Editing Creole language (section)

===Decreolization===
Since creole languages rarely attain official status, the speakers of a fully formed creole may eventually feel compelled to conform their speech to one of the parent languages. This [[decreolization]] process typically brings about a [[post-creole speech continuum]] characterized by large-scale variation and [[hypercorrection]] in the language.<ref name=DeCamp />

It is generally acknowledged that creoles have a simpler grammar and more internal variability than older, more established languages.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/2013_APiCS/files/abstracts.html |title=Creole and pidgin language structure in cross-linguistic perspective |date=August 2013 |publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology – Department of Linguistics}}</ref> However, these notions are occasionally challenged.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt |Arends |Muysken |Smith |1995 |p=9}}</ref> (See also [[language complexity]].)

Phylogenetic or [[linguistic typology|typological]] comparisons of creole languages have led to divergent conclusions. Similarities are usually higher among creoles derived from related languages, such as the [[languages of Europe]], than among broader groups that include also creoles based on non-[[Indo-European languages]] (like Nubi or Sango). [[French-based creole languages]] in turn are more similar to each other (and to varieties of French) than to other European-based creoles. It was observed, in particular, that [[definite article]]s are mostly prenominal in [[English-based creole languages]] and English whereas they are generally postnominal in French creoles and in the [[Quebec French|variety of French]] that was [[History of Quebec French|exported to what is now Quebec in the 17th and 18th century]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Fournier|1998}}, {{Harvcoltxt |Wittmann|1995}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Wittmann|1998}}.</ref> Moreover, the European languages which gave rise to the creole languages of European colonies all belong to the same subgroup of Western [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] and have highly convergent grammars; to the point that [[Sapir Whorf|Whorf]] joined them into a single [[Standard Average European]] language group.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt |Whorf|1956}}</ref> French and English are particularly close, since English, through extensive borrowing, is typologically closer to French than to other Germanic languages.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bailey|Maroldt|1977}}</ref> Thus the claimed similarities between creoles may be mere consequences of similar parentage, rather than characteristic features of all creoles.