Textbook: Historical and Contemporary Processes of Diffusion | AP Human Geography - Grade 9 PDF Download

 Page 1


163 CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION
Historical and Contemporary 
Processes of Diffusion
Topics 3.5–3.8
Topic 3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns. (SPS-3.A)
Topic 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
 pa t t er n s . (S PS -3 . A)
Topic 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
Learning Objective: Explain what factors led to the diffusion of universalizing 
and ethnic religions. (IMP-3.B)
Topic 3.8 Effects of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how the process of diffusion results in changes to 
the cultural landscape. (SPS-3.B)
In 1979, [schools on the Navajo reservation had about] 80 percent 
of students speaking Navajo – ten years later, 5 percent. There’s 
just too much English in?uence to really be effective in keeping our 
language. [If the Navajo language is lost] we will not be a unique 
people. We will have no culture; we will have no prayers.
—Marilyn Begay, 5
th
 grade teacher, The Navajo Language  
Immersion School, Navajo Nation reservation, Arizona
A bilingual stop sign in Quebec, Canada. (See Topic 3.7 for more about cultural landscape.)
CHAPTER 7
Page 2


163 CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION
Historical and Contemporary 
Processes of Diffusion
Topics 3.5–3.8
Topic 3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns. (SPS-3.A)
Topic 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
 pa t t er n s . (S PS -3 . A)
Topic 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
Learning Objective: Explain what factors led to the diffusion of universalizing 
and ethnic religions. (IMP-3.B)
Topic 3.8 Effects of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how the process of diffusion results in changes to 
the cultural landscape. (SPS-3.B)
In 1979, [schools on the Navajo reservation had about] 80 percent 
of students speaking Navajo – ten years later, 5 percent. There’s 
just too much English in?uence to really be effective in keeping our 
language. [If the Navajo language is lost] we will not be a unique 
people. We will have no culture; we will have no prayers.
—Marilyn Begay, 5
th
 grade teacher, The Navajo Language  
Immersion School, Navajo Nation reservation, Arizona
A bilingual stop sign in Quebec, Canada. (See Topic 3.7 for more about cultural landscape.)
CHAPTER 7
164 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
3.5
Historical Causes of Diffusion
Essential Question: How do historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns?
T oday, few formal colonies remain in the world, but the practices left behind 
by the European powers are present in their former colonies. The afternoon 
break for tea, a British tradition, is still practiced in Kenya and India. 
Christianity and the legacy of colonial languages are still widespread in many 
former colonies.
Influences of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Trade
Colonialism, imperialism, and trade have played a powerful role in spreading 
religion and culture. Historians often divide European colonialism into two 
separate waves. From the 16
th
 through the 18
th
 centuries, Europeans colonized 
the Americas and South Asia. Then, during the next two centuries, European 
powers expanded colonization into most of Africa, Southwest Asia, and other 
coastal regions of East and Southeast Asia.
Imperialism and colonialism are related ideas, but they are not the same. 
Imperialism is a broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing 
another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, 
or cultural dominance. Colonialism is a particular type of imperialism in 
which people move into and settle on the land of another country. Examples 
of imperialism and colonialism can be found throughout history and all over 
the world, but modern European imperialism and colonialism are the most 
relevant to the current political map because they strongly influenced the 
diffusion of language and religion.
European colonizers imposed their cultural traits on the local populations. 
For example, before European colonization, most religions practiced by the 
native indigenous people of Africa and North America were forms of animism, 
the belief that non-living objects, such as rivers or mountains, possess spirits. 
Europeans forced many of their colonial subjects to adopt the Christian faith. 
The Spanish and French spread Roman Catholicism throughout Latin America 
and North America. The English and Dutch spread forms of Protestantism in 
their North American colonies.
Diffusion of Languages
Languages commonly spread through both relocation and expansion diffusion. 
As people migrated and colonized to new locations, they brought their culture 
and language with them via relocation diffusion. Additionally, via political 
Page 3


163 CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION
Historical and Contemporary 
Processes of Diffusion
Topics 3.5–3.8
Topic 3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns. (SPS-3.A)
Topic 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
 pa t t er n s . (S PS -3 . A)
Topic 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
Learning Objective: Explain what factors led to the diffusion of universalizing 
and ethnic religions. (IMP-3.B)
Topic 3.8 Effects of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how the process of diffusion results in changes to 
the cultural landscape. (SPS-3.B)
In 1979, [schools on the Navajo reservation had about] 80 percent 
of students speaking Navajo – ten years later, 5 percent. There’s 
just too much English in?uence to really be effective in keeping our 
language. [If the Navajo language is lost] we will not be a unique 
people. We will have no culture; we will have no prayers.
—Marilyn Begay, 5
th
 grade teacher, The Navajo Language  
Immersion School, Navajo Nation reservation, Arizona
A bilingual stop sign in Quebec, Canada. (See Topic 3.7 for more about cultural landscape.)
CHAPTER 7
164 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
3.5
Historical Causes of Diffusion
Essential Question: How do historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns?
T oday, few formal colonies remain in the world, but the practices left behind 
by the European powers are present in their former colonies. The afternoon 
break for tea, a British tradition, is still practiced in Kenya and India. 
Christianity and the legacy of colonial languages are still widespread in many 
former colonies.
Influences of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Trade
Colonialism, imperialism, and trade have played a powerful role in spreading 
religion and culture. Historians often divide European colonialism into two 
separate waves. From the 16
th
 through the 18
th
 centuries, Europeans colonized 
the Americas and South Asia. Then, during the next two centuries, European 
powers expanded colonization into most of Africa, Southwest Asia, and other 
coastal regions of East and Southeast Asia.
Imperialism and colonialism are related ideas, but they are not the same. 
Imperialism is a broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing 
another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, 
or cultural dominance. Colonialism is a particular type of imperialism in 
which people move into and settle on the land of another country. Examples 
of imperialism and colonialism can be found throughout history and all over 
the world, but modern European imperialism and colonialism are the most 
relevant to the current political map because they strongly influenced the 
diffusion of language and religion.
European colonizers imposed their cultural traits on the local populations. 
For example, before European colonization, most religions practiced by the 
native indigenous people of Africa and North America were forms of animism, 
the belief that non-living objects, such as rivers or mountains, possess spirits. 
Europeans forced many of their colonial subjects to adopt the Christian faith. 
The Spanish and French spread Roman Catholicism throughout Latin America 
and North America. The English and Dutch spread forms of Protestantism in 
their North American colonies.
Diffusion of Languages
Languages commonly spread through both relocation and expansion diffusion. 
As people migrated and colonized to new locations, they brought their culture 
and language with them via relocation diffusion. Additionally, via political 
165 3.5: HISTORICAL CAUSES OF DIFFUSION
control a colonial language would be imposed hierarchically as the language 
of trade, business, and politics. People wanting to benefit financially would 
connect to these networks of power and influence by learning and speaking 
colonial languages resulting in an expansion of language. Some languages 
spread over wide areas of the world and often follow a mixture of types of 
diffusion. The major globalized languages of the world—English, French, 
Spanish, and Arabic—spread from their hearths largely because of conquest 
and colonialism. In the case of Arabic, its use as the standard religious language 
in Islam contributed to its success and facilitated an expansion of adherents.
Widely Diffused Languages Trade has aided the spread of languages 
because ships, railroads, and other forms of transportation built and 
strengthened connections between places. Trade, conquest, and colonialism 
have so widely spread some languages that more people speak it outside 
its hearth than within it. For example, the largest population of speakers of 
Portuguese are in Brazil, not Portugal. The same is true for English, Spanish, 
and French—the highest population of speakers for each of those languages are 
not in the hearth. 
MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD IN ORDER OF TOTAL SPEAKERS
Language Language 
Hearth  
Total Population 
of Hearth 2019
Total Speakers Worldwide 2019 
(native and second language)
English England 55 million Over 1.5 billion
Mandarin 
(Chinese)
China 1.4 billion Over 1.2 billion
Hindi India 1.3 billion Over 615 million
Spanish Spain 47 million Over 570 million
French France 67 million Over 300 million
Arabic Arabian 
Peninsula
78 million Over 270 million
Chart appears in order of total speakers worldwide. Which languages have not diffused extensively from 
their hearth? What are reasons why they did not diffuse widely?
Limited Diffusion of Manadrin Some languages have never diffused 
widely. Mandarin Chinese, though the second-most commonly spoken 
language in the world, did not spread globally. China has been among the most 
powerful and innovative countries in the world for much of the past 2,000 
years, and its merchants settled in various parts of Asia and locations in the 
Pacific Ocean. Yet China never established colonies outside of Asia and, as 
a result, Chinese speakers have always been concentrated in China and port 
cities in Asia. 
Mandarin does have the most native speakers, those who use the language 
learned from birth, with over 900 million native speakers. The Chinese 
government wants to increase the number of Mandarin speakers and has been 
using government policies and its economic influence to encourage the use of 
Mandarin throughout Asia and across the world. 
Page 4


163 CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION
Historical and Contemporary 
Processes of Diffusion
Topics 3.5–3.8
Topic 3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns. (SPS-3.A)
Topic 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
 pa t t er n s . (S PS -3 . A)
Topic 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
Learning Objective: Explain what factors led to the diffusion of universalizing 
and ethnic religions. (IMP-3.B)
Topic 3.8 Effects of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how the process of diffusion results in changes to 
the cultural landscape. (SPS-3.B)
In 1979, [schools on the Navajo reservation had about] 80 percent 
of students speaking Navajo – ten years later, 5 percent. There’s 
just too much English in?uence to really be effective in keeping our 
language. [If the Navajo language is lost] we will not be a unique 
people. We will have no culture; we will have no prayers.
—Marilyn Begay, 5
th
 grade teacher, The Navajo Language  
Immersion School, Navajo Nation reservation, Arizona
A bilingual stop sign in Quebec, Canada. (See Topic 3.7 for more about cultural landscape.)
CHAPTER 7
164 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
3.5
Historical Causes of Diffusion
Essential Question: How do historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns?
T oday, few formal colonies remain in the world, but the practices left behind 
by the European powers are present in their former colonies. The afternoon 
break for tea, a British tradition, is still practiced in Kenya and India. 
Christianity and the legacy of colonial languages are still widespread in many 
former colonies.
Influences of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Trade
Colonialism, imperialism, and trade have played a powerful role in spreading 
religion and culture. Historians often divide European colonialism into two 
separate waves. From the 16
th
 through the 18
th
 centuries, Europeans colonized 
the Americas and South Asia. Then, during the next two centuries, European 
powers expanded colonization into most of Africa, Southwest Asia, and other 
coastal regions of East and Southeast Asia.
Imperialism and colonialism are related ideas, but they are not the same. 
Imperialism is a broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing 
another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, 
or cultural dominance. Colonialism is a particular type of imperialism in 
which people move into and settle on the land of another country. Examples 
of imperialism and colonialism can be found throughout history and all over 
the world, but modern European imperialism and colonialism are the most 
relevant to the current political map because they strongly influenced the 
diffusion of language and religion.
European colonizers imposed their cultural traits on the local populations. 
For example, before European colonization, most religions practiced by the 
native indigenous people of Africa and North America were forms of animism, 
the belief that non-living objects, such as rivers or mountains, possess spirits. 
Europeans forced many of their colonial subjects to adopt the Christian faith. 
The Spanish and French spread Roman Catholicism throughout Latin America 
and North America. The English and Dutch spread forms of Protestantism in 
their North American colonies.
Diffusion of Languages
Languages commonly spread through both relocation and expansion diffusion. 
As people migrated and colonized to new locations, they brought their culture 
and language with them via relocation diffusion. Additionally, via political 
165 3.5: HISTORICAL CAUSES OF DIFFUSION
control a colonial language would be imposed hierarchically as the language 
of trade, business, and politics. People wanting to benefit financially would 
connect to these networks of power and influence by learning and speaking 
colonial languages resulting in an expansion of language. Some languages 
spread over wide areas of the world and often follow a mixture of types of 
diffusion. The major globalized languages of the world—English, French, 
Spanish, and Arabic—spread from their hearths largely because of conquest 
and colonialism. In the case of Arabic, its use as the standard religious language 
in Islam contributed to its success and facilitated an expansion of adherents.
Widely Diffused Languages Trade has aided the spread of languages 
because ships, railroads, and other forms of transportation built and 
strengthened connections between places. Trade, conquest, and colonialism 
have so widely spread some languages that more people speak it outside 
its hearth than within it. For example, the largest population of speakers of 
Portuguese are in Brazil, not Portugal. The same is true for English, Spanish, 
and French—the highest population of speakers for each of those languages are 
not in the hearth. 
MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD IN ORDER OF TOTAL SPEAKERS
Language Language 
Hearth  
Total Population 
of Hearth 2019
Total Speakers Worldwide 2019 
(native and second language)
English England 55 million Over 1.5 billion
Mandarin 
(Chinese)
China 1.4 billion Over 1.2 billion
Hindi India 1.3 billion Over 615 million
Spanish Spain 47 million Over 570 million
French France 67 million Over 300 million
Arabic Arabian 
Peninsula
78 million Over 270 million
Chart appears in order of total speakers worldwide. Which languages have not diffused extensively from 
their hearth? What are reasons why they did not diffuse widely?
Limited Diffusion of Manadrin Some languages have never diffused 
widely. Mandarin Chinese, though the second-most commonly spoken 
language in the world, did not spread globally. China has been among the most 
powerful and innovative countries in the world for much of the past 2,000 
years, and its merchants settled in various parts of Asia and locations in the 
Pacific Ocean. Yet China never established colonies outside of Asia and, as 
a result, Chinese speakers have always been concentrated in China and port 
cities in Asia. 
Mandarin does have the most native speakers, those who use the language 
learned from birth, with over 900 million native speakers. The Chinese 
government wants to increase the number of Mandarin speakers and has been 
using government policies and its economic influence to encourage the use of 
Mandarin throughout Asia and across the world. 
166 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
English as a Lingua Franca
Unlike Chinese, English has a wide spatial distribution. English is the most 
widely used language in the world, with over 1.5 billion speakers. Native 
speakers (380 million) are concentrated in lands colonized by Great Britain 
such as the United States, Canada, South Africa, India, and Australia.
However, most speakers of English do not use it as their primary language. 
Rather, they use it as a lingua franca, a common language used by people who 
do not share the same native language. For example, Nigerians commonly 
speak one of 500 indigenous languages at home, but they learn English to 
communicate with everyone who does not speak their language. Globalization 
and new technology explain why English is often used as a lingua franca:
• U.S. and British multinational corporations made English the common 
language for international business.
• Scientists and other scholars, airline pilots, and journalists have used 
English to communicate with others across the globe.
• English evolved as the lingua franca of the Internet and is widely used in 
social media.
• English is often spoken by actors in television shows and movies which 
are shown around the world.
The wide use of English has made communication among people around 
the world easier. However, it has also sparked resentment in some who feel that 
the intrusion of American English language and western culture delegitimizes 
their own unique linguistic and cultural practices.
Creating New Words and Languages
Many new words begin as slang, words used informally by a segment of the 
population. As the world has become more globalized, certain words have spread 
dramatically and their meaning has changed. For example, the word brunch was 
slang before it became standard. Slang used in video gaming chats such as “w00t, ” 
to express excitement or victory, has diffused to common language today as woot. 
Pidgin Languages
When speakers of two different languages have extensive contact with each 
other, often because of trade, they sometimes develop a pidgin language, a 
simplified mixture of two languages. A pidgin language has fewer grammar 
rules and a smaller vocabulary than either language but is not the native 
language of either group. In Papua New Guinea, the pidgin combines English 
and Papuan languages.
Creole Languages
Over time, two or more separate languages can mix and develop a more formal 
structure and vocabulary so that they are no longer a pidgin language. They 
create a new combined language, known as a creole language. Afrikaans is 
Page 5


163 CHAPTER 7: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PROCESSES OF DIFFUSION
Historical and Contemporary 
Processes of Diffusion
Topics 3.5–3.8
Topic 3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns. (SPS-3.A)
Topic 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how historical processes impact current cultural 
 pa t t er n s . (S PS -3 . A)
Topic 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
Learning Objective: Explain what factors led to the diffusion of universalizing 
and ethnic religions. (IMP-3.B)
Topic 3.8 Effects of Diffusion
Learning Objective: Explain how the process of diffusion results in changes to 
the cultural landscape. (SPS-3.B)
In 1979, [schools on the Navajo reservation had about] 80 percent 
of students speaking Navajo – ten years later, 5 percent. There’s 
just too much English in?uence to really be effective in keeping our 
language. [If the Navajo language is lost] we will not be a unique 
people. We will have no culture; we will have no prayers.
—Marilyn Begay, 5
th
 grade teacher, The Navajo Language  
Immersion School, Navajo Nation reservation, Arizona
A bilingual stop sign in Quebec, Canada. (See Topic 3.7 for more about cultural landscape.)
CHAPTER 7
164 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
3.5
Historical Causes of Diffusion
Essential Question: How do historical processes impact current cultural 
patterns?
T oday, few formal colonies remain in the world, but the practices left behind 
by the European powers are present in their former colonies. The afternoon 
break for tea, a British tradition, is still practiced in Kenya and India. 
Christianity and the legacy of colonial languages are still widespread in many 
former colonies.
Influences of Colonialism, Imperialism, and Trade
Colonialism, imperialism, and trade have played a powerful role in spreading 
religion and culture. Historians often divide European colonialism into two 
separate waves. From the 16
th
 through the 18
th
 centuries, Europeans colonized 
the Americas and South Asia. Then, during the next two centuries, European 
powers expanded colonization into most of Africa, Southwest Asia, and other 
coastal regions of East and Southeast Asia.
Imperialism and colonialism are related ideas, but they are not the same. 
Imperialism is a broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing 
another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, 
or cultural dominance. Colonialism is a particular type of imperialism in 
which people move into and settle on the land of another country. Examples 
of imperialism and colonialism can be found throughout history and all over 
the world, but modern European imperialism and colonialism are the most 
relevant to the current political map because they strongly influenced the 
diffusion of language and religion.
European colonizers imposed their cultural traits on the local populations. 
For example, before European colonization, most religions practiced by the 
native indigenous people of Africa and North America were forms of animism, 
the belief that non-living objects, such as rivers or mountains, possess spirits. 
Europeans forced many of their colonial subjects to adopt the Christian faith. 
The Spanish and French spread Roman Catholicism throughout Latin America 
and North America. The English and Dutch spread forms of Protestantism in 
their North American colonies.
Diffusion of Languages
Languages commonly spread through both relocation and expansion diffusion. 
As people migrated and colonized to new locations, they brought their culture 
and language with them via relocation diffusion. Additionally, via political 
165 3.5: HISTORICAL CAUSES OF DIFFUSION
control a colonial language would be imposed hierarchically as the language 
of trade, business, and politics. People wanting to benefit financially would 
connect to these networks of power and influence by learning and speaking 
colonial languages resulting in an expansion of language. Some languages 
spread over wide areas of the world and often follow a mixture of types of 
diffusion. The major globalized languages of the world—English, French, 
Spanish, and Arabic—spread from their hearths largely because of conquest 
and colonialism. In the case of Arabic, its use as the standard religious language 
in Islam contributed to its success and facilitated an expansion of adherents.
Widely Diffused Languages Trade has aided the spread of languages 
because ships, railroads, and other forms of transportation built and 
strengthened connections between places. Trade, conquest, and colonialism 
have so widely spread some languages that more people speak it outside 
its hearth than within it. For example, the largest population of speakers of 
Portuguese are in Brazil, not Portugal. The same is true for English, Spanish, 
and French—the highest population of speakers for each of those languages are 
not in the hearth. 
MOST SPOKEN LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD IN ORDER OF TOTAL SPEAKERS
Language Language 
Hearth  
Total Population 
of Hearth 2019
Total Speakers Worldwide 2019 
(native and second language)
English England 55 million Over 1.5 billion
Mandarin 
(Chinese)
China 1.4 billion Over 1.2 billion
Hindi India 1.3 billion Over 615 million
Spanish Spain 47 million Over 570 million
French France 67 million Over 300 million
Arabic Arabian 
Peninsula
78 million Over 270 million
Chart appears in order of total speakers worldwide. Which languages have not diffused extensively from 
their hearth? What are reasons why they did not diffuse widely?
Limited Diffusion of Manadrin Some languages have never diffused 
widely. Mandarin Chinese, though the second-most commonly spoken 
language in the world, did not spread globally. China has been among the most 
powerful and innovative countries in the world for much of the past 2,000 
years, and its merchants settled in various parts of Asia and locations in the 
Pacific Ocean. Yet China never established colonies outside of Asia and, as 
a result, Chinese speakers have always been concentrated in China and port 
cities in Asia. 
Mandarin does have the most native speakers, those who use the language 
learned from birth, with over 900 million native speakers. The Chinese 
government wants to increase the number of Mandarin speakers and has been 
using government policies and its economic influence to encourage the use of 
Mandarin throughout Asia and across the world. 
166 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
English as a Lingua Franca
Unlike Chinese, English has a wide spatial distribution. English is the most 
widely used language in the world, with over 1.5 billion speakers. Native 
speakers (380 million) are concentrated in lands colonized by Great Britain 
such as the United States, Canada, South Africa, India, and Australia.
However, most speakers of English do not use it as their primary language. 
Rather, they use it as a lingua franca, a common language used by people who 
do not share the same native language. For example, Nigerians commonly 
speak one of 500 indigenous languages at home, but they learn English to 
communicate with everyone who does not speak their language. Globalization 
and new technology explain why English is often used as a lingua franca:
• U.S. and British multinational corporations made English the common 
language for international business.
• Scientists and other scholars, airline pilots, and journalists have used 
English to communicate with others across the globe.
• English evolved as the lingua franca of the Internet and is widely used in 
social media.
• English is often spoken by actors in television shows and movies which 
are shown around the world.
The wide use of English has made communication among people around 
the world easier. However, it has also sparked resentment in some who feel that 
the intrusion of American English language and western culture delegitimizes 
their own unique linguistic and cultural practices.
Creating New Words and Languages
Many new words begin as slang, words used informally by a segment of the 
population. As the world has become more globalized, certain words have spread 
dramatically and their meaning has changed. For example, the word brunch was 
slang before it became standard. Slang used in video gaming chats such as “w00t, ” 
to express excitement or victory, has diffused to common language today as woot. 
Pidgin Languages
When speakers of two different languages have extensive contact with each 
other, often because of trade, they sometimes develop a pidgin language, a 
simplified mixture of two languages. A pidgin language has fewer grammar 
rules and a smaller vocabulary than either language but is not the native 
language of either group. In Papua New Guinea, the pidgin combines English 
and Papuan languages.
Creole Languages
Over time, two or more separate languages can mix and develop a more formal 
structure and vocabulary so that they are no longer a pidgin language. They 
create a new combined language, known as a creole language. Afrikaans is 
167 3.5: HISTORICAL CAUSES OF DIFFUSION
a creole language spoken in South Africa that combines Dutch with several 
European and African languages.
On the islands of the Caribbean, creole languages are common. Africans 
captured and enslaved in the Americas between the 1500s and the 1800s were 
unable to transplant their languages. Stolen from their communities, they 
were forced onto ships with captives from various regions in Africa. With no 
common language among the groups of captives, communication was difficult. 
Most groups lost their languages after a generation in the Americas because 
of this linguistic isolation. Yet they were able to create creole languages by 
combining parts of their African languages with the European colonizers’ 
languages of English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese.
The most widely used creole language in the Americas is found in Haiti. 
Haitian Creole is derived mostly from French with influences from numerous 
languages of West Africa. It has become an official language of Haiti and a 
source of national pride and cultural identity.
Swahili in East Africa
Another example of language mixing occurred in East Africa. As early as the 
8
th
 century, trade between Arab-speaking merchants and Bantu-speaking 
residents resulted in the development of Swahili. Swahili is estimated to be 
spoken by some 50 to 100 million people in Africa and is an official language of 
five African nations—Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo. Many proponents believe that using Swahili as the 
common language of Africa would help promote unity within the continent. 
They also feel it would help Africans overcome the legacy of colonialism. Using 
Swahili would help erase the notion that speaking European languages is 
prestigious and critical for advancement while using native languages is viewed 
as an obstacle to advancements in social, economic, and political spheres. 
KEY TERMS 
imperialism
colonialism
animism
native speakers
lingua franca
slang
pidgin language
creole language
REFLECT ON THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Essential Question: How do historical processes impact current cultural patterns?
Historical Processes That Have Shaped 
Culture
Resulting Cultural Patterns