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Gradual restructuring in Ecuadorian Quechua

  • Pieter Muysken✝
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Gradual Creolization
This chapter is in the book Gradual Creolization

Abstract

The notion of gradual restructuring, pioneered by Jacques Arends, offers a way to arrive at a perspective on language genesis responsive to language typology and language history. I would like to contribute to this approach by looking at restructured Ecuadorian varieties of Quechua. The type of gradual restructuring studied here does not involve the gradual expansion of a pidgin into a creole. Rather, we are dealing with the gradual transformation of an expansion language, Incaic imperial Quechua, into a morphologically more simple variety as it spread northward into Ecuador. Documentary evidence is given that there was gradual restructuring of the language as it spread in Ecuador. I conclude by presenting these features in a more general perspective. The main point made is that the relation between syntax and morphology is not the same in all processes of restructuring, as indeed it is not in the languages involved in the contact.

Abstract

The notion of gradual restructuring, pioneered by Jacques Arends, offers a way to arrive at a perspective on language genesis responsive to language typology and language history. I would like to contribute to this approach by looking at restructured Ecuadorian varieties of Quechua. The type of gradual restructuring studied here does not involve the gradual expansion of a pidgin into a creole. Rather, we are dealing with the gradual transformation of an expansion language, Incaic imperial Quechua, into a morphologically more simple variety as it spread northward into Ecuador. Documentary evidence is given that there was gradual restructuring of the language as it spread in Ecuador. I conclude by presenting these features in a more general perspective. The main point made is that the relation between syntax and morphology is not the same in all processes of restructuring, as indeed it is not in the languages involved in the contact.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Maps ix
  4. Introductory words
  5. One more cup of coffee: On Gradual Creolization 3
  6. Jacques Arends' model of gradual creolization 13
  7. Part 1. Linguistic analysis
  8. Productive bimorphemic structures and the concept of gradual creolization 27
  9. Gradual vs. abrupt creolization and recent changes in Daman Creole Portuguese 55
  10. Gradual restructuring in Ecuadorian Quechua 77
  11. A note on the process of lexical diffusion in the development of creoles: The case of double-object verbs 101
  12. Change in the possessive system of French Caribbean Creole languages 113
  13. The origin and development of possibility in the creoles of Suriname 129
  14. The Saramaccan lexicon: Verbs 155
  15. Development of a creole lexicon 173
  16. Gradualism in the transfer of tone spread rules in Saramaccan 189
  17. In search of a submerged phonology: The case of early Cape Dutch Pidgin 219
  18. Part 2. Sociohistorical reconstruction
  19. Bilingualism and creolization in Solomon Islands 245
  20. Lingua Franca in West Africa? An evaluation of the sociohistorical and metalinguistic evidence 257
  21. The formation of the Portuguese-based Creoles: Gradual or abrupt? 279
  22. English-speaking in early Surinam? 305
  23. The demographic context of creolization in early English Jamaica, 1655-1700 327
  24. The founder principle and Anguilla's homestead society 349
  25. Demographic factors in the formation of French Guianese Creole 373
  26. Index 389
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.34.09muy

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Maps ix
  4. Introductory words
  5. One more cup of coffee: On Gradual Creolization 3
  6. Jacques Arends' model of gradual creolization 13
  7. Part 1. Linguistic analysis
  8. Productive bimorphemic structures and the concept of gradual creolization 27
  9. Gradual vs. abrupt creolization and recent changes in Daman Creole Portuguese 55
  10. Gradual restructuring in Ecuadorian Quechua 77
  11. A note on the process of lexical diffusion in the development of creoles: The case of double-object verbs 101
  12. Change in the possessive system of French Caribbean Creole languages 113
  13. The origin and development of possibility in the creoles of Suriname 129
  14. The Saramaccan lexicon: Verbs 155
  15. Development of a creole lexicon 173
  16. Gradualism in the transfer of tone spread rules in Saramaccan 189
  17. In search of a submerged phonology: The case of early Cape Dutch Pidgin 219
  18. Part 2. Sociohistorical reconstruction
  19. Bilingualism and creolization in Solomon Islands 245
  20. Lingua Franca in West Africa? An evaluation of the sociohistorical and metalinguistic evidence 257
  21. The formation of the Portuguese-based Creoles: Gradual or abrupt? 279
  22. English-speaking in early Surinam? 305
  23. The demographic context of creolization in early English Jamaica, 1655-1700 327
  24. The founder principle and Anguilla's homestead society 349
  25. Demographic factors in the formation of French Guianese Creole 373
  26. Index 389
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