creole language
Evolved contact tongue
A creole language is a stable natural language that develops from the mixing of different languages—typically when a simplified pidgin, used for trade or communication between groups, becomes the native tongue of a community.
Unlike pidgins, creoles have full grammatical complexity and serve all the functions of any language: Haitian Creole developed from French and West African languages.
The term distinguishes these languages from the pidgins they evolved from and from the colonial languages that contributed to them. (Capitalized Creole language specifies particular languages like Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole.)
- relexificationVocabulary replacement preserving grammar
- creolizationPidgin maturing into mother tongue
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- slave tradeCommerce in human beings
- native speakerOne who grew up speaking it
code-switching · multilingualism · hybrid · mixed heritage · colonial era · reduplication · mixture · broken English · spoken · spoken word · oral · vernacular · contact · trade · blending · mixing · syncretism · patois
- CaribbeanJamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Haiti
- BelizeMaya, Hopkins, atolls, barrier reef, Maya ruins
- French CaribbeanGuadeloupe, Martinique, Robert, Saint-Pierre, French Caribbean
- Contact Languagespidgin, pidginization, relexification, code switching, substrate
- cultural practicesmusic, dance, art, religion, marriage
- Cape VerdeSantiago, escudo, Santa Maria
creole languageheritage language
Language of one's ancestors
ancestral language · substrate language · proto-language · classical language · language isolate
creole languagestandard language
Codified, official linguistic form
official language · Standard English · national language · classical language · colonial language