ANT-2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Atlantic Slave Trade, African Diaspora, Diaspora Politics
Document Summary
Depending on the type and duration of contact, it resulted in the development of new languages, the decline of others and the extinction of many. Two forms of new languages prompted by european colonialism are pidgins and creoles. Language that blends elements of at least two parent languages and that emerges when two different cultures with different languages come in contact and must communicate. All speakers of pidgin have their own native language(s) but learn to speak pidgin as a second, rudimentary language. Typically limited to specific functional domains, such as trade and basic social interactions. Many pidgins of the western hemisphere were the result of the atlantic slave trade and plantation slavery. Owners needed to communicate with their slaves and slaves from various parts of africa needed to communicate with each other. Though a living reminder of the heritage of slavery, Creole languages and associated literature and music are also evidence of resilience and creativity in the african diaspora.
