Creoles of the World
2017 Creole Language Distinctiveness
*Title:* Grammars are robustly transmitted even during the emergence of creole languages *Authors*: Damián
Blasi, Susanne Michaelis and Martin Haspelmath
*Abstract:* Most languages of the world are taken to result from a combination of a vertical transmission
process from older to younger generations of speakers or signers and (mostly) gradual changes that
accumulate
over time. In contrast, creole languages emerge within a few generations out of highly multilingual
societies
in situations where no common first language is available for communication (as, for instance, in
plantations
related to the Atlantic slave trade). Strikingly, creoles share a number of linguistic features (the 'creole
profile'), which is at odds with the striking linguistic diversity displayed by non-creole languages1,2,3,4.
These common features have been explained as reflecting a hardwired default state of the possible grammars
that can be learned by humans1, as straightforward solutions to cope with the pressure for efficient and
successful communication5 or as the byproduct of an impoverished transmission process6. Despite their
differences, these proposals agree that creoles emerge from a very limited and basic communication system (a
pidgin) that only later in time develops the characteristics of a natural language, potentially by
innovating
linguistic structure. Here we analyse 48 creole languages and 111 non-creole languages from all continents
and
conclude that the similarities (and differences) between creoles can be explained by genealogical and
contact
processes, as with non-creole languages, with the difference that creoles have more than one language in
their
ancestry. While a creole profile can be detected statistically, this stems from an over-representation of
Western European and West African languages in their context of emergence. Our findings call into question
the
existence of a pidgin stage in creole development and of creole-specific innovations. In general, given
their
extreme conditions of emergence, they lend support to the idea that language learning and transmission are
remarkably resilient processes.
Paywall: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0192-4
Free:
http://sci-hub.bz/10.1038/s41562-017-0192-4
American English Speech Recordings: A Guide to Collections.
A directory of collections of audio recordings of varieties of American English spoken in North America and
including English-based creoles contains information about collections of any size, classified according to
the primary state in the U.S. represented by the speakers in the sample and cross-referenced when
more than one state is represented in the collection. Collections covering areas outside the United States
are
grouped separately, and include the Bahamas, Canada, Central America, Puerto Rico, England, and world-wide
sources. The data, based on a survey, include information on each collection's location, institutional
affiliation, content, characteristics of the sample, number of subjects recorded, number of hours recorded,
dates and locations of taping, average length of the samples, contexts (free speech with or without
interviewer directed interview, data elicitation, reading, or other), predominant or outstanding features of
the content, subject or technical characteristics, access to Collections, and availableresearch reports
concerning the collection. The survey questionnaire is provided in the introductory section of the
directory.
PDF
English around the World - Internet + English = Netglish
Definitions of Various Creoles
Creole - Kreyol Alphabet Alphabè Kreyòl la The Kreyol AlphabetAMERICAN DIALECTS
- Links related to American Dialects
- Stanford University Library's Reference Guide for Pidgin and Creole
- Phonetic fonts can be downloaded for free from the SIL
- Search Stanford Library
- Appendix:
Glossary of Languages
An appendix to the above containing alternative names of various pidgins and Creoles.
LOUISIANA CREOLE
- Learn about Louisiana Creole
- See Issues and Opinions for cultural history.
- THE DICTIONARY OF LOUISIANA
CREOLE:
Edited by Albert Valdman, Thomas A. Klingler, Margaret M. Marshall, and Kevin J. Rottet.
HAWAIIAN PIDGIN CREOLE
- HAWAIIAN PIDGIN/CREOLE The People, Culture and Language of Hawai'i Learn a little about consonants and vowels in Hawaiian Pidgin.
- Hawaiian War Chant - also see
- Ha Kam Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet ['Why do we still talk in Pidgin']: A series of three clips about Hawai'i Creole ('Pidgin') made by High School Students. [link]
HAITIAN CREOLE
- What is Haitian Creole?
- WINDOWS ON HAITI - Promotes Haitian Creole Literacy and Literature production.
- KREYOL DICTIONARY A - Z THE LANGUAGE OF HAITI
- The Unofficial Haitian Home Page
resources include Haitian Directories, Culture & Arts, Music, and a complete Haitian History Course.
Bermudian English Creole
- The Bermewjun dictionary
- Southern Bahamian: Transported African American Vernacular English or Transported
Gullah?
(Stephanie Hackert and John Holm) published in vol. 15 (2009) of The College of the Bahamas Research
Journal, pp. 12-21
Holm argued (wrongly) in the 1990s that proof of AAVE's creole origins lay in the creole speech of the southern Bahamian islands, populated almost entirely from the US mainland after the American Revolutionary War. It has since come to light that most of the immigrants came from Gullah-speaking areas of the US, suggesting that AAVE was from its beginnings the product of partial rather than full creolization.
Jamaican Creole
Development of the
Jamaican Language
Sources of language influence on Jamaican Creole Source of
Jamaican population, 1500 - 1700 [more]
Trinidad Creole
English English
Spanish Based Creole
- Papiamento A creole based on Portuguese and pidginized Spanish and spoken in the Netherlands Antilles.
- Chabacano/Spanish The Philippine Linguistic Identity.
John Lipski Professor of Spanish and Linguistics. His main areas of research include Spanish phonology, language contacts, Spanish dialectology, creole languages, and the African contribution to Spanish and Portuguese. He is the author of numerous books and articles in these fields, and has recently completed a book on varieties of Spanish in the United States. See Filipino American National Historical Society's Pinoy Archives - St. Lucia
St. Lucia, West Indies is a creolophone island of the lesser Antilles. This E-Group is concerned by the preservation of the creole culture in this country.
Haitian Creole
- Expert Jeff Allen - Haitian Creole Language Technologies - Language Data Distribution
- Multilingual Translation System All citizens, regardless of native tongue, shall have the same access to knowledge on the Internet.
French Creole
- A Dual Approach to French
Creole
Genesis
by Mikael Parkvall M. A. Thesis, presented in April 1995 at the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University. French-lexicon creoles of the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean (minus Réunionnais) were the result not of one, and not of several, but of two geneses, one on St. Kitts and one in Senegal.The varieties presently spoken on the Lesser Antilles would be descended from the former, and those spoken in the Indian Ocean and in Louisiana would be derived from the latter. I suggested that Haitian and Guianese would be of the Kittitian type, but with certain influences from the Senegalese proto-pidgin.
Guinea-Bissau Creole
Dissertation: Guinea-Bissau Creole by Chiara Truppi
Brief description: My dissertation is a syntactic-semantic study of GBC bare nouns and the theoretical implications. Moreover, GBC nominal system and its bare nouns are compared to a number of other creole and noncreole languages: Cape Verdean Creole, Santome, Papiamentu, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Gbe languages.
Future in Nova Scotian Black English
2000 Global Internet Statistics (by Language) lists many languages, how
many people speak each language, how many people who speak that language have internet access, the GDP
(gross
domestic product) per capita for each language ... "We classify by languages instead of by countries,
since people speaking the same language form their own online community no matter what country they happen
to
live in."
"While English is the language of choice on the Internet, it will hasten the extinction of thousands of
indigenous languages. By the end of this century, 90 percent of the world's language could become
extinct.
The culture, customs and knowledge embedded in these languages will also become extinct. As we embrace the
languages of former colonial masters, the world losses valuable information passed down by word of mouth
over
several generations. The extinction of any language is an irretrievable loss to humanity. If the early years
of educational instruction are not in an indigenous language, then that language is headed for
extinction."
Author: Kofi Yakpo Dissertation
Title: A Grammar of Pichi
Linguistic Field(s): Language Documentation
Subject Language(s): Fernando Po Creole English (fpe)
Language Family(ies): Creole
Dissertation Abstract: Pichi (also know as Fernando Po Creole English) is an Atlantic English-lexicon Creole
spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea.
With at least 70,000 speakers, Pichi is an offshoot of Krio (Sierra Leone) and shares many characteristics
with its West African sister languages Aku (Gambia) and Nigerian, Cameroonian and Ghanaian Pidgin. At the
same
time,
contact with Spanish, the colonial and official language of Equatorial Guinea, has made a significant impact
on the lexicon and grammar of Pichi.
This first comprehensive description of Pichi is based on extensive fieldwork in Equatorial Guinea. It
presents a detailed analysis of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language and addresses language
contact between Pichi and Spanish. The annexes contain a collection of interlinearised and annotated texts
as
well as Pichi-English-Pichi vocabulary lists.
Pichi has a seven vowel system and twenty-two consonant phonemes. The
language features a mixed prosodic system which employs both pitch-accent and tone. The morphological
structure of Pichi is largely isolating. However, there is a limited use of inflectional and derivational
morphology in which affixation, tone and suppletive forms are put to use. The categories of tense, modality
and aspect are primarily expressed through preverbal particles. In Pichi, aspect rather than tense, plays a
dominant role in expressing temporal relations. The modal system includes an indicative-subjunctive
opposition. Pichi verbs fall into three lexical aspect classes: dynamic, inchoative-stative and stative. The
language exhibits a subject-verb word order in intransitive clauses and a subject-verb-object order in
transitive clauses. Pichi also features various types of multiverb constructions. These include secondary
predication, clause chaining and serial verb constructions.