Inheritance and Innovation in a Colonial Language: Towards a Usage-Based Account of French Guianese Creole

Jennings, William; Pfänder, Stefan

This book takes a fresh approach to analysing how new languages are created, combining in-depth colonial history and empirical, usage-based linguistics. Focusing on a rarely studied language, the authors employ this dual methodology to reconstruct how multilingual individuals drew on their perception of Romance and West African languages to form French Guianese Creole. In doing so, they facilitate the application of a usage-based approach to language while simultaneously contributing significantly to the debate on creole origins. This innovative volume is sure to appeal to students and scholars of language history, creolisation and languages in contact.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2019-06-04

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9783319871974

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61952-1

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 240