Pidgin and Creole - Unit 10

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Choice Cloze · Objective Proficiency 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press

For questions 1–8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

approximation

acquaintance

link

contact

issue

stem

spring

arise

prestige

credit

esteem

stature

based

derived

built

hinged

decisively

thoroughly

closely

heavily

Whereas

Promptly

Once

Presently

increase

expand

enlarge

swell

perspective

outlook

context

view

Just as a language may develop varieties in the form of dialects, languages as a whole may change. Sometimes rapid language change occurs as a result of (1) ___ between people who each speak a different language. In such circumstances a pidgin language may (2) ___ . Pidgins usually have low (3) ___ with respect to other languages. They are grammatically (4) ___ on one language but are also influenced, especially in vocabulary, by others; they have relatively small sound systems, reduced vocabularies and simplified and altered grammars, and they rely (5) ___ on context in order to be understood. Pidgins are often the result of traders meeting island and coastal peoples. A pidgin has no native speakers: when speakers of a pidgin have children who learn the pidgin as their first language, that language is then called a creole. (6) ___ the creole has enough native speakers to form a speech community, the creole may (7) ___ into a fuller language. Many Creole speakers think of their languages as dialects of some colonial language (e.g. dialects of French or English). Linguists nearly always disagree with this view - from our (8) ___ , Creoles have independent grammars and all the equipment of full, proper languages.

Pidgin and Creole

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