Past Event

“Pidgins, Creoles, And Historical Linguistics”

Pidgin/Creole linguistics on the one hand, and historical linguistics on the other, remain separate fields of study. This is a pity, as interaction would greatly enrich both fields. In this talk it will be shown that knowledge of historical linguistics allows one to better define pidginization/creolization versus normal language change.

Conversely, knowledge of the existence of pidginization/creolization, as a distinct diachronic process, needs to become more widely known among historical linguists. This is because some language(s) (attested or reconstructed) might be a product of pidginization/creolization. The talk will conclude with suggestions about some possible such cases.

About the Speaker

Dr. Stéphane Goyette obtained his doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

He has since then taught in Ontario, Louisiana, British Columbia and Manitoba, and earlier this year was an invited scholar at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). His fields of interest and research are pidgins and creoles, Romance linguistics, language change, language contact, comparative and typological linguistics.