Cover not available

In:Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches
Edited by Peter Bakker, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen and Eeva M. Sippola
[Not in series 211] 2017
► pp. 175–191

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF

Chapter 8
The typology and classification of French-based creoles

A global perspective

 | Aarhus University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 31 May 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.211.08dav
Abstract
The main aim of this chapter is to examine the internal relationships of several French-based creoles and to provide a classification of these languages, a problem that has been left unsolved (or only partially solved) by creolists so far. We show that the issue can be tackled with a phylogenetic approach based on a selection of lexical and structural features, resulting in suggestive patterns on the connections between the various creoles in the sample. An advantage in using phylogenetic methods is that it also allows us to assess the relative degree of divergence of a creole from its lexifier. Therefore, French was added to the sample of French-based creoles. The results obtained using this method are largely in accordance with previous attempts from various scholars and show that the application of phylogenetic tools to the study of contact languages can complement traditional methods.
Article outline
  • 8.1Introduction
  • 8.2Previous work on the classification of French-based creoles
  • 8.3Methods and sample
  • 8.4Classifying French-based creoles
  • 8.5Measuring radicalness
  • 8.6Discussion
  • 8.7Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (39)
References
Allen, R. B. 2001. Licentious and unbridled proceedings: The illegal slave trade to Mauritius and the Seychelles during the early nineteenth century. Journal of African History 42: 91–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alleyne, M. C. 1980. Comparative Afro-American: An Historical Comparative Study of English-based Afro-American Dialects of the New World. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P. 1987. Combien y a-t-il eu de genèses créoles à base lexicale française? Etudes Créoles 10(2): 60–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P. & Corne, C. 1982. Isle de France Creole: Affinities and Origins. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P. 1999. Investigating the origin and diffusion of shared features among the Atlantic English Creoles. In St Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles. The Texts of Samuel Augustus Mathews in Perspective, P. Baker & A. Bruyn (eds), 315–364. London: Battlebridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma. Reprint 2016, Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1984. The Language Bioprogram Hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7(2): 173–221. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloomfield, L. 1933. Language. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryant, D. & Moulton, V. 2004. Neighbor-net, an agglomerative method for the construction of phylogenetic networks. Molecular Biology and Evolution 21(2): 255–265. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burns, A. 1954. History of the British West Indies. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chaudenson, R. 2010. La génèse des créoles de l’Océan Indien. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Approche (historico-) linguistique des créoles des Mascareignes et des Seychelles. Etudes Océan Indien 49–50: 55–88.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ehrhart, S. 2012. L’écologie des langues de contact. Le tayo, creole de Nouvelle- Calédonie. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodman, M. 1964. A Comparative Study of Creole French Dialects. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, I. F. 1969. A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic Creoles. African Language Review 8: 7–72.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987. A preliminary classification of the Anglophone Atlantic creoles with syntactic data from thirty-three representative dialects. In Pidgin and Creole Languages. Essays in Memory of John E. Reinecke, G. G. Gilbert (ed.), 264–333. Honolulu HI: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holbrook, D. J. 2012. The Classification of the English-Lexifier Creole Languages Spoken in Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent, and Tobago Using a Comparison of the Markers of Some Key Grammatical Features: A Tool for Determining the Potential to Share and/or Adapt Literary Development Materials [SIL e-Books 25]. SIL International. <[URL]>
Holm, J. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles, Vol. 2: Reference Survey . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huber, M. & Parkvall, M. (eds). 1997. Spreading the Word. The Issue of Diffusion among the Atlantic Creoles. London: University of Westminster Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huson, D. H. & Bryant, D. 2006. Application of phylogenetic networks in evolutionary studies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 23: 254–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kihm, A. 1984. Is there anything like decreolization? Some ongoing changes in Bissau Creole. In York Papers in Linguistics 11, M. Sebba & L. Todd (eds), 203–214. York: University of York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefebvre, C. 1998. Creole Genesis and the Acquisition of Grammar: The Case of Haitian Creole [Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 88]. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitchell, E. 2010. St. Lucian Kwéyòl on St. Croix: A Study of Language Choice and Attitudes. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mufwene, S. S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkvall, M. 1995. A Dual Approach to French Creole Genesis. MA thesis, Stockholm University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. Reassessing the role of demographics in language restructuring. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. W. Schneider (eds), 185–214. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saitou N. & Nei, M. 1987. The neighbor-joining method: A new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Molecular Biology and Evolution 4(4): 406–425.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwegler, A. 2000. The myth of decreolization: The anomalous case of Palenquero. In Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages [Creole Language Library 22], I. Neumann-Holzschuh & E. W. Schneider (eds), 409–436. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Speedy, K. 2007a. Colons, créoles et coolies: L’immigration réunionnaise en Nouvelle-Calédonie (XIXè siècle) et le tayo de Saint-Louis. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007b. Reunion creole in New Caledonia. What influence on Tayo? Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(2): 193–230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Reflections on creole genesis in New Caledonia. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics 45(2): 187–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valdmann, A. 1978. Le créole: Structure, statut et origine. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Name, A. 1870. Contributions to Creole Grammar. Transactions of the American Philological Association 1: 123–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vintilă-Rădulescu, I. 1976. Le créole français. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whinnom, K. 1965. The origin of the European-based creoles and pidgins. Orbis 14: 509–527.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue