Creolistics and sociolinguistic theories

Abstract

Classic sociolinguistic approaches, which have primarily been concerned with analyzing the co-variation between linguistic and social features, have never been used to investigate the initial stages in the development of creole languages. Nevertheless, the study of creole languages, or creolistics, constitutes an exceptionally interesting area for sociolinguistic analysis, diachronic as well as synchronic. The aim of my contribution is to explore this idea further by examining a number of French creoles, the development of which has been similar in nature to the development of most other creoles based on European languages.