43 3. Pidgin and creole languages the formation process and the number of speakers is not large. Bakker, in his three-layer definition describing the structure of a pidgin, the purpose as to why pidgins come into being and their users, states: Pidgins are languages lexically derived from other languages, but which are structurally simplified, especially in their morphology. They come into being where people need to communicate but do not have a language in common. Pidgins have no (or few) first language speakers, they are the subject of language learning, they structural norms, they are used by two or more groups, and they are unintelligible for speakers of the language from which the lexicon derives. (Bakker 1995:25) Although a pidgin is derived from an already existing language, its acquisition is indispensable in order to understand and communicate. These simplified structures may be incomprehensible to users of the lexifying language. Taking these assumptions into account makes a pidgin a completely new language, not a dialect or a jargon but the beginning of a separate variety. DeCamp, in his understanding of a pidgin, underlines its mercantile origins and indigenous nature: A pidgin is a contact vernacular, normally not the native language of its speakers. It is used in trading or in any situation requiring communication between persons who do not speak each other’s native languages. It is characterized by a limited vocabulary, an elimination of many grammatical devices such as number and gender, and a drastic reduction of redundant features. (DeCamp 1971a: 15) This reduction leads to simplification of the structures of the new variety; however, it seems debatable whether the simplification equals ease of understanding. Chaudenson offers a complex definition of a pidgin by taking into account the sociohistorical background of pidginization. He presents pidgins in the sense of: “[…] a language with reduced structures and lexicon, used for a limited number of functions by speakers who dispose of, and also speak, (an)other language(s) for full-fledged communication, and who belong in social groups which are largely autonomous” (2001: 22). He also distinguishes between two types of pidgins and creoles: endogenous and exogenous (ibidem). The first type is “[…] pidgins and creoles that have developed from the contact between an indigenous population and an immigrant group; in the context of colonial expansion, this is the case of a colony based on trading posts and centers” (Chaudenson 2001: 22). The latter grew out of contacts “[…] among immigrants and the transplanted populations” (ibidem).
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