A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form, often a pidgin, and then expanding and elaborating into a full-fledged language with native speakers, all within a fairly brief period. The cited article says creoles are characterized by a consistent system of grammar, large stable vocabularies and acquisition by children as their native language, three features that distinguish a creole from a pidgin, and that about one hundred creole languages have arisen since 1500, predominantly based on European languages because of colonization and the Atlantic slave trade. Varieties the atlas records as creoles are grouped under this entry.
Facts
RegionCoastal areas of the equatorial belt, including the Americas, western Africa, Goa, Southeast Asia, Mauritius, Seychelles and Oceania 1 Speaker CommunityHistorically displaced colonial populations, including indentured servants and enslaved people, whose children acquired the creole as a native language 1 Distinguishing FeaturesA consistent system of grammar, in which inherited grammar tends to be systematized by eliminating irregularities, with vocabulary largely supplied by the parent languages 1 Classification
Variety Kind Connections
Is A Kind Of Variety
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Sources
1. Creole language (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia, lead section
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fledged language with native speakers, all within a fairly brief period.
Geographic distribution
Most of the known European-based creole languages arose in coastal areas in the equatorial belt around the world, including the Americas, western Africa, Goa along the west of India, and along Southeast Asia up to Indonesia, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles and Oceania.
Origins, settlement colonies
settlement colonies in which speakers of a European language, often indentured servants whose language would be far from the standard in the first place, interacted extensively with non-European slaves
Grammar and vocabulary
systematize their inherited grammar (e.g., by eliminating irregularities)
Lead section, definition
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language
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