On the emergence of new language varieties

Discussions of creole language heavily draw on the creole continuum model and the notion of decreolization to explain patterns of language variation and change in creole communities. This is quite unsatisfactory because the continuum model and decreolization assume that the development of creoles is different in kind and in degree from that of other languages. In this paper we challenge this assumption by investigating the synchronic development of the creoles of Suriname in French Guiana. We show that their development is due to complex social forces and linguistic processes and that these are the same as in the case of non-creole languages.