The interplay of relexification and levelling in creole genesis and development

This paper bears on the relationship between relexification and levelling, two processes that play a role in creole genesis and development. It is a w ell-documented fact that situations where creoles develop involve several s ubstratum languages and one (or at least one major) superstratum language. Relexification of several substratum languages on the basis of a single/maj or superstratum language provides the creole community with a common lexico n, hence a common language. As a mental/cognitive process, relexification i s an individual process. Consequently through relexification, the specifici ties of the various substratum languages are reproduced in the incipient cr eole, thus creating what might be referred to as different "dialects" of th e new language. Relexification of several substratum languages, on the basi s of a single superstratum language, can be viewed as the major source of v ariation in an incipient creole. This provides a sound explanation for the fact that different substratum languages may contribute different features to a particular creole. Dialect levelling, as discussed in the literature o n dialects in contact, reefers to the reduction of variation between dialec ts of the same language, in situations where these dialects are brought tog ether. On the basis of three sets of data from Haitian creole, it is shown that, in cr eo(e development, dialect levelling operates on the output of r elexification. The role of levelling in creole genesis and development acco unts for the fact that the properties of some specific lexical entries of t he creole may depart from those of the corresponding lexical entries in the individual substratum languages.