Third, and most dramatically, it can be turned into a mother tongue. Second, it can remain in use for generations, or even centuries, as has happened with some west African pidgins. This has happened to Hawaiian pidgin, now almost entirely displaced by English, the prestige language of Hawaii.

First, it may eventually drop out of use.

'There are several possible fates for a pidgin.

What we know about the history and origins of existing creoles suggests that this may happen at any stage in the development of a pidgin.' (Mark Sebba, Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles.

'A creole comes into being when children are born into a pidgin-speaking environment and acquire the pidgin as a first language.

Most pidgins are structurally simple, although if used over many generations, they do evolve, as do all languages (Aitchison, 1983 Sankoff & Laberge, 1973).' (Erika Hoff, Language Development, 5th ed., Wadsworth, 2014)

'ore than 100 pidgin languages are currently in use (Romaine, 1988).

pidgin languages survive today in territories which formerly belonged to the European colonial nations, and act as lingua francas for example, West African Pidgin English is used extensively between several ethnic groups along the West African coast.' (David Crystal, English As a Global Language. In time, most pidgin languages disappear, as the pidgin-speaking community develops, and one of its established languages becomes widely known and takes over the role of the pidgin as the lingua franca, or language of choice of those who do not share a native language.' (Grover Hudson, Essential Introductory Linguistics. 'At first a pidgin language has no native speakers and is used just for doing business with others with whom one shares the pidgin language and no other.

Pidgin language example