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Creoles have long been the subject of debate in linguistics, with many conflicting views, both on how they are formed, and what their political and linguistic status should be. Indeed, over the past twenty years, some creole specialists have argued that it has been wrong to think of creoles as anything but language blends in the same way that Yiddish is a blend of German and Hebrew and Slavic. Here, John H. McWhorter debunks the most widely accepted idea that creoles are created in the same way as 'children', taking characteristics from both 'parent' languages, and its underlying assumption that all historical and biological processes are the same. Instead, the facts support the original, and more interesting, argument that creoles are their own unique entity and are among the world's only genuinely new languages.

Creole dialects. --- Languages in contact. --- Creole dialects --- Languages in contact --- Creole languages --- Creolized languages --- Creolan languages --- Sociolinguistics --- Areal linguistics --- Languages, Mixed --- Pidgin languages

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Dialectology --- Etymology --- Historical linguistics

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Lexicology. Semantics --- Phonetics --- Grammar --- Pragmatics --- English language

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Historical linguistics --- Creolan languages --- Pidgin

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A love letter to languages, celebrating their curiosities and smashing assumptions about correct grammar. An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Is offers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. from vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, and with copious revelations about the hodgepodge nature of English, John McWhorter shows readers how to see and hear languages as a linguist does. Packed with big ideas about language alongside wonderful trivia, What Language Is explains how languages across the globe (the Queen's English and Suriname creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place-from Persia to the languages of Sri Lanka-to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.

Langues --- Changement linguistique. --- Littérature comparée. --- Étymologie.