(off-list) Re: Creole languages (was Who is Eddy Peters?)

[D. Ezra Johnson]

>>I have long had the idea that English is the way it is because
>>it's a creole, but I've never been able to get anyone to examine
>>the idea seriously.
>>Jim Landau
>
>Almost every linguist I know who does research on English
><knows> or <asumes> that English is a creole. I am mystified
>by your comment.
>
>Bethany

I know that in their 1988 book "Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic
Linguistics", Sarah Thomason and Terence Kaufman severely criticize the
"English-as-a-creole" hypothesis.

And in a course I took on language contact with Gillian Sankoff, the topic
came up, and her opinion was that not many _creolists_ have ever taken this
seriously.

Maybe other linguists have found the idea more attractive. The gist of the
argument is simply that the conditions necessary for creole formation were
not even close to being met in the Middle English period.

DEJ
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