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The « new » languages
Intro Intro
Creoles, Koines and Pidgins
Creoles
Creole languages are uncommon by the conditions of their formation, which places them outside the usual genetic classification of languages. While the majority of languages originate from a constant transmission from one generation to another, each transmission implying more or less significant changes, creole languages appear to originate both from a rupture (an entire population being forced to give up their native language) and an encounter (with a new language, consequently deeply transformed). Unlike all other languages, in other words, existing creole languages have emerged following historical events, which can be dated by more or less fifty years.
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Koines
A koine language is the “inner-dialectal” variation of a language. A language with numerous dialectal variations sometimes develops a common form through consensus, a form understandable by all speakers of the different dialects.
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Pidgins
A pidgin language is an idiom developed among speakers of very different or remote languages (as opposed to a koine language) in the aim to ease exchange between them. Most of the time the vocabulary of a pidgin language is essentially drawn from on the languages already present (Chinese Pidgin English, for example, spoken over all of the 19th century between Chinese and European merchants in the Chinese harbors that allowed foreign presence (Guangzhou, especially).
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Esperanto
Esperanto is probably the most famous of all languages “constructed” by humans as well as the one with the greatest number of speakers. The point of Esperanto is to be a language that is not tied to any particular territory or population. Therefore, one can find speakers of Esperanto across the globe.
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