Includes index

The book Butler English: Form and Function is presented in 5 chapters. Chapter 1 attempts to highlight the origin of pidgin languages and discusses theories advanced to account for the genesis of pidgins and similarities between different pidgins. This is followed by a listing of syntactic and lexico-semantic features of Neo-Melanesian and Tay Boi. Four hypothetical phases by which a pidgin develops into a creole are postulated and illustrated from the Atlantic and Pacific areas. Chapter 2 characterizes various restricted-type languages such as trade jargons and slaves and servants' languages, artificial international languages, argots etc. Chapter 3 focuses attention on the spread of English bilingualism in India and gives information on informants, butlers and on methods of data collection. Chapter 4 examines Butler English within the overall framework of sociolinguistic enquiry. Some of the statements made about Butler English are applicable to most pidgins and creoles used world-wide. Comparisons between Butler English and pidgins and creoles are made wherever appropriate. Chapter 5 sketches some of the insights which an exploration of Butler English gives us.