Feature Diffusion in global Pidgins and Creoles (Huber)

The main aims of this project are to shed light on the historical relationships between Pidgin and Creole Englishes world-wide, to learn about the mechanisms at work in their genesis and development, and to examine the significance of features common to both Atlantic and Pacific varieties. In addition to sociohistorical work on the early stages of Pidgin and Creole Englishes (population movements, settlement patterns and origin of settler groups, ethnic composition of early Creole societies) this project focusses on common lexical, functional, and grammatical features in English-lexicon contact languages. These features are analyzed both qualitatively, to shed light on the nature of early stages of contact Englishes, as well as statistically, to gain insights into the development and interrelationships between Pidgins and Creoles. 

Publications:

Huber, Magnus. 1999a. "On the origin and diffusion of Atlantic English Creoles: First attestations from Krio". Baker, Philip & Bruyn, Adrienne (eds.) St Kitts 
and the Atlantic Creoles. London: University of Westminster Press, 365-78.

— 2000a. Baker, Philip and Huber, Magnus. "Constructing new pronominal systems from the Atlantic to the Pacific". Linguistics 38. Special Issue: Creoles, Pidgins, and sundry languages: Essays in honor of Pieter Seuren. Ed. Jacques Arends, 833-66.

— 2000b. "Restructuring in vitro? Evidence from early Krio". Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid and Schneider, Edgar (eds.) Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 275-307.

— 2001. Baker, Philip and Huber, Magnus. "Atlantic, Pacific, and world-wide features in English-lexicon contact languages". English World-Wide 22 (2): 157-208.

— 2004. "The Nova Scotia-Sierra Leone connection. New evidence on an early variety of African American Vernacular English in the diaspora". Escure, Geneviève and Schwegler, Armin (eds.) Creoles, contact, and language change. Linguistic and social implications. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 67-95.

— 2007 (fc). "Gullah in the diaspora: Historical and linguistic evidence from the Bahamas" (with Stephanie Hackert). Diachronica.

Contact details:

Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber, Institut für Anglistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen