Mixed language

Michif derives nouns, numerals, definite/indefinite articles, possessive pronouns, some adverbs and adjectives from French, while it derives demonstratives (in/animate), question words, verbs (in/animacy agreement with the subject/object), and some adverbs/verb-like adjectives from Cree.[3] The Cree components of Michif generally remain grammatically intact, while the French lexicon and grammar is restricted to noun phrases where nouns occur with a French possessive element or article (i.e. in/definite, masculine/feminine, singular/plural).[11][12] Further, many speakers of Michif are able to identify the French and Cree components of a given sentence, likely from the phonological and morphological features of words. Although the phonological systems of both French and Cree are generally independent in Michif, there is convergence in 1) mid-vowel raising, 2) sibilant harmony, 3) vowel length (e.g. French vowel pairs [i]/[ɪ] and [a]/[ɑ] differ in length as in Cree), and 4) instances where the three nasal vowels /æ̃/, /ũ/, and /ĩ/ occur in the Cree components, although this last point of convergence may be due to Ojibwe influence.[12] Scholars propose that, in the Métis multilingual community, Michif emerged as a need to symbolize a new social identity.[11] The first unambiguous mention of Michif dates to the 1930s.[12]

The Métis of St. Laurent, a tribe of indigenous people in Canada, were made to feel their language was a sign of inferiority by nuns, priests, and other missionaries who insisted that the Metis switch to Standard Canadian French. Because missionaries stigmatized Michif French as an inferior, "bastardized" form of Canadian French, the Métis began to develop a sense of inferiority and shame which they associated with speaking Michif. Although Michif may have arisen as a way for Métis people to identify themselves, it became taboo to speak Michif inter-ethnically.[13]

In an attempt to make students unlearn Michif French, some nuns used a "token-system" in which each student was given ten tokens each week, and for every use of Michif French, a student would have to surrender a token. Students with the most tokens were rewarded with a prize. Overall, this system did not work.[13]

Mednyj Aleut is identified as a mixed language composed of mostly intact systematic components from two typologically and genetically unrelated languages: Aleut and Russian. This mixed language's grammar and lexicon are both largely Aleut in origin, while the finite verb morphology, a whole grammatical subsystem, is primarily of Russian origin. Nonetheless, there are some syntactic patterns with Russian influence and some Aleut features in the finite verb complex such as, 1) a topic-number agreement pattern, 2) Aleut pronouns with unaccusatives, 3) the Aleut agglutinative tense + number + person/number pattern in one of two alternative past-tense forms. Scholars hypothesize that due to the elaborate Russian and Aleut components of Mednyj Aleut, the Aleut/Russian creoles in which the mixed language arose must have been fluent bilinguals of Aleut and Russian and, therefore, not a pidgin language—that is, "imperfect learning" is usually a feature in the emergence of a pidgin. Furthermore, some code-switching and deliberate decisions likely served as mechanisms for the development of Mednyj Aleut and it is possible that these were motivated by a need for a language that reflected the community's new group identity.[12]

Ma’a has a Cushitic basic vocabulary and a primarily Bantu grammatical structure. The language also shares some phonological units with languages in the Cushitic phylum (e.g. the voiceless lateral fricative, the voiceless glottal stop, and the voiceless velar fricative that do not occur in Bantu), as well as syntactic structures, derivational processes, and a feature of inflectional morphology. However, few productive non-lexical structures in Ma’a appear derived from Cushitic. Sarah G. Thomason therefore argues for a classification of Ma’a as a mixed language since it does not have enough Cushitic grammar to be genetically related to the Cushitic language. By contrast, Ma’a has a productive set of inflectional structures derived from Bantu. Ma’a also demonstrates phonological structures derived from Bantu—for instance, the prenasalized voiced stops /ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑg/, phonemic tones, the absence of pharyngeal fricatives, labialized dorsal stops, ejective and retroflex stops, and final consonants— as well as noun classification, number category, and verb morphology patterns of Bantu. Syntactic and derivational patterns in Ma’a vary between Cushitic and Bantu origins—some Ma’a constructions used, such as genitive and copula constructions, are both from Cushitic and Bantu. These observations, in view of additional language contact cases like Cappadocian Greek, Anglo-Romani, and Mednyj Aleut, suggest that Ma'a arose as a product of massive interference from a Bantu language via intense cultural pressure on a Cushitic-speaking community.[14]

Media Lengua (roughly translated to "half language" or "in-between language"), also known as Chaupi-shimi, Chaupi-lengua, Chaupi-Quichua, Quichuañol, Chapu-shimi or llanga-shimi,[nb 1][15] is a mixed language that consists of Spanish vocabulary and Ecuadorian Quichua grammar, most conspicuously in its morphology. In terms of vocabulary, almost all lexemes (89%[16][17]), including core vocabulary, are of Spanish origin and appear to conform to Quichua phonotactics. Media Lengua is one of the few widely acknowledged examples of a "bilingual mixed language" in both the conventional and narrow linguistic sense because of its split between roots and suffixes.[18][19] Such extreme and systematic borrowing is only rarely attested, and Media Lengua is not typically described as a variety of either Quichua or Spanish. Arends et al. list two languages subsumed under the name Media Lengua: Salcedo Media Lengua and Media Lengua of Saraguro.[3] The northern variety of Media Lengua, found in the province of Imbabura, is commonly referred to as Imbabura Media Lengua[20][21] and more specifically, the dialect varieties within the province are known as Pijal Media Lengua and Anglas Media Lengua.[16]

Scholars indicate that Media Lengua arose largely via relexification mechanisms.[22] Pieter Muysken suggests that the social context in which the language emerged as an intralanguage involved a presence of "acculturated Indians" that neither identified with traditional, rural Quechua nor with urban Spanish cultures. This is an instance of a language developing from a need for "ethnic self-identification".[12]

Light Warlpiri, seen as a form of Warlpiri by speakers, derives verbs and verbal morphology largely from Australian Kriol, while nouns are largely from Warlpiri and English and nominal morphology from Warlpiri. Light Warlpiri likely developed as an intralanguage via code-mixing between Warlpiri and either Kriol or English. This code-mixing conventionalized into Light Warlpiri, which is now learned by Lajamanu children as a first language, along with Warlpiri, although Light Warlpiri is often produced first and used in daily interactions with younger speakers and adults within the Lajamanu community. Light Warlpiri is considered a new language for several reasons: 1) Light Warlpiri speakers use an auxiliary verb-system that older Warlpiri speakers do not while code-mixing, 2) elements are distributed differently in Light Warlpiri than in code-mixing varieties of older Warlpiri speakers, 3) Light Warlpiri is a native language, which indicates stability of the language, and 4) grammatical structures and lexical items from each source language occur consistently in Light Warlpiri.[23]

Gurindji Kriol exhibits a structural split between the noun phrase and verb phrase, with Gurindji contributing the noun structure including case-marking, and the verb structure including TAM (tense-aspect-mood) auxiliaries coming from Kriol. In this respect, Gurindji Kriol is classified as a verb-noun (V-N) mixed language. Other examples of V-N mixed languages include Michif and Light Warlpiri. The maintenance of Gurindji within the mixed language can be seen as the perpetuation of Aboriginal identity under massive and continuing cultural incursion.

Both Cappadocian Greek and Cypriot Maronite-Arabic are cases of extreme borrowing—the former from Turkish and the latter from Greek. The remaining Greek dialects of Asia Minor display borrowing of vocabulary, function words, derivational morphology, and some borrowed nominal and verbal inflectional morphology from Turkish. Cypriot Arabic largely shows borrowing of vocabulary, and consequently Greek morphosyntax.[22] Both Cappadocian Greek and Cypriot Arabic (as well as Ma'a) differ socially from Michif and Mednyj Aleut because they have evolved out of intense language contact, extensive bilingualism, and a strong pressure for speakers to shift to the dominant language. Nonetheless, neither language has an entire grammar and lexicon that is derived from a single historical source and in each case the linguistic group achieves fluent bilingualism. The social context in which they arose largely distinguishes them from pidgins and creoles and, for some scholars, identifies them closely with mixed languages.[24]

The Kaqchikel-K'iche' Mixed Language, also known as the Cauqué Mixed Language or Cauqué Mayan, is spoken in the aldea of Santa María Cauqué, Santiago Sacatepéquez, Department of Sacatepéquez in Guatemala. A 1998 study by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) estimated speaker population at 2,000.[25] While the language's grammatical base is from K'iche', its lexicon is supplied by Kaqchikel.

• Surzhyk, a freeform mixture of Ukrainian and Russian spoken in rural areas of Ukraine.
• Bolze, a mixture of French and Swiss German spoken in the Basse-Ville district of Fribourg, Switzerland.
• Bonin English, a mix of Japanese and English Creole.[26]
• Gadal, or Tagdal, a Songhay base with a majority-Tuareg vocabulary, sometimes considered a mixed language.[27]
• Jopara, a mixture of Guaraní and Spanish that involves incorporating elements of Spanish grammar and vocabulary into Guaraní.
• Língua Geral Amazônica and Língua Geral Paulista, important historical languages spoken in colonial Brazil, composed mainly of Amerindian (predominantly Tupi) lexicon and Portuguese structure.
• Lomavren, a combination of Armenian and Indo-Aryan.
• Makassar Malay, mixing Malay and Makassarese elements.[28]
• Missingsch, Low Saxon grammar, pronunciation, pragmatics, loanwords and substrate and German vocabulary.
• Para-Romani languages such as Erromintxela, which derives most of its lexicon from Kalderash Romani but uses Basque grammar and syntax.
• Petuh, Danish grammar and semantics with German vocabulary.
• Reo Rapa, a mixture of Tahitian and Old Rapa.[29]
• Siculo-Arbëresh as spoken in Sicily may possibly be classed as a mixed language, as it is largely mixed Sicilian and Arbëresh lexicon with Arbëresh grammar.[30]

• Wutunhua, a mix of Chinese and Mongol[31]
• Dao, Chinese–Tibetan
• E, a mix of one of the Zhuang languages and Pinghua Chinese
• Lingling and Maojia, Mandarin–Miao
• Tangwang, Mandarin–Santa
• Waxiang, Hunanese–Miao
• Hezhou, Uyghur–Mandarin
• Chinglish, a mix of English with a Chinese language, especially when spoken by second-generation Chinese[32]
• Hokkien Kelantan, a mix of Hokkien, Kelantan Malay and Southern Thai.
• Philippine Hybrid Hokkien, a mix of Philippine Hokkien, Tagalog, and English.

• Arends, Jacques; Pieter Muysken; Norvel Smith (1994). Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 978-9027299505.
• Bakker, Peter (1997). A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the Canadian Metis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509712-2.
• Bakker, P.; M. Mous, eds. (1994). Mixed languages: 15 case studies in language intertwining. Amsterdam: IFOTT.
• Matras, Yaron; Peter Bakker, eds. (2003). The Mixed Language Debate: Theoretical and Empirical Advances. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017776-3.
• Meakins, Felicity. (2011). Case-marking in Contact: The Development and Function of Case-Marking in Gurindji Kriol'. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
• Meakins, Felicity. (2013). Mixed languages. In Bakker, Peter and Yaron Matras (eds)Contact Languages: A Comprehensive Guide Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 159–228.
• Mous, Maarten. (2003). The making of a mixed language: The case of Ma'a/Mbugu. Creole language library (No. 26). Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub. Co.
• Sebba, Mark (1997). Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. MacMillan. ISBN 978-0-333-63024-2.
• O'Shannessy, Carmel. (2005). Special Issue: Language Shift, Code-mixing and Variation, Light Warlpiri: A New Language. Australian Journal of Linguistics. (25.1).
• Silva-Corvalán, Carmen (1997). Spanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1589014152.
• Thomason, Sarah Grey (1997). Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective, Creole Language Library. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 303–466. ISBN 978-9027252395.
• Thomason, Sarah & Terrence Kaufman (1988). Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07893-2.
• Velupillai, Viveka. (2015). Pidgins, Creoles, & Mixed Languages: An Introduction. Chapter 3: Mixed Languages. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 69–97.