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Grammars are robustly transmitted even during the emergence of creole languages

Author

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  • Damián E. Blasi

    (University of Zürich
    Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

  • Susanne Maria Michaelis

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    Leipzig University)

  • Martin Haspelmath

    (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    Leipzig University)

Abstract

Most languages of the world are taken to result from a combination of a vertical transmission process from older to younger generations of speakers or signers and (mostly) gradual changes that accumulate over time. In contrast, creole languages emerge within a few generations out of highly multilingual societies in situations where no common first language is available for communication (as, for instance, in plantations related to the Atlantic slave trade). Strikingly, creoles share a number of linguistic features (the ‘creole profile’), which is at odds with the striking linguistic diversity displayed by non-creole languages 1–4 . These common features have been explained as reflecting a hardwired default state of the possible grammars that can be learned by humans 1 , as straightforward solutions to cope with the pressure for efficient and successful communication 5 or as the byproduct of an impoverished transmission process 6 . Despite their differences, these proposals agree that creoles emerge from a very limited and basic communication system (a pidgin) that only later in time develops the characteristics of a natural language, potentially by innovating linguistic structure. Here we analyse 48 creole languages and 111 non-creole languages from all continents and conclude that the similarities (and differences) between creoles can be explained by genealogical and contact processes 7,8 , as with non-creole languages, with the difference that creoles have more than one language in their ancestry. While a creole profile can be detected statistically, this stems from an over-representation of Western European and West African languages in their context of emergence. Our findings call into question the existence of a pidgin stage in creole development and of creole-specific innovations. In general, given their extreme conditions of emergence, they lend support to the idea that language learning and transmission are remarkably resilient processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Damián E. Blasi & Susanne Maria Michaelis & Martin Haspelmath, 2017. "Grammars are robustly transmitted even during the emergence of creole languages," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(10), pages 723-729, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:1:y:2017:i:10:d:10.1038_s41562-017-0192-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0192-4
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    Cited by:

    1. Camilla Midtgaard Eriksen & Monica Lauridsen Kujabi & Aminata Sulaiman Kanu & Gabriel Gulis, 2021. "Health Perceptions in Relation to Child Health and Mortality in a Rural Context, Sierra Leone: A Mixed Method Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Sandro Sessarego, 2020. "Not all grammatical features are robustly transmitted during the emergence of creoles," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.

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