system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do some languages form creoles and pidgins more readily than others?

I recently came back from a trip to Namibia and South Africa, and I was struck by the difference in language. Namibia was colonised by the Germans; South Africa, by the Dutch. In South Africa, this resulted in a rather unique blend of languages that gave rise to Afrikaans. In Namibia, however, they still speak what is very clearly German. The blending didn't happen there. Why did Dutch mix with local languages in South Africa, but German didn't mix in Namibia? For that matter, why do some languages just seem to blend better than others?
gpt
AFIAK, there's nothing inherent about a language that makes it easier to form creoles and pidgins, and regardless, German and Dutch are very similar languages.

The difference between the two probably has to do with early contact between the langauges - the Dutch settled there for trade and intermingled with the local population, while the Germans had more of a conquer-and-colonize mission.