Re: glossogenesis (was: Indo-European question)

On Sun, 24 Jun 2001, Tommie L Powell wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Jun 2001 Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> > The pidgin-speaking adults have nothing to do with it ---
> > although they presumably do command another language,
> > the point is that the creole is formed because the various
> > native grammers cannot be used by the adults (because
> > they aren't shared) and therefore the children aren't
> > exposed to them.
> You are telling me that the children aren't exposed to their
> own parents' native grammars. If that were true, it would
> mean that a child's own parents avoid talking to their own
> children in their own native language -- and avoid talking to
> each other in front of their own children in their own native
> language -- and that those parents instead choose to speak
> to each other and to their own children in only the crude
> pidgin that's designed to permit imperfect communication
> with foreigners.  As a parent, I cannot imagine doing that.
Well, I think there isn't a too bad chance that this IS true. Imagine
the case that the superstrate language has got a much higher level of prestige
than the substrate language (the native tongue of the parents) which may
be regarded as socially worthless ("primitive"). So the pidgin will be
ranked higher than the native tongue and the parents will actually avoid speaking their
own language in front of their children, who will be going to transform
this pidgin into a creole...

Isn't this the "usual" way...?

Regards

 Sven Sommerfeld