Editing Creole language (section)

{{short description|Stable natural languages that have developed from a pidgin}}
{{Redirect|ISO 639:crp|text=This language code also incorporates [[pidgin]]s as well as creoles}}
{{For|the computer markup language|Creole (markup)}}
[[File: Guadeloupe creole 2010-03-30.JPG|thumb|An [[Antillean Creole]] traffic sign in [[Guadeloupe]] stating {{lang|gcf|Lévé pié aw / Ni ti moun ka joué la!}}, [[Literal translation|literally translating]] as "Lift your foot (i.e. slow down). Children are playing here!" in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://languagesindanger.eu/book-of-knowledge/multilingualism-and-language-contact/|title=Multilingualism and language contact {{!}} Languages In Danger|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-09}}</ref>]]

A '''creole language''',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/sum07/myths/creoles.pdf|title=The study of pidgin and creole languages}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://euljss.eul.edu.tr/euljss/si526.pdf|title=Language varieties: Pidgins and creoles|access-date=2017-05-24|archive-date=2018-07-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712173017/http://euljss.eul.edu.tr/euljss/si526.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jcgood/jcgood-JPCL.pdf|title=Typologizing grammatical complexities, or Why creoles may be paradigmatically simple but syntagmatically average}}</ref> or simply '''creole''', is a stable form of [[contact language]] that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a [[pidgin]]), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fledged language with [[Nativization|native speaker]]s, all within a fairly brief period.<ref>Millar, Robert M. (2015). Trask's historical linguistics. Routledge. pp. 305-306.</ref> While the concept is similar to that of a [[mixed language|mixed or hybrid language]], creoles are often characterized by a tendency to systematize their inherited grammar (e.g., by eliminating irregularities). Like any language, creoles are characterized by a consistent system of [[grammar]], possess large stable vocabularies, and are [[Language acquisition|acquired]] by children as their native language.<ref>Calvet, Louis-Jean. (2006). Toward an Ecology of World Languages. Malden, MA: Polity Press. [173-6]</ref> These three features distinguish a creole language from a pidgin.<ref>McWhorter, J. H. (2005). ''Defining creole''. Oxford University Press.</ref> Creolistics, or creology, is the study of creole languages and, as such, is a subfield of [[linguistics]]. Someone who engages in this study is called a creolist.

The precise number of creole languages is not known, particularly as many are poorly attested or documented. About one hundred creole languages have arisen since 1500. These are predominantly based on European languages such as English and French<ref>{{cite web|title=Creole – Language Information & Resources|url=https://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Creole/|website=www.alsintl.com|access-date=October 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620093817/https://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Creole/|archive-date=June 20, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> due to the European [[Age of Discovery]] and the [[Atlantic slave trade]] that arose at that time.<ref>''Linguistics'', ed. Anne E. Baker, [[Kees Hengeveld]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=R8uWDVdRQlYC&pg=PT436 p. 436]</ref> With the improvements in [[ship-building]] and [[navigation]], traders had to learn to communicate with people around the world, and the quickest way to do this was to develop a pidgin; in turn, full creole languages developed from these pidgins. In addition to creoles that have European languages as their base, there are, for example, creoles based on [[Arabic]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], and [[Malay language|Malay]].

The [[lexicon]] of a creole language is largely supplied by the parent languages, particularly that of the most dominant group in the social context of the creole's construction. However, there are often clear [[phoneme|phonetic]] and [[semantic]] shifts. On the other hand, the grammar that has evolved often has new or unique features that differ substantially from those of the parent languages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Siegel |first=Jeff |title=The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole Languages |publisher=Oxford Linguistics |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-921666-6 |location=New York |pages=68–69 |language=en}}</ref>