Inheritance and Innovation in a Colonial Language, 1st ed. 2018 Towards a Usage-Based Account of French Guianese Creole

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.

Takes an dual approach to French Guianese Creole to formulate a theory of how the language arose Contributes to the debate on creole origins and serves as a template for investigations of other creoles Combines social history and linguistic analysis to examine creole origins Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras