Creolization? Or Globalization?

[Harold F. Schiffman]

> In fact, this can even be expanded a little bit. In music, for
> instance, scholars are using sociolinguistic terms like "diglossia"
> and "code-switching" (Mark Slobin) to describe how people integrate
> more than one system in their performance.

Sociologists, e.g. Elijah Anderson ("The Code of the Street") working on
street culture in Philadelphia, uses the term "code-switching" to refer to
switching between street code and "decent" code, and a criminologist used
the term to me recently, as if he/they had invented it.  I nodded gravely.

I think the literature on Singapore and Singapore English may be useful
here; somepeople have characterized Singlish as a creole or creoloid, but
most people now see it as a kind of diglossia; the idea of a creole
continuum with things like Singlish or Japlish (or even Marathi) ranged
somewhere on it is tempting, but doesn't work out in the end. Maybe the
continuum has some branches on it, some dead ends; maybe it's more complex
than just a straight line.

On Singapore, see:

 Foley et al., English in New Cultural Contexts: Reflections from
Singapore.

(I've written a review of this, In Language and Education, Vol. 13:3
(1999), pgs. 228-231.)

Hal Schiffman