Inheritance and Innovation in a Colonial Language

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

Autorentext

William Jennings is Senior Lecturer in French language, linguistics and culture at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His research interests lie primarily within French colonial and encounter history, with a particular focus on the emergence of creole languages and societies.

Stefan Pfänder is Full Professor of Romance linguistics at Albert-Ludwigs-Universitäts Freiburg, Germany. His teaching focuses on French, Spanish, Italian and Creole, while his research centres around the emergence of grammatical constructions in interaction, and usage-based models of language variation and change.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction: A dual approach.- Chapter 2. History: The Creation of French Guianese Creole.- Chapter 3. Linguistics: Inheritance and Innovation in French Guianese Creole.- Chapter 4. Conclusion.