Relexification is a term from linguistics used in pidgin and creole studies for the mechanism by which one language changes its lexicon to that of another language.

Relexification in pidgin formation

Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin language takes the great majority of its lexicon from the coloniser's language, for instance English or Portuguese, while its grammar, according to universalist theories, changes due to universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation or, according to substratist theories, is taken from the substratum indigenous language.

Relexification is a term from linguistics used in pidgin and creole studies for the mechanism by which one language changes its lexicon to that of another language. This means that the vocabulary of the source language is almost totally substituted. This “near-total substitution of vocabulary” can be defined as relexification.

It is being assumed that the pidgins and creoles that are still being spoken today are either indirectly or directly connected to a Mediterranean pidgin which had existed earlier in time. This Mediterranean Pidgin, a so-called proto-pidgin, has been carried all around the world. This was because of the European colonisation which made pidgins arise in many places. The monogenesis theory says that, since the proto-pidgin had been used among different groups of European colonisers, there was a nearly total replacement of its vocabulary, which contained items of the new coloniser’s language, while the grammar did just change in some aspects or did not change at all. Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin language takes the great majority of its lexicon from the coloniser's language, for instance English or Portuguese, while its grammar, according to universalist theories, changes due to universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation or, according to substratist theories, is taken from the substratum indigenous language.

In constructed language studies

In the context of constructed languages, the term is applied to the process of creating a language by substituting new vocabulary into the grammar of an existing language, often one's native language. While this practice is most often associated with novice constructed language designers, it may also be done as an initial stage towards creating a more sophisticated language. A language thus created is known as a relex.

Examples

• Caló is a jargon used by Gitanos (Spanish Gipsies), that mixes a Spanish grammar with Romany vocabulary.

• A literary example of relexification is the comical quasi-Latin used by a character in James Joyce's ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (p. 245):

Ego credo ut vita pauperum est simpliciter atrox, simpliciter sanguinarius atrox, in Liverpoolio.

I think that the life of the poor is simply atrocious, simply bloody atrocious, in Liverpool.

References

• Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York, The Modern Library, 1928.
• Arends, Jacques, Pieter Muysken, and Norval Smith. Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995.
• Sebba, Mark. Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press LTD, 1997.

See also

• Section on the term "relex" in the Conlang Wikibook

Pidgins and creoles