LING 24960/34960: Creole Genesis and Genetic Linguistics
Spring 2018
Instructor: Salikoko S. Mufwene
Office: Wieboldt 411
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:00 - 4:30 PM, or by appointments
Contact information: phone: 773-702-8531; email: s-mufwene@uchicago.edu

In this seminar course we will review the “creole exceptionalism” tradition against the uniformitarian view, according to which creoles have emerged and evolved like other, natural and non-creole languages. We will situate creoles in the context of the plantation settlement colonies that produced them and compare their emergence specifically with that of languages such as English and the Romance languages in Europe. We will also compare these evolutions with those of new colonial varieties of European languages (such as Amish English, mainstream American English varieties, Brazilian Portuguese, and Québécois French) which emerged around the same time but are not considered creoles. Using the comparative approach (in evolutionary theory), we will assess whether the criteria used in the genetic classification of languages have been applied uniformly to creole and non-creole languages. In return, we will explore ways in which genetic creolistics can inform and improve genetic linguistics (including historical dialectology).
Prerequisite: Historical linguistics, Contact linguistics, or consent of the instructor.
The primary reference for this course is my own book Language Evolution: Contact, competition and change (2008). Please don’t buy it before the first class meeting!
Most of our discussions will be based on articles that I am now posting at Chalk. Others will be added throughout the quarter.
The course grade will be based 50% on class participation, including class presentations as discussion leader (starting the 4th week of classes), and 50% on a term paper, which may develop from one of the class presentations.