Linguistic Varieties and Multilingual Nations

Holmes says that ‘ a multilingual acquires a number of languages because they need them for different purposes in their everyday interactions (p. 74). These contacts play important roles in language development. When people of many language backgrounds engage in extensive trading, or forced labour, or due to massive population dislocation and movement, pidgin is used as a means of communication. It is always spoken in addition to one’s native language. When a pidgin is used massively by parents at home and the society for whatever reasons, the children growing up in these communities will express their experience of love, fear, and other interactions through this pidgin. As they grow older and use it with others of their age, the pidgin develops into a Creole.

Creole is then used between people in the same ethnic groups. As the first variety acquired at home, it develops into vernacular language. It refers to a language which has not been standardized and which does not have official status (p. 75). A vernacular language can be a standard language if it has undergone some degree of regularization or codification. It is recognized as a prestigious variety or code by a community, and it is used for H functions alongside a diversity of L varieties.

According to the writer, the debate about a common origin of all pidgins should not continue because the process occurs to ease the communication. Therefore, I agree that no one should claim his variety more prestigious than the others’. These language varieties enrich an individual’s linguistic repertoires.

From this chapter I learnt how a language develops. It is a natural that human beings will communicate to others to fulfill their needs. The contact of one speech community with another can create a new language. I can understand why new words appear everyday. If I do not have the contact with the groups using those new words, I will not understand.