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A **cline** is a gradual change in a character or feature across the distributional range of a species or population. A **copula** links the subject and predicate in a statement of equation. It is the 'to be' verb(s). It seems some languages do not have it. ([|www.sil.org])
 * GLOSSARY:**
 * analytic language**: not inflected
 * acrolect-** The variety of speech closest to a standard prestige language.
 * basilect-** The variety of speech that is under dog to the acrolect eg. Jamaican creole is the basilect while Standard Jamaican Language is the acrolect.
 * Sociohistorical Linguistics**- The study of language and society throughout history.
 * derivational affix-** An affix in which one word is derived from the other**.**
 * diachronic-** Something happening over time.
 * Inflectional affix-**
 * expresses a grammatical contrast that is obligatory for its stem's word class in some given grammatical context
 * does not change the word class of its stem
 * is typically located farther from its root than a derivational affix[|,] and
 * produces a predictable, nonidiosyncratic change of meaning.
 * lingua franca**- A language used to make communication possible between two cultures not sharing a mother tongue.
 * stammbaum**: German for "stem""tree"
 * synchronic**: The study of comparison of language at only one point in time.

A **lexifier** is the dominant [|language] of a particular [|pidgin] or [|creole language] that provides the basis for the majority of [|vocabulary]. A lexifier is also called the superstrate: it overlies the substrate which provides the structure, the grammar, the syntax. An example: French is the primary lexifier of Haitian Creole and its substrate is a mix of Niger-Congo languages, including Fongbe, Ewe, and Kongo.

__I condensed this section to make it more digestible.__ The three points of this argument: 1. early plantation slaves spoke not creoles, but close approximations of the lexifier 2. creoles are simply varieties of their lexifiers 3. nothing distinguishes creoles from other varieties that have undergone extensive language contact The superstratist conclusion -- 'creole' is not an empirically valid classification term
 * The superstratist argument (held mostly by Francophone "creolists"):** Mufwene and Chaudenson et al. claim that 'creole' is not a meaningful term, as they are simply variants of their lexifiers (like a dialect). They believe creoles come from a deterioration of the lexifier through succeeding approximations of the lexifier. For plantation creoles, early slaves would have been somewhat fluent in the lexifier, and then as new slaves came, they would in turn have learned from the earlier slaves and further simplified (deteriorated) the lexifier, and so on and so forth. These approximations were of regional varieties, spoken by indentured whites.

For McWhorter, 'creole//' is// an empirically valid classification term: there is a sufficient distinction between creoles and other languages to warrant this "synchronically typological class". Creoles developed through the intermediate stage of **pidginization**.

Creoles cannot be defined in terms of particular constructions. They can be defined more easily in terms of what they lack.

-Minimal or zero use of inflectional affixation -little or no use of tone to lexically contrast monosyllables or encode syntax -semantically regular derivational affixation
 * __McWhorter's three (necessary and clustered) traits of creoles:__**

These traits CLUSTER in creole languages because all of them involve features which BOTH: (a) combine low perceptual saliency with low import to basic communication, encouraging learners acquiring the language rapidly and informally to bypass acquiring them, (What does this mean? needs laymen's lang.) AND b) only develop internally as the result of gradual development over long periods of time.

Some examples of languages with 2 of the 3 traits, therefore NON-CREOLES: some polynesian languages and mon-khmer languages which demonstrate the first two traits but also demonstrate idiosyncratic derivational affixation)

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