What languages make up Creole?

Answer 1

Creole isn't a language; it is a term that refers to a language that was formed when two languages meet. Often, speakers will create a pidgin in order to conduct business, but pidgins are not complete languages, and when then need arises for the pidgin to fulfill the role of a language then it develops into a creole. Creoles are considered interesting by linguists because they develop in a relatively short amount of time, allowing linguists to observe the entire process.

An example is the creole language of Hawaii, which is ironically called pidgin by its speakers. It originally developed when Japanese, Hawaiian, and English speaking islanders developed a pidgin in order to conduct business. The pidgin was sufficient for conducting business but when these people's children began to play together they needed a more complete language. So the children basically created a new creole language based on the pidgin of their parents and incorporating additional elements from the contributing languages. This creole still survives today.

Creoles have occurred all over the world and are the natural result of different people without a common language having to suddenly become neighbors. They are often (but not always) misidentified as pidgin languages, but pidgin languages are not complete languages and are never a person's native tongue. By definition, if a language has native speakers than it cannot be a pidgin; it must be a creole. (This is because the incomplete nature of a pidgin makes it unsuitable as a first language. There are too many personal communications between parents and children that typically cannot be accommodated by the limited vocabularies and rudimentary grammars of pidgin tongues.)

Answer 2

Creole languages are typically based on a mixture of different languages, such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and African languages. The specific languages that contribute to a particular Creole language can vary depending on the region and historical context.