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Sarah G. Thomason (ed.), Contact languages: A wider perspective. (Creole language library, 17.) Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1997. Pp. xii, 506. Hb $165.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

Bernard Comrie
Bernard Comrie
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Inselstrasse, 22 04103 Leipzig, Germanycomrie@eva.mpg.de
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Abstract

In her editorial Introduction (1–7), Thomason notes that study of the results of intense language contact – as in pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages – has hitherto been heavily biased in favor of instances of pidgins/creoles in which the lexifier languages have been European. One aim of this volume is to redress the balance by considering contact languages that have not involved a European lexifier. More significantly, this brings to the fore social and/or structural properties that differ from those in the contact languages that have formed much of traditional lore. This volume brings together studies on the following 12 contact languages: Hiri Motu (Tom Dutton, 9–41), Pidgin Delaware (Ives Goddard, 43–98), Ndyuka-Trio Pidgin (George L. Huttar & Frank J. Velantie, 99–124), Arabic-based pidgins and creoles (Jonathan Owens, 125–72), Kitúba (Salikoko S. Mufwene, 173–208), Sango (Helma Pasch, 209–70), Swahili (Derek Nurse, 271–94), Michif (Peter Bakker & Robert A. Papen, 295–363), Media Lengua (Pieter Muysken, 365–426), Callahuaya (Pieter Muysken, 427–47), Mednyj Aleut (Sarah G. Thomason, 449–68), and Ma'a (Sarah G. Thomason, 469–87).

Type
Book Review
Information
Language in Society , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 615 - 621
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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