In the NYT article about the evolution of vulgarity, they said that "every language, dialect or 'patois'" ever studied has its share of forbidden speech.

When I looked up patois, it said that its a regionaly dialect, especially without a literary tradition. Is that how it differs from dialect? If not, how? Some of the dictionaries say that it is a regional dialect of a language...especially French. Is the word mainly used for French? It wasn't in this article.

I've always felt it was a slightly more pejorative term for a dialect.

[addendum: Fr patois 'dialect', OFr deverbal noun fr. patoier 'to maul, touch roughly, finger'.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Hi All, Sorry about the break I got busy in the garden.
Patois as I understand it is a street language developed without a written form and drawn from more than one language base. Oh hang on I am getting confused with pidgin. Perhaps the original article did the same?

I guess I was thinking patois and pidgen were about the same. Not so?

quote:

I guess I was thinking patois and pidgen were about the same. Not so?

Certainly not. Patois is a speech form or dialect of a sub-group in a country or area. Any one patois will probably be quite different from another.

Pidgin is a simplified language form and Pidgin English ir probably the most important pidgin. Pidgin English is the lingua franca of many countries that were once part of the British Empire and is now accepted as a language in its own right.

It is good to see you again, Quark!

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
Pidgin is a simplified language form and Pidgin English ir probably the most important pidgin. Pidgin English is the lingua franca of many countries that were once part of the British Empire and is now accepted as a language in its own right.

There are, as I'm sure you know, many different Pidgin forms of English although they do fall into two families - one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. (David Crystal,The English Language).
Acording to estimates about sixty million people speak one of the Pidgin forms.

When a Pidgin becomes widely established beyond its original lingua franca roots it tends to become creolised - developing off into a new language although with its linguistic roots remaining in the original tongue (be it English or whatever).

An importan thing to remember is that Pidgin English as such isn't one form of language it's many and they are to a greater or lesser degree mutually unintelligible.

Patois, or Patwa or Kwéyòl, is also used as the name of the French-based Creoles of the West Indies, and Jamaicans also use Patwa as their name for their English-based Creole.

One of the distinctions between a pidgin and a creole is that the former is not the native language of any of its speakers.