Article published In:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages: Online-First Articles

Is variation a sign of decreolization?

Exploring decreolization through diachronic analysis of variation in ‘doz’ and singular pronouns in Guyanese Creolese

ORCID logo | Tulane University, USA
The sociolinguistic situation in Guyana is one in which Creolese has intensive contact with its lexifier language, English, creating a continuum of varieties in which the acrolect varieties behave much like Standard English (Rickford 1987a). The creole continuum has been associated with decreolization following the pidgin-creole lifecycle (Hall 1962). Decreolization is the theory of contact induced change wherein a creole becomes more similar to its lexifier language over time (Bickerton 1980). Many researchers (e.g. Mayeux 2019, Patrick 1999b) call into question the existence of decreolization as separate from regular language change. This study will add evidence to these critiques and challenge the association of the creole continuum with decreolization and thus language change. Using a meta-analysis of the habitual marker doz and singular pronouns in Guyanese Creolese over a nearly twenty-year period, this paper will investigate whether the linguistic variation observed on the creole continuum shows evidence of loss of creole variants. The findings of this paper help to support earlier critiques of decreolization, and arguments against its usefulness in describing diachronic change observed in creole languages.
Keywords: decreolization, creole continuum, creole languages, diachronic change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction & context
  • 2.Language change or decreolization?
  • 3.Creole continuum a sign of decreolization?
  • 4.Variation in Creolese
    • 4.1Variation in doz in Creolese
    • 4.2Variation in the singular pronoun in Creolese
  • 5.Decreolization in Creolese?
  • 6.Decreolization or just variation?
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
Published online: 21 November 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.23008.kai
References (55)
Bibliography
Aceto, Michael. 1999. Looking Beyond Decreolization as an Explanatory Model of Language Change in Creole-Speaking Communities. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 141. 93–119. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alleyne, Mervyn C. 1980. Comparative Afro-American: An historical comparative study of English-based Afro-American dialects of the New World. Karoma PublishersGoogle Scholar
Bakker, Peter, Aymeric Daval-Markussen, Mikael Parkvall & Ingo Plag. 2011. Creoles are typologically distinct from non-creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 261. 5–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bailly, Maxime. 2012. An Overview of Scotland’s Linguistic Situation. Grenoble, France: Université Stendhal thesis.
Bickerton, Derek. 1996. Origins of Variation in Guyanese. Towards a Social Science of Language: Papers in Honor of William Labov, Volume 1P1. 311–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1980. “Decreolization and the creole continuum.” In Valdman, Albert and Arnold Highfield, (eds.), Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies, 109–28. New York: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
. 1975. Dynamics of a creole continuum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 1973. The nature of a creole continuum. Language 49(4). 640–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlin, Eithne. B. 2006. Guyana: Language Situation. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition) 185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeCamp, David. 1971. Towards a generative analysis of a post-creole speech continuum. In Dell Hymes (ed.), Pidginization and creolization of languages, 349–70. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Deibel, Isabel. 2020. The contribution of grammar and lexicon to language switching costs: Examining contact-induced languages and their implications for theories of language representation. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23(5). 992–1007. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 2005. Linguists’ most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole Exceptionalism. Language in Society 34(4). 533–591. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. Against Creole Exceptionalism. Language 79(2). 391–410. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Devonish, Hubert. 1988. Language Variation Theory in the Light of Co-Occurrence Restriction Rules. In: York Papers in Linguistics 13. Selected Papers from the Sociolinguistics Symposium. 129–139.Google Scholar
. 2007. Language & liberation: Creole language politics in the Caribbean (2nd ed.). Kingston, Jamaica: Arawak.Google Scholar
Devonish, Hubert, & Thompson, Dahlia. 2013. Guyanese Creolese. In B. Kortmann & K. Lunkenheimer (eds.), The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English, 265–278. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edwards, W. F. (1990). Morphosyntactic Acculturation at the Rural/Urban Interface in Guyana. American Speech 65 (2). 99–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Escure, Geneviève. 1997. Creole and dialect continua. Creole Language Library, 181. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles. 1959. Diglossia. WORD 15:2. 325–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Kean. 1983. Inherent variation or language change? A study of two verbs in Guyanese Creole. Lingua 60(4). 341–349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hall, Robert. A. 1962. The life cycle of pidgin languages. Lingua 111. 151–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hinrichs, Lars & Farquharson, Joseph (eds.). 2011. Variation in the Caribbean: From Creole Continua to Individual Agency. Amsterdam/ Philadephia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Irvine, Allison. 2004. A good command of the English language: Phonological variation in the Jamaican acrolect. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 19(1). 41–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Knooihuizen, Remco, & Strik, Oscar. 2014. Relative productivity potentials of Dutch verbal inflection patterns. Folia Linguistica 48 (Historica-vol-35). 173–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Léglise, Isabelle, & Chamoreau, Claudine. 2013. Variation and change in contact settings. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [URL]. DOI logo
LePage, Robert. 1977. Processes of Pidginization and Creolization”, In: Valdman, Albert (ed.), Pidgin and creole linguistics, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lipski, John M. 2011. Decreolization as emergent grammar(s): Some Afro Bolivian data. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 26 (2). 276–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matera, Michael, Sandin, Linnea, & Alvarez, Maripaz. 2020. An Assessment of the State of the Guyanese Diaspora (The Guyanese Diaspora, pp. 3–16). Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). 3–16. [URL]
Mayeux, Oliver. 2019. Rethinking decreolization: Language contact and change in Louisiana Creole. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge dissertation. DOI logo
McWhorter, John. 1998. Identifying the creole prototype: vindicating a typological class. Language 741.788–818. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. The Creole Debate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meakins, Felicity. 2022. Empiricism or imperialism: The science of Creole Exceptionalism. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 37(1), 189–203. DOI logo
Migge, Bettina & Léglise, Isabelle. 2013. Exploring language in a multilingual context: variation, interaction and ideology in language documentation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 2011. On the emergence of new language varieties: The case of the Eastern Maroon Creole in French Guiana”, In Hinrichs, L. & Farquharson, J. (eds), Variation in the Caribbean: From Creole Continua to Individual Agency, 181–199. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patrick, Peter. 1999a. Testing the Creole Continuum. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 6 (2). 109–120.Google Scholar
. 1999b. Urban Jamaican Creole: Variation in the Mesolect. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rickford, John R. 1979. Variation in a Creole Continuum: Quantitative and Implicational Approaches. Pennsylvania, PA: University of Pennsylvania dissertation.Google Scholar
Rickford, John R. 1991. Sociolinguistic variation in Cane Walk: A quantitative case study. In J. Cheshire (ed.), English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 609–616. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1987a. Dimensions of a Creole Continuum. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
1987b. Decreolization Paths for Guyanese Singular Pronouns. In Glenn G. Gilbert (ed.) Pidgin and Creole Languages, Essays in Memory of John E. Reinecke, 146–155. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
1986. What happens in decreolization. In R. Andersen, (ed.) Pidginization and decreolization as language acquisition, 298–319. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
1975. How does “doz” disappear? (Or: Where are the creolists when the creoles most need them?). Proceedings of the 1975 International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles, U. of HawaiiGoogle Scholar
Russell, Eric. 2015. Competences in contact: Phonology and lexifier targeted change. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 30 (1). 116–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Satyanath, Shobha. 1991. Variation and change: (Daz) in Guyanese Pennsylvania, PA: University of Pennsylvania dissertation.
Siegel, Jeff. 2010. Decreolization: A Critical Review. Bloomington, IN: IULC Publications. 83–98.Google Scholar
Sidnell, Jack. 2002. Habitual and imperfective in Guyanese Creole. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 17 (2). 151–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1999. Gender and Pronominal Variation in an Indo-Guyanese Speaking Community. Language in Society Vol 28. No. 3. 367–399. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sippola, Eeva. 2018. 3. Collecting and analysing creole data. In W. Ayres-Bennett & J. Carruthers (eds.), Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics, 91–113. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seymour, Chanti. 2017. Yesterday, today and tomorrow: Bahamian Creole English. In C. Cutler, Z. Vrzić, & P. Angermeyer (eds.), Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas: In honor of John V. Singler, 123–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey. & Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsiplakou, Stavroula, Armostis, Spiros, & Evripidou, Dimitris. 2016. Coherence ‘in the mix’? Coherence in the face of language shift in Cypriot Greek. Lingua 172–1731. 10–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winford, Donald. 1997. Re-examining Caribbean English Creole continua. World Englishes 161. 233–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yakpo, Kofi. 2021. Two types of language contact involving English Creoles: Why Krio (Sierra Leone) has evolved more towards English than its relative Pichi (Equatorial Guinea) towards Spanish. English Today, 1–12.Google Scholar