Mobilian jargon : linguistic and sociohistorical aspects of a Native American pidgin

Book

Mobilian jargon : linguistic and sociohistorical aspects of a Native American pidgin / Emanuel J. Drechsel.

Summary:

The study of Native American languages has traditionally paid little attention to linguistic convergence, just as linguists focusing on language contact have often neglected Native American cases. Drawing both on fieldwork and on archival research Emanuel Drechsel presents a grammatical, sociolinguistic, and ethnohistorical study of Mobilian Jargon, a Muskogean-based American Indian pidgin of the Mississippi valley.

Mobilian Jargon functioned as an interlingual medium of communication among linguistically diverse southeastern Native American groups and non-Indians, from at least 1700 until the mid-twentieth century. It also served as a sociolinguistic buffer, providing native peoples with some protection against outside intrusions. The linguistic and extralinguistic evidence points to a pre-Columbian origin, and a role as a lingua franca among mound-building paramount chiefdoms of the lower Mississippi valley.

Because of its focus on a non-European based case, Drechsel's study questions the universality of some concepts developed in pidgin and creole linguistics. It also carries significant implications for the ethnology of Native American peoples, and for the history of North America, suggesting that Native American peoples have had a greater historical role than has been acknowledged hitherto.

Record details

ISBN: 0198240333
ISBN: 9780198240334
Physical Description: xv, 392 pages : map ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Oxford : Clarendon Press ; 1997.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 358-383) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Map of the Major Indian Groups of the Colonial Period -- pt. I. The Study of Mobilian Jargon: Perspective, Theory, and Methodology. 1. Introduction. 2. Language Contact and Contact Languages in Native North America. 3. Perspective and Research Methods in Studying Mobilian Jargon -- pt. II. Linguistic Aspects of Mobilian Jargon. 4. Phonology. 5. Lexicon. 6. Syntax. 7. Semantics and Beyond. 8. Linguistic Variation -- pt. III. Sociohistorical Aspects of Mobilian Jargon. 9. History. 10. Sociocultural Aspects. 11. Questions of Origin -- pt. IV. Mobilian Jargon in a Broader Perspective. 12. Language Convergence in Southeastern Indian Linguistic Diversity. 13. Conclusions: Methodological and Theoretical Implications.