is a creole. Dr. Erica Brozovsky explains the formation of languages and why creoles should be considered just languages.