Since scholarly interest in Pidgin and Creole languages is today world-wide, — as it was not, forty years ago, my remarks must be limited largely to the Caribbean, especially to the anglophone areas, the part of the field that I have known directly. The growth of this field has been truly remarkable, beginning only in the latter years of the nineteenth century and not really flowering out until the middle of the present century. Before 1900 one can count on the fingers of one hand the number of professional linguists working seriously on auxiliary languages. The reading public might have become aware of "primitive" lingoes in odd corners of the world, perhaps of the "Lingua Franca," a kind of merchant-sailor talk once used in Mediterranean parts with many local variations. Or of the more recent "pidgin English" used in China trade. Or perhaps of the remote but very active "Chinook jargon" of the American Northwest. But since these languages furnished no texts to be deciphered, no Rosetta stones, they held little interest for philologists.

Early Studies

The Second Half-Century

The Mona Conferences

Founding of SCL and CP

Toward the Future

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