Jargons and pidgins are languages that emerge in the special circumstances found during the early stages of intercultural contact. They arise as makeshift adaptations, usually in response to specific communication needs such as those surrounding trade. As a result most are shortlived, quickly replaced by true bilingualism if the contact continues and intensifies. Basically, a pidgin is a greatly reduced or simplified form of a language that is typically used between speakers of different languages who do not share a tradition of bilingualism. All areas of the base language are reduced: inflection is eliminated; vocabulary is limited; and pronunciation is simplified. Pidgins are also hybrid, or mixed, languages. While the grammar, syntax, and morphology (rules of word formation) may generally be a simplified version of one language, the lexicon, or vocabulary, often includes words and parts of words taken from all of the...