Blending In: Hybridity, Identity and Creolization

Abstract

Creoles are believed to develop when pidgins become nativized and transmitted to children. Variations on this theme have been extensively described; however, none offers a satisfying means of accounting for the direct emergence of creoles from situations of linguistic contact in the absence of a mitigating pidgin or traditional colonial dynamic. This paper explores an alternate approach and presents an account of creolization rooted in processes of sociocultural hybridization and identity coalescence. In this view, creolization is regarded as one possible consequence of intensive contact among communities speaking distinct but related languages and thus as a reflection of the negotiation of cultural and linguistic identities. This shapes the mechanisms of creolization and the nature of its linguistic manifestations; it also conditions sociocultural features pertinent to linguistic use. Particular attention is given to communities associated with the Trukic dialect chain, which stretches from Palau to the Micronesian state of Chuuk. Primary focus is placed on communities from the outer islands of Yap and Palau, where the author is involved in ongoing fieldwork, and on how their historical, sociocultural, and linguistic contexts relate to creolization. Implications for the typological study of creoles are also addressed.