Mixed Languages are speech varieties that arise in bilingual settings, often as markers of ethnic separateness. They combine structures inherited from different parent languages, often resulting in odd and unique splits that present a challenge to theories of contact-induced change as well as genetic classification. This collection of articles is devoted to the theoretical and empirical controversies that surround the study of Mixed Languages. Issues include definitions and prototypes, similarities and differences to other contact languages such as pidgins and creoles, the role of codeswitching in the emergence of Mixed Languages, the role of deliberate and conscious mixing, the question of the existence of a Mixed Language continuum, and the position of Mixed Languages in general models of language change and contact-induced change in particular. An introductory chapter surveys the current study of Mixed Languages. Contributors include leading historical linguists, contact linguists and typologists.

FROM THE CONTENTS:

The study of Mixed Languages YARON MATRAS AND PETER BAKKER

Social factors and linguistic processes in the emergence of stable Mixed languages SARAH G. THOMASON

Mixed languages and acts of identity: An evolutionary approach WILLIAM CROFT

Split (mixed) languages as contact phenomena: What lies beneath CAROL MYERS-SCOTTON

Mixed languages as autonomous systems PETER BAKKER

Mixed languages: Re-examining the structural prototype YARON MATRAS

Language contact and group identity: Te role of “folk” linguistic engineering EVGENIY V. GOLOVKO

The linguistic properties of lexical manipulation and its relevance for Ma’á MAARTEN MOUS

Can a mixed language be conventionalized alternational codeswitching? AD BACKUS

Not quite the right mixture: Chamorro and Malti as candidates for the status of mixed language THOMAS STOLZ