Decreolization is a postulated phenomenon whereby over time acreole languagereconverges with thelexifier from which it originally derived.[1][2] The notion has attracted criticism from linguists who argue there is little theoretical or empirical basis on which to postulate a process of language change which is particular to creole languages.[3]
Decreolization is a process oflanguage change acreole language may undergo when incontact with itslexifier. As languages remain in contact over time, they typically influence one another, especially if one holds higherlinguistic prestige. In the context of creole languages, the lexifier tends to have higher prestige (though not always) and will exert a much greater influence on the creole, which has lower prestige. This leads to the reintroduction of linguistic material into the creole from the lexifier. Decreolization predicts that eventually the creole will resemble thelexifier to such a degree that it could then be called adialect of that language rather than a separate language at all.[1] According toPeter Trudgill, if one viewspidginization as a process ofsimplification,reduction, andadmixture fromsubstrate languages, and creolization as the expansion of the language to combat reduction, then one can view decreolization as an 'attack' on both simplification and admixture.[2]
Decreolization has been criticized by some linguists as lacking empirical and theoretical support. For example,Michel DeGraff writes:
"... it has not been rigorously defined what structural process is inverted or what structural properties are removed by this decreolization process. ... Whathistorical linguists outside ofcreolistics study islanguage change, be it contact-induced or not, and language change is a process that is presumably based onuniversalpsycholinguistic mechanisms that do not leave room for asui generis process of (de)creolization."[4]
In other words, as other linguists have argued, there is noa priori reason to posit a special process of language change specific to creole languages.[3] Furthermore, it has been shown that linguistic changes resulting from contact between a creole and its lexifier do not always emerge in the way decreolization would predict. For example, changes such asgrammaticalization may occur which result in the creolediverging from its lexifier.[5][6]
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