Mobilian Jargon : Linguistic and Sociohistorical Aspects of a Native American Pidgin

ISBN-13: 9780198240334 / Angielski

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Opis

Drawing on fieldwork and archival research, Drechsel presents a grammatical, sociolinguistic, and ethnohistorical study of Mobilian Jargon, a Muskogean-based American Indian pidgin of the Mississippi valley. Though linguistic and extralinguistic evidence points to Mobilian Jargon's pre-Columbian origin, it was primarily spoken between 1700 and the mid-twentieth century, when it functioned as a lingua franca among linguistically diverse southeastern Native American groups, and in contact between these groups and non-Indians. Drechsel's study questions the universality of some concepts developed in pidgin and creole linguistics, and carries significant implications for the ethnology of Native American peoples, and for the history of North America.

Recenzje

it provides much new data on a language hitherto assumed extinct, and in doing so makes a number of valuable contributions to sociolinguistics and Native American studies in general ... Well argued and packed with relevant sociohistorical data, Mobilian Jargon is well worth the attention of historians as well as linguists. Both will find the book extremely readable. The linguistic descriptions are easy to follow.