March 3 - Ch 6: CyberPidgin

This chapter focuses on the uniqueness of the emergent world of the internet, and that it is far removed from previous institutions (especially the School). The nature of the internet brings hundreds of cultures (at the local, regional, and national levels) into direct and regular interaction with each other, and as such each culture's language and communication fall short of what is needed. This means that a pidgin must be developed.

Ulmer takes the idea of the cyberpidgin from the linguistic phenomenon that occurs when two different languages encounter each other, with neither group knowing the other's language. Both groups, as a result, pick up bits and pieces of the other's language, in order to facilitate a basic exchange of goods and ideas.

Eventually, a transition will be made from cyberpidgin to cybercreole, which is a more fuly formed hybrid language, with examples such as the French Creole in Louisiana. Creoles are seperate from pidgins because while a pidgin is constructed for trade and there are no native speakers, creoles occur when two cultures do not just trade, but intermingle, and children are born into the hybrid culture and learn the pidgin as part of natural language acquisition. Over time, memory of the pregenitor languages may be forgotten, entirely superceded with the creole. (This has notably happened with English, which could be considered a creole of Germanic and Gaulish languages.)

The cybercreole is already being formed. The strata of language development is easily visible in the strata of age - grandmothers unfailingly afraid of computers, parents at least competent, and children are always whizzes. The children have grown up surrounded by technology, and as such have developed natural pattern recognition in regards to computer and software design. This leads to children who are quickly able to figure out any new computer system, parents who are hesitant, and grandparents who abstain.