30 Jamaican Creole Proverbs from the Perspective of Contact Linguistics Pisin, Chinese Pidgin English, Sranan Tongo, Haitian Creole and Papiamentu, the similarities are to be found in the word order. (2) Tok Pisin mi no bin lukim em Chinese Pidgin English mai no hav si Sranan Tongo mi no ben si en Haitian Creole m pa te wè li Papiamentu mi n’ a mir’ e In each of these examples the similarities regarding word order are striking. In five different varieties developed in diverse areas that are distant from one another, the order in the sentence is very much alike. Each sentence has the same pattern of word order, i.e. it begins with a subject pronoun (mi, mai, m), followed by the negator (no, pa, n’), which is supplemented by the past tense marker (bin, hav, ben, te, a), and next in the sentence is the main verb (lukim, si, wè, li, e). The sentences, with the exception of Chinese Pidgin English, end with the object pronoun (em, en, li, e) (Sebba 1997: 71). There have been numerous hypotheses indicating the possible reasons for the similarities between all pidgins and creoles, such as the bioprogram (Bickerton 1981), monogenesis (Hall 1966), polygenesis, relexification, universalist theories, the common core hypothesis and the substrate theory.11 2.3.1. On the ecology of languages in contact In 1916, Ferdinand de Saussure’s former students issued a book titled Cours de linguistique générale [the course of general linguistics], which encompassed the theoretical basics for contemporary structural linguistics. According to de Saussure, language is an autonomous entity within which there exist time and space relations. In the chapter devoted to the internal and external elements of language, de Saussure speaks of two different areas of linguistics: external and internal. The “external” linguistics comprise linguistic geography, territorial range of languages, studies in the comparative history of languages, relations between language and different institutions, studies on neighboring languages and all relations between language and its users. De Saussure (1916) also underlines the relations that occur between any language and political history. Colonization is one of the events which changes 11 For a detailed discussion, see: Jacques Arends, Pieter Muysken, Norval Smith (eds.) (1995) Pidgins and Creoles. An Introduction. Amsterdam, Netherlands | Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
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