Re: Creole/mixed language question

In a message dated 2004:04:10 03:33:32 PM, thomas@MERMAID-PRODUCTIONS.COM
writes:

>I'm envisioning a scenario for a conlang project where
>essentially new language arises out of two or more different
>languages mixing -- this is essentially a creole, right?
    Well. there are many levels of language-mixing, contact, pidginization
and creolization - a verrrry broad range, everything from tourist-speak,
_Gasterbeiter_ and "Tarzan talk" to urbanized post-creole acrolects.

> So my question is, if the source languages are all highly inflected,
>will that influence the new language to remain highly inflected
>too?
    Pidgins and creoles overwhelming tend towards non-inflected forms and
simplicity, hence quite often pidgins are called perjoratives like "broken
language" or "baby talk." Pidgins and creoles are mutant offspring of both the
lexifier-language and substrate languages, thus are totally new languages:

    1 lexifier-language (i.e. the colonial language) + 1 substrate language
(the native language) = a 3rd language

    Ferinstanz, English pidgins and creoles are practically "foreign
languages" compared with WES (World English Standard). They have only a passing
resemblance to English as we know it. [websearch for any texts in Tok Pisin or
Bislama to see what I mean...]


"Some Languages Are Crushed to Powder but Rise Again as New Ones" -
title of chapter on pidgins and creoles, John McWhorter, _The Power of Babel:
A Natural History of Language_


> Or is this an situation where the new language would likely
>end up being simplified as the source languages mixed and the
>speakers of those languages, the ancestors of the speakers of
>the new language, had to try to cross linguistic boundaries to
>communicate with each other?
    Yepyep, this is usually the case. Ferinstanz, very roughly, a _maritime
trade jargon_ may become a _pidgin_ within the 1st generation. By the 2nd
generation, the pidgin becomes a _creole_. A _post-creole acrolect_ usually gains
wide acceptance - even "official language status" - and even a body of
literature (i.e. Tok Pisin and, my personal fav, Bislama).
    This is what has happened or is still happening with many other pidgins
and creoles all around the world.

>I know next to nothing about creoles and such language development, so any
>information or advice from those more knowledgeable than I will be welcome!
    IMHO the 3 best, fairly up-to-date introductions to pidgins and creoles
(in my possession) are [in order of "difficulty" as well as cost]:

    - _Lonely Planet Pidgin Phrasebook: Pidgin Languages of Oceania_, 1999,
2nd ed., ISBN 0-86442-587-2, tourist level text

    - _Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles_ by Mark Sebba, 1997, ISBN
0-312-17571-X, advanced high school or college level text

    - _Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction_ edited by Jacques Arends, Pieter
Muysken, and Norval Smith, 1995, 1-55619-170-7, academic scholarly level text

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