Contact Languages and the Slave Trade

In this course we will look at the languages that arose out of contact between Africans and Europeans during the slave trade. We will begin with an overview of the history of the slave trade and resultant population movements. Students will study the differences between pidgins and creoles, the various theories for how these languages emerge from their source languages, and how the genesis of contact languages differentiates them from languages with more gradual genealogy and development. We will discuss the idea of “simplicity” as a loaded linguistic and cultural term, and possible connections between African languages and African American Vernacular English. This course counts as an elective towards the Linguistics minor.