The comments about Pidgin and Creole languages occurring when very disparate cultures meet can be illustrated by our cat and dog. The cat is a nine year old household pet who seems to be part Angora, and the dog is a 3 year old Lab. They are both above average in receptive language skills & understand more English than most pets. In addition, the dog has been trying hard to understand the cat. She spent a year and a half teaching him how to treat a cat and now they are very close friends. Kasi is one of those very vocal cats who "talk" and answer you. A few times, Kasi yelled out the cat word for "Come here at once," and Busta the Lab ran downstairs to see what she wanted. Then comes the modification of language to communicate with the alien culture. If you own a cat, you know what "Come here at once, urgent!" sounds like. Recently Kasi modulated it into more of a question. When I heard her I replied , "I'm down here," and she was quiet. Just wanted to know where I was. You also know what an angry cat sounds like threatening to tear you apart. Kasi has a word which sounds like something she would say to a naughty kitten, the anger word modified into a command. When Busta plays too rough, she utters this command and he does a perfect sit-stay, not moving a muscle until she turns around & walks away. Our neighbors had a fire, and we had a house guest for a few months, a very stupid Boxer who had no clue about how to treat a cat. He and Busta got along fine, except a couple of times he tried to take something and Busta growled at him, usual top dog disciplinary growl. Kasi came tearing in from two rooms away, threatening to kill the boxer, and we had to separate them. I thought this was odd until the discussions on Pidgin. Of course. Kasi heard angry words in a foreign language, didn't see what was going on, & probably misinterpreted the situation as more serious than it was. She may have thought Busta was being attacked, rather than just annoyed. Iris
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