What is a Pidgin?
A simplified language used for communication between groups with different languages.
Let's Break it Down: Pidgin in Creative Writing
Pidgin is a valuable tool in creative writing, where authors often represent the speech patterns of characters who come from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Originally developing as a simplified means of communication between groups with different languages, pidgin has since been adopted by writers as a way of capturing the nuances of diverse speech patterns. Through the use of pidgin, writers can convey a character's cultural background, level of education, and social status, while also giving readers insight into what it feels like to negotiate the world as a multilingual speaker.
By incorporating pidgin into their writing, authors can also highlight the inherent humor and humanity in linguistic misunderstandings, playing with the multivalent meanings and nuances that make up the rich, messy tapestry of human speech.
Here are two examples of how authors have incorporated pidgin in their writing:
Twain's portrayal of Jim, an enslaved African American character, makes extensive use of pidgin to depict the linguistic realities of life in the antebellum South, where enslaved peoples came from a broad range of linguistic backgrounds and had to negotiate communication with white authorities who spoke a diverse set of vernaculars.
Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores the intersectional experiences of Dominican immigrants in the United States and incorporates Spanish-English pidgin in order to capture the unique linguistic flavor of these characters' experiences.