Variation in Pidgin and Creole languages

Variation is central to a solid historical description of how pidgins and creoles (PCs) emerge and their subsequent patterns of grammaticalisation. Moreover, through the systematic study of variation in PCs, sociolinguists have (i) achieved greater clarity about the nature of the creole continuum, (ii) contributed significantly to debates over the historical genesis of PCs, their relatedness, their typological simplicity/complexity as well as their change over time, and (iii) provided empirically rich sociolinguistic descriptions of PCs as languages in their own right. This chapter reviews key aspects of methodology and important empirical findings in the study of PCs that have depended on the systematic, quantitative study of variation. Examples draw on studies of Hawai‘I Creole, Jamaican Creole, Bequia Creole, Papiamentu, Bahamian, Liberian English, Bislama (Vanuatu), Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea), Gullah and AAVE (USA).