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103 results

Page 1 of 6

  • Linguistic Hybridization in the Emergence of Creoles

  • Salikoko S. Mufwene
  • Journal:
    Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry / Volume 10 / Issue 1 / January 2023
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    05 December 2022, pp. 74-89
    • Article
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  • In this article I show how ubiquitous hybridity is in cultures. It is enabled by layers of population movements and contacts since the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa around 50,000 years ago. I demonstrate how hybridization has proceeded in the emergence of creole language varieties and show that the same process has also driven, for instance, the emergence and differential evolution of English and the speciation of Vulgar Latin into the Romance languages. Differences in outcomes are determined by the specificities of the contact ecologies, including population structure, differences in the demographic proportions of the populations in contact and power relations between them, as well as patterns of population growth, among other factors. I argue that hybridity is not unique to languages. It is conspicuous in other domains of culture, including cuisine, music, clothing fashions, and technologies, for example. I submit a uniformitarian approach inspired by evolutionary biology to better understand how hybridization occurs.

  • 1 - Language Contact: What a Rich and Intellectually Stimulating History since the Late Nineteenth Century!

  • from Introduction
  • Edited by Salikoko S. Mufwene, University of Chicago, Anna María Escobar, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
    Published online:
    02 June 2022
    Print publication:
    30 June 2022, pp 3-40

  • Summary

    This chapter is about the evolution of language contact as a research area from the late nineteenth century to the present. It underscores the catalyst part that the discovery of creoles and pidgins by European philologists and other precursors of modern linguistics played in highlighting the roles of population movement and language contact as actuators of language change and speciation. It draws attention to the significance of the study of language evolution in European colonies in making evident the realities of language coexistence. These include the possible competition that can cause language shift and the death of one or some of the coexistent languages, a process that has affected competing European vernaculars faster than it has, for instance, Native American languages. It underscores the expansion of the field as linguists became interested in phenomena such as interference, codeswitching (or translanguaging), codemixing, diglossia, language diasporas, and linguistic areas, as well as factors that facilitate or favor the evolution of structures, sometimes of the same language, in divergent ways, owing to changes in population structures.

  • 1 - Language Contact in Population Structure

  • from Introduction
  • Edited by Salikoko Mufwene, University of Chicago, Anna Maria Escobar, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
    Published online:
    02 June 2022
    Print publication:
    30 June 2022, pp 3-26

  • Summary

    This chapter situates plurilingualism (at the individual level) and multilingualism (at the societal level), depending on the researcher’s approach to language contact, as enablers of various consequences of language contact. The relevant phenomena include language endangerment and loss (through language shift), codemixing and codeswitching (or translanguaging), the emergence of creoles, other mixed language varieties (including urban youth “stylects”), colonial varieties of European languages (such as Spanish), super-diversity, as well as structural change, borrowing, and the emergence of lingua francas. Concepts such as foreign workers’ interlanguages are contrasted with creoles and pidgins. Differences in their emergence are grounded in second language learning, degree and type of exposure to the hegemonic language, language shift, and the emergence of communal norms. The presentation in the chapter is generally grounded in population movements and changing population structures, therefore in speakers'/signers’ social history. It is also diachronic, explaining how domains of interest have evolved and expanded in language contact as a research area since the late nineteenth century, focusing on phenomena not elaborated in the chapters of Volume 1.

Page 1 of 6