Document Actions

Michaelis et al.: The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures / The survey of pidgin and creole languages

  1. Michaelis, Susanne; Maurer, Philippe; Haspelmath, Martin & Magnus Huber (eds.), Melanie Revis & Bradley Taylor (collabs.). 2013. The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  2. Michaelis, Susanne; Maurer, Philippe; Haspelmath, Martin & Magnus Huber (eds.). 2013. The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Vol 1: English-based and Dutch-based languages.
    Vol 2: Portuguese-based, Spanish-based and French-based languages.
    Vol 3: Contact languages based on languages from Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

book coverThese books represent the most systematic and comprehensive guide ever published to the world’s pidgins, creoles and mixed languages, designed, edited, and written by the world’s leading experts in the field. The three-volume Survey brings together eighty-eight leading experts to present concise accounts of the world’s pidgin and creole languages. The division of its three volumes reflects the languages from which they originated. Each entry provides a linguistic and social history of the pidgin or creole in question and an analysis of their linguistic characteristics, and is accompanied by a location map and a bibliography. The Atlas presents full colour maps of the distribution among the pidgins and creoles of 130 structural linguistic features. These cover their phonology, syntax, morphology, and lexicons. Each map is accompanied by a commentary. The project is inspired by, but goes beyond, the successful World Atlas of Language Structures and draws on the same linguistic, cartographic, and computing knowledge and skills of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Individually and together the volumes represent an outstanding and unique resource of central interest and value to linguists of all persuasions throughout the world.

The Atlas (522 + xlviii pp.) shows the geographical distributions of more than 130 structural linguistic features at a worldwide scale, covering the phonology, syntax, morphology, and lexicons of 76 contact languages. Every map is accompanied by an introductory chapter describing the feature and interpreting its distribution among the contact languages.

Survey volume 1 (299 + xxiii pp.) covers pidgins and creoles based on English or Dutch. The former include languages spoken in Trinidad, Jamaica, Belize, Nicaragua, Cameroon, Ghana, China, and Hawai‘i as well as African American English in the United States. The three Dutch-based languages are Negerhollands, Berbice Dutch, and Afrikaans.

Survey volume 2 (285 + xxii pp.) covers pidgins and creoles based on Portuguese, Spanish, and French. The first include the three Cape Verdean creoles (Santiago, Brava, and São Vicente), Fa d’Ambô, and Korlai. The second include Cavite Chabacano, Zamboanga Chabacano, and Papiamentu. The third, French-based, include Haitian Creole, Guadeloupean Creole, Guyanais, Louisiana Creole, Reunion Creole, Mauritian Creole, Seychelles Creole.

Survey volume 3 (176 + xxi pp.) covers contact languages based on languages from Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. The African-based languages include Kikongo-Kituba, Sango, Fanakalo, Kinubi, and Juba Arabic. The Asian-based languages include Chinese Pidgin Russian, Singapore Bazaar Malay, Pidgin Hindustani, and Pidgin Hawaiian. The Australian-based language is Gurindji Kriol. The languages based on languages of the Americas are Media Lengua, Chinuk Wawa, Michif, and Eskimo Pidgin.

Find the full description as well as order information on the publisher's website.