Relexification is a term from linguistics used in pidgin and creole studies for the mechanism by which one language changes its lexicon to that of another language. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... // A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ... A lexicon is usually a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i. ...

Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin language takes the great majority of its lexicon from the coloniser's language, for instance English or Portuguese, while its grammar, according to universalist theories, changes due to universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation or, according to substratist theories, is taken from the substratum indigenous language. Language interference (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, cross-linguistic interference or transfer) is the effect of language learners first language on their production of the language they are learning. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Universalism refers to concepts and issues which are said to be universal in appeal—i. ... In linguistics, a substratum (lat. ...

In the context of constructed languages, the term is applied to the process of creating a language by substituting new vocabulary into the grammar of an existing language, often one's native language. While this practice is most often associated with novice constructed language designers, it may also be done as an initial stage towards creating a more sophisticated language. A language thus created is known as a relex. An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture the way natural languages do. ...

Relexification is a term from linguistics used in pidgin and creole studies for the mechanism by which one language changes its lexicon to that of another language. This means that the vocabulary of the source language is almost totally substituted. This “near-total substitution of vocabulary” can be defined as relexification. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term Creole and its relatives in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. ...

It is being assumed that the pidgins and creoles that are still being spoken today are either indirectly or directly connected to a Mediterranean pidgin which had existed earlier in time. This Mediterranean Pidgin, a so-called proto-pidgin, has been carried all around the world. This was because of the European colonisation which made pidgins arise in many places. The monogenesis theory says that, since the proto-pidgin had been used among different groups of European colonisers, there was a nearly total replacement of its vocabulary, which contained items of the new coloniser’s language, while the grammar did just change in some aspects or did not change at all. Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin language takes the great majority of its lexicon from the coloniser's language, for instance English or Portuguese, while its grammar, according to universalist theories, changes due to universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation or, according to substratist theories, is taken from the substratum indigenous language. In the context of constructed languages, the term is applied to the process of creating a language by substituting new vocabulary into the grammar of an existing language, often one's native language. While this practice is most often associated with novice constructed language designers, it may also be done as an initial stage towards creating a more sophisticated language. A language thus created is known as a relex. Language interference (also known as L1 interference, linguistic interference, cross-linguistic interference or transfer) is the effect of language learners first language on their production of the language they are learning. ...

Examples

• Caló is a jargon used by Gitanos (Spanish Gipsies), that mixes a Spanish grammar with Romany vocabulary.

• A literary example of relexification is the comical quasi-Latin used by a character in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (p. 245):

Ego credo ut vita pauperum est simpliciter atrox, simpliciter sanguinarius atrox, in Liverpoolio.

I think that the life of the poor is simply atrocious, simply bloody atrocious, in Liverpool.

Caló (originally zincaló) or Spanish Romani is a jargon spoken by the Gitanos or Zincarli originating from Spain: Caló blends native Romany vocabulary with Spanish grammar (1), as Spanish Gypsies lost the full use of their ancestral language. ... The Gitanos are Roma people living in Spain. ... Romany (or Romani) is the language of the Roma and Sinti, peoples often referred to in English as Gypsies. The Indo-Aryan Romany language should not be confused with either Romanian (spoken by Romanians), or Romansh (spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland), both of which are Romance languages. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish name Séamas Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an expatriate Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is an autobiographical bildungsroman (novel of education) by James Joyce, first serialized in The Egoist between 1914-1915 and published in book form in 1916. ...

References

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York, The Modern Library, 1928.

Arends, Jacques, Pieter Muysken, and Norval Smith. Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995.

Sebba, Mark. Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press LTD, 1997.

See also

• Section on the term "relex" in the Conlang Wikibook