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<font size=3>At 05:54 PM 2/25/2001 -0600, Mark Odegard wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite cite>Creoles are almost 'new' languages, as with
Hatian Creole, or Tok Pisin,<br>
relying on a donor language mainly for vocabulary. This certainly was
not<br>
the case when English was overrun by Norman French. Rather, the result
was<br>
our immense French superstratum.<br>
</font><font size=4></blockquote>I am not sure I am ready to enter the
debate on the putative creolization of English, but I could not resist
reacting to your invocation of "new" as a criterion for
identifying a language variety as a creole. Here's my view: every current
language variety is new.<br>
<br>
Sali.<br>
<br>
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<font size=3 color="#800000">*********************************************************************<br>
Salikoko S.
Mufwene
</font><font size=3 color="#800080">s-mufwene@uchicago.edu<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#800000">University of
Chicago
</font><font size=3 color="#800080">773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#800000">Department of Linguistics<br>
1010 East 59th Street<br>
Chicago, IL 60637<br>
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