Editing Creole language (section)

===Theories focusing on European input===
====Monogenetic theory of pidgins and creoles====
The [[monogenetic theory of pidgins]] and creoles hypothesizes that all Atlantic creoles derived from a single [[Mediterranean Lingua Franca]], via a West African Pidgin Portuguese of the seventeenth century, [[relexification|relexified]] in the so-called "slave [[Factory (trading post)|factories]]"{{explain |date= January 2021}} of Western Africa that were the source of the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. This theory was originally formulated by [[Hugo Schuchardt]] in the late nineteenth century and popularized in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Taylor,<ref>such as in {{Harvcoltxt|Taylor|1977}}</ref> Whinnom,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Whinnom|1956}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Whinnom|1965}}</ref> Thompson,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thompson|1961}}</ref> and Stewart.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Stewart|1962}}</ref> However, this hypothesis is now not widely accepted, since it relies on all creole-speaking slave populations being based on the same Portuguese-based creole, despite no to very little historical exposure to Portuguese for many of these populations, no strong direct evidence for this claim, and with Portuguese leaving almost no trace on the lexicon of most of them, with the similarities in grammar explainable by analogous processes of loss of inflection and grammatical forms not common to European and West African languages. For example, {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1977}} points out that relexification postulates too many improbabilities and that it is unlikely that a language "could be disseminated round the entire tropical zone, to peoples of widely differing language background, and still preserve a virtually complete identity in its grammatical structure wherever it took root, despite considerable changes in its phonology and virtually complete changes in its lexicon".<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1977|p=62}}</ref>

====Domestic origin hypothesis====
Proposed by {{Harvcoltxt|Hancock |1985}} for the origin of English-based creoles of the West Indies, the domestic origin hypothesis argues that, towards the end of the 16th century, English-speaking traders began to settle in the Gambia and [[Sierra Leone]] rivers as well as in neighboring areas such as the Bullom and Sherbro coasts. These settlers intermarried with the local population leading to mixed populations, and, as a result of this intermarriage, an English pidgin was created. This pidgin was learned by slaves in slave depots, who later on took it to the West Indies and formed one component of the emerging English creoles.

====European dialect origin hypothesis====
The [[French-based creole languages|French creoles]] are the foremost candidates to being the outcome of "normal" [[language change|linguistic change]] and their [[creoleness]] to be sociohistoric in nature and relative to their colonial origin.<ref>There are some similarities in this line of thinking with [[Ian F. Hancock|Hancock's]] domestic origin hypothesis.</ref> Within this theoretical framework, a [[French-based creole languages|French creole]] is a language [[phylogenetic]]ally based on [[French language|French]], more specifically on a 17th-century [[Koiné language|koiné]] French extant in [[Paris]], the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. Supporters of this hypothesis suggest that the non-Creole French dialects still spoken in many parts of the Americas share mutual descent from this single koiné. These dialects are found in [[Canada]] (mostly in [[Québec]] and in [[Acadian]] communities), [[Louisiana]], [[Saint-Barthélemy]] and as [[Language isolate|isolates]] in other parts of the Americas.<ref>Wittmann (1983, 1995, 2001), {{Harvcoltxt|Fournier|1998}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Fournier|Wittmann|1995}}; cf. the article on Quebec French and the History of Quebec French</ref> Approaches under this hypothesis are compatible with [[gradualism]] in [[Language change|change]] and models of [[#Imperfect L2 learning|imperfect language transmission]] in koiné genesis.

====Foreigner talk and baby talk====
The Foreigner Talk (FT) hypothesis argues that a pidgin or creole language forms when native speakers attempt to simplify their language in order to address speakers who do not know their language at all. Because of the similarities found in this type of speech and speech directed to a small child, it is also sometimes called [[baby talk]].<ref>See, for example, {{Harvcoltxt|Ferguson|1971}}</ref>

{{Harvcoltxt|Arends|Muysken|Smith|1995}} suggest that four different processes are involved in creating Foreigner Talk:
* Accommodation
* Imitation
* Telegraphic condensation
* Conventions

This could explain why creole languages have much in common, while avoiding a monogenetic model. However, {{Harvcoltxt|Hinnenkamp|1984}}, in analyzing German Foreigner Talk, claims that it is too inconsistent and unpredictable to provide any model for language learning.

While the simplification of input was supposed to account for creoles' simple grammar, commentators have raised a number of criticisms of this explanation:<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Wardhaugh|2002|p=73}}</ref>
# There are a great many grammatical similarities amongst pidgins and creoles despite having very different [[lexifier]] languages.<!-- That is actually a fiercely debated point, see elsewhere in the article -->
# Grammatical simplification can be explained by other processes, i.e. the innate grammar of [[Derek Bickerton|Bickerton's]] [[language bioprogram theory]].<!-- This theory is highly controversial and presupposes the acceptance of some form of psychological nativism – which most non-Chomskyan linguists reject -->
# Speakers of a creole's lexifier language often fail to understand, without learning the language, the grammar of a pidgin or creole.
# Pidgins are more often used amongst speakers of different substrate languages than between such speakers and those of the lexifier language.

Another problem with the FT explanation is its potential circularity. {{Harvcoltxt|Bloomfield|1933}} points out that FT is often based on the imitation of the incorrect speech of the non-natives, that is the pidgin.<!-- Non-native speech is not necessarily pidgin at all! --> Therefore, one may be mistaken in assuming that the former gave rise to the latter.

====Imperfect L2 learning====
The imperfect L2 ([[second language]]) learning hypothesis claims that pidgins are primarily the result of the imperfect L2 learning of the dominant lexifier language by the slaves. Research on naturalistic L2 processes has revealed a number of features of "interlanguage systems" that are also seen in pidgins and creoles:
* invariant verb forms derived from the infinitive or the least marked finite verb form;
* loss of determiners or use of demonstrative pronouns, adjectives or adverbs as determiners;
* placement of a negative particle in preverbal position;
* use of adverbs to express [[modality (natural language)|modality]];
* fixed single word order with no inversion in questions;
* reduced or absent nominal plural marking.

Imperfect L2 learning is compatible with other approaches, notably the European dialect origin hypothesis and the universalist models of language transmission.<ref>Based on 19th-century intuitions, approaches underlying the imperfect L2 learning hypothesis have been followed up in the works of {{Harvcoltxt|Schumann|1978}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Anderson|1983}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Seuren|Wekker|1986}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Arends|Muysken|Smith|1995}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Geeslin|2002}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Hamilton|Coslett|2008}}.</ref>