BBC Pidgin Edition?

[Meadmaker]

When looking at headlines about yesterday's hearing about the Secret Service failure at the Trump rally, I saw this headline:

"Who be Kimberly Cheatle, Secret Service director wey dey hot seat ova Donald Trump assassination attempt"

"What the heck?" I thought.

I understand what Pidgin dialects are, but I would have thought they were an almost exclusively spoken phenomenon. People who don't speak a language tend to blend their native language's grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation with the foreign language, usually simplifying the foreign language in the process, and the result is some sort of pidgin dialect.

But pidgin dialects are usually kind of fleeting phenomena. As time goes by, the generations get better at the foreign language, and the pidgin goes away. At least, thet's how it works in the modern world. In ancient times, an isolated community of pidgin speakers might pass on the blended language, and then it becomes a creole.

But the BBC apparently publishes a Pidgin edition. What I wonder is whether there is anyone in the world who actually finds it easier to read the Pidgin edition than the English edition. I would guess that people who speak Pidgin really aren't very good at English, but it isn't easier to read non-standard, unusual English, i.e. Pidgin, then it would be to read regular English.

Just a thought. Linguistics is something I find fascinating.

[stanky]

Are you familiar with Chomsky's work in linguistics?

[Meadmaker]

Are you familiar with Chomsky's work in linguistics?

Some of it. Not real deep. It was very influential in computer science and I first encountered his work in compiler design.

I later took a linguistics class and encountered it for natural language.

[Admin]

But the BBC apparently publishes a Pidgin edition.

I even knew that. It's not that different from English. I've known a couple of people from PNG who spoke pidgin among their people but read and wrote in English. Depends how far your education went, I think.

The Beeb doing it smacks of inclusiveness more than functuinality, but I have no problem with that.

[grayman]

Just a thought. Linguistics is something I find fascinating.

Something that I thought would be a fascinating study during my university years, is a study comparing the tonal and grammatical aspects of a language with the music that is produced by that culture.

Think of how Chinese/Japanese/Korean music sounds in relation the language.

Compare to the language and music of middle eastern counties.

Compare to the language and music of European countries.

A thesis awaits someone.

[Meadmaker]

But the BBC apparently publishes a Pidgin edition.

I even knew that. It's not that different from English. I've known a couple of people from PNG who spoke pidgin among their people but read and wrote in English. Depends how far your education went, I think.

The Beeb doing it smacks of inclusiveness more than functuinality, but I have no problem with that.

I would expect pidgin dialects to be purely oral affairs. Unless there is a long enough separation between the pidgin speakers and the speakers of the languages that contributed to the pidgin, I would expect them to veer toward one of those languages, especially in the written form.

I just have to wonder if there is anyone in the world who gets more meaning from a sentence because it used "ova" instead of "over".

[sparks]

"Ova" makes me hungry for an omelet. Otherwise just another bastardization of the Kings English and really not at all necessary.

Ova and out! (With cheese and mushrooms)

[arthwollipot]

I would expect pidgin dialects to be purely oral affairs. Unless there is a long enough separation between the pidgin speakers and the speakers of the languages that contributed to the pidgin, I would expect them to veer toward one of those languages, especially in the written form.

I just have to wonder if there is anyone in the world who gets more meaning from a sentence because it used "ova" instead of "over".

Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea is practically a language, with over a million people using it as their primary language.

[stanky]

Just a thought. Linguistics is something I find fascinating.

Something that I thought would be a fascinating study during my university years, is a study comparing the tonal and grammatical aspects of a language with the music that is produced by that culture.

Think of how Chinese/Japanese/Korean music sounds in relation the language.

Compare to the language and music of middle eastern counties.

Compare to the language and music of European countries.


There are no doubt some musical hot spots, geographically speaking.
I think warmer climates probably enable more outdoor events.
The altitude may have an influence...possibly less wind instruments in La Paz at 15,000 ft.
maybe prez knows. But then, the pan flute associates with the Andes. And long horns in Tibet...

I retract my hypothesis.
A thesis awaits someone.

[sparks]

Trouble with the quote function there stank?