Sign language

Pablo Flores wrote:
> Does anybody have a list of creoles, or links
> to pages about them? I found the subject extremely interesting.
>  So far I've only heard of Tok Pisin (a bit) and Jopara, a Spanish-Guarani
> creole spoken in Paraguay.
I don't have a list, but I do have a very interesting language to
share.  I read about it in a book entitled "Contact Languages: A Wider
Perspective", Vol. 17 of the Creole Language Library

This language is called "Media Lengua".  It's essentially Quechua with
all the root words replaced by Spanish words.  For example:

Quechua: Shuk fabur-da  man~a-nga-bu  shamu-xu-  ni
ML:      Unu  fabur-ta  pidi- nga-bu  bini- xu-  ni
         One  favor-ACC ask-  NOM-BEN come- PROG-1
I come to ask a favor.
Unu < uno
Fabur < favor
Pidi < Pedi(r)
Bini < Veni(r)
In this case, Media Lengua is more conservative than Quechua when it
comes to the accusative ending, originally Quechua always used -ta, but
now it's -da after certain consonants.

Kuyi- buk yirba nuwabi-      shka
Kuyi- buk k'iwa illa-        shka
Cavia-Ben grass there.is.not-Sudden.Discovery
There turns out to be no grass for the cavias

_Kuyi_ has also been borrowed into the local Spanish.  Note the form
_nuwabi_ < _no habe(r)_.  It was formed by people who, apparantly, were
fluent in both languages, but were in a middle-position culturally, they
had abandoned their traditional ways of life, and so were no longer
fully Indian, nor were they Hispanic, and their language therefore
reflects that.  It helps that Quechua's an agglutinative language.  The
syntax of Media Lengua is still mostly the same as Quechua, but there
are a few influences from Spanish.
--
"God is dead" -- Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead" -- God