Strangers without a shared language improvise. A pidgin is a simplified contact language that develops between groups that need to communicate but lack a common tongue, typically with reduced grammar and a limited lexicon drawn from the languages in contact.

Pidgins arise in trade, plantation, and migration settings. They are nobody’s native language at first. Structural simplification and mixed vocabulary are characteristic, though each pidgin has its own conventions that speakers must learn.

If a pidgin becomes nativized by children, it may develop into a creole with expanded grammar. Not every contact situation produces a stable pidgin; many yield only ad hoc jargon. Documentary work preserves pidgins that might otherwise vanish when contact conditions change.

• Simplified contact language for intergroup communication
• Not initially a native language
• Has reduced grammar and mixed lexicon
• May expand into a creole if nativized