Is creolization an abrupt or a gradual process? In this volume leading scholars provide both comparative and case studies that outline their working definitions and their views on the particular or average time depth, or key processes necessary for contact language formation, providing a state-of-the art assessment of the theory of gradual creolization. Authors scrutinize the roles of nativization, demography, initial settlement, language composition, koineization, adstrate presence, bilingualism, as well as a variety of structural features in pidgins, creoles and other contact languages...