A collection of essays on the pidginization and creolization of language, taken from a conference at The University of the West Indies in April 1968.

Part I. Preface and Introduction: Preface Dell Hymes; Introduction: the study of pidgin and creole languages David Decamp; Part II. A Pidgin (and Two Creoles): Introduction; 1. Tây B¿i: notes on the pidgin French spoken in Vietnam John E. Reinecke; 2. The Katanga (Lubumbashi) Swahili creole Edgar Polomé; 3. The language situation in Haiti Albert Valdman; Part III. General Conceptions of Process: Introduction; 4. Linguistic hybridization and the 'special case' of pidgins and creoles Keith Whinnom; 5. Salient and substantive pidginization William J. Samarin; 6. Absence of copula and the notion of simplicity: a study of normal speech, baby talk, foreigner talk, and pidgins Charles A. Ferguson; 7. Convergence and creolization: a case from the Indo-Aryan/Dravidian border John J. Gumperz and Robert Wilson; 8. Acculturation and the cultural matrix of creolization Mervyn C. Alleyne; 9. Hypotheses as to the origin and modification of pidgins Martin Joos; 10. A note on reduction and expansion in grammar Jan Voorhoeve; 11. Language contact and the problem of convergent generative systems: Chinook jargon Michael Silverstein; 12. The question of creolization in Puerto Rican Spanish David Lawton; Part IV. Problems of Historical Reconstruction: Introduction; 13. Tracing the pidgin element in Jamaican creole (with notes on the nature of pidgin vocabularies) Frederick G. Cassidy; 14. Lexical origins and semantic structure in Philippine creole Spanish Charles O. Frake; 15. The strange case of Mbugu (Tanzania) Morris Goodman; 16. Detecting prior creolization: an analysis of the historical origins of Marathi Franklin C. Southworth; 17. A report on Chinook jargon Terrence S. Kaufman; 18. Problems in the study of Hawaiian English Stanley Tsuzaki; 19. Kongo words in Saramaxx Tongo Jan Daeleman; 20. Tone and intonation in Sierra Leone Krio Jack Berry; 21. A provisional comparison of the English-derived Atlantic creoles Ian F. Hancock; 22. Grammatical and lexical affinities of creoles Douglas Taylor; Part V. Variation and Use: A Range of English-Linked Cases: Introduction; 23. Varieties of creole in Suriname: church creole and pagan cult languages Jan Voorhoeve; 24. Prestige in choice of language and linguistic form Christian Eersel; 25. The art of reading creole poetry Jan Voorhoeve; 26. Coexistent systems in language variation: the case of Hawaiian English Stanley Tsuzaki; 27. Jamaican creole: can dialect boundaries be defined? Beryl L. Bailey; 28. Toward a generative analysis of a post-creole speech continuum David Decamp; 28. Education and creole English in the West Indies: some sociolinguistic factors Dennis R. Craig; 29. The creolist and the study of Negro non-standard dialects in the continental United States J. L. Dillard; 30. Cultural and linguistic ambiguity: some observations on the role of English-based creole in and Antiguan village Karl Reisman; 31. The English language in Hawaii Elizabeth Carr; 32. A report on neo-Melanesian Edward Wolfers; Part VI. Disciplinary Perspectives: Introduction; 33. Some social forces and some social functions of pidgin and creole languages Allen D. Grimshaw; 34. The notion of 'system' in creole languages William Labov; 35. Language history and creole studies Henry M. Hoenigswald; 36. The socio-historical background to pidginization and creolization Sidney W. Mintz; Part VII. Appendices; Index.