Kreolingwistyka – czyli jak opisać spotykanie się języków i kultur / Creolinguistics – How to Describe a Meeting of Languages and Cultures

Abstract

The review article discusses the book of Aleksandra R. Knapik and Piotr P. Chruszczewski “Kreolingwistyka w zarysie. Językowo-kulturowe mechanizmy przetrwania, rozwoju i dezintegracji”, which is the first introduction to Creolingistics written in Polish. It should be however emphasized, that the book under review is also a valuable overview of contact linguistics and anthropological linguistics. The paper begins by drawing attention to the importance of research on endangered languages as well as on the formation and development of new languages, which come into existence, when two or more language communities meet. In the next part of this paper individual chapters of the book are discussed. In the first chapter, the authors outline the broader background of the research, defining the place of creolinguistics within contact linguistics, which in turn belongs to the field of anthropological linguistics. The taxonomy of language anthropology is very clearly explained, and the main concepts of anthropological linguistics are presented. Next chapters of the book under review focus on pidgins (chapter 2) and creoles (chapter 3). Both types of contact languages are described in detail in terms of their definition(s), characteristics, and possible classifications. In the last chapter of their book the authors deal with endangered languages. They discuss causes and mechanisms of linguistic and cultural changes, that lead to their disappearance and analyse the factors of language vitality. In the concluding part of the review article some general remarks on the book under review are presented.

Keywords

• kreolingwistyka
• lingwistyka kontaktowa
• lingwistyka antropologiczna
• języki kreolskie
• języki pidżynowe