The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact LanguagesJohn McWhorter challenges an enduring paradigm among linguists in this provocative exploration of the origins of plantation creoles. Using a wealth of data--linguistic, sociolinguistic, historical--he proposes that the "limited access model" of creole genesis is seriously flawed. That model maintains that plantation creole languages emerged because African slaves greatly outnumbered whites on colonial plantations. Having little access to the slaveholders' European languages, the slaves were forced to build a new language from what fragments they did acquire. Not so, says McWhorter, who posits that plantation creole originated in West African trade settlements, in interactions between white traders and slaves, some of whom were eventually transported overseas. The evidence that most New World creoles were imports traceable to West Africa strongly suggests that the well-established limited access model for plantation creole needs revision. In forcing a reexamination of this basic tenet, McWhorter's book will undoubtedly cause controversy. At the same time, it makes available a vast amount of data that will be a valuable resource for further explorations of genesis theory. |
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The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact ... John H. McWhorter No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
AECs AECs and FPCs African languages African trade settlements Afrogenesis Akan argument Barbados basilectal Bickerton bozal Spanish castle slaves Chocó contact languages context Cormantin Creole English creole genesis Creole Languages creole studies creoles emerged creolists crucial demographic disproportion developed dialects documentation Dutch early English Caribbean English-based European example Fongbe Goodman grammar guage Gullah Haitian Haitian Creole Hancock hypothesis Igbo Jamaican Kikongo Kitts Krio lexical lexifier LGPE limited access conception limited access model locative copula Lower Guinea Lower Guinea coast Mandinka marker Maroons Martinique Mauritian Mauritian Creole McWhorter Mufwene Ndjuka Palenquero Papiamentu parent pidgin Parkvall Pidgin and Creole Pidgin English plantation colonies plantation creoles Portuguese creoles Portuguese pidgin pronoun relexification Réunionnais sale slaves Saramaccan second-language simply small farms société d’habitation sociohistorical Spanish creoles speak speakers spoken Sranan suggests superstrate Suriname tion Tok Pisin varieties verb West African trade whites Wolof Yoruba