English as a creole

[Brent J. Ermlick]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2000 at 01:07:53PM +0100, Eduard Selleslagh wrote:
	. . .
> English can be considered a mild case of creolization without an intermediate
> pidgin (even though the former existence of a pidgin cannot be ruled out
> entirely, but it would not have been the origin of modern English): not only
> the vocabulary was altered very seriously (which doesn't mean it's a creole),
> but syntax was moderately altered as well, e.g. lack word order inversion
> after an adverbial phrase (a typical error of French speakers who learn Dutch
> or German) and in some other cases, and the simplifications of the verbal
> system, including the disappearance of the participial prefix ge- that
> existed in Old English.

But the "ge-" shows up until the end of the Middle English period,
and even appears in Spenser as "yclept". The inversion after an
initial adverb or phrase still appears in Elizabethan English and
the King James Bible. One old piece of advice for Americans used to
be to imitate the syntax of the Pilgrim Fathers when trying to speak
Dutch.

Native Norman French speakers in England appear to have died
out by the early 14th century. It is unlikely that their influence
would have lain dormant for the next 3 or 4 hundred years.

--
Brent J. Ermlick		Veritas liberabit uos
brent at bermls.oau.org