What multiethnolects reveal about creole genesis
Abstract Recent theories of creole genesis propose that creole languages did not emerge via the expansion of pidgin varieties (DeGraff, 2001; Mufwene, 2001, 2008). This paper argues that the multiethnolects that have formed in many European cities constitute a demonstration case of the genesis scenario these new creolist theories reconstruct. Crucially, however, the multiethnolects, while displaying a modest degree of grammatical simplification and restructuring, exhibit this to nothing approaching the degree that creoles do. This supports the idea that creoles form from a break in transmission rather than simply hybridization.
2002 ◽
Vol 67
(551)
◽
pp. 45-52
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