Despite the many publications concerning a wide range of aspects and features ‒ (socio)-linguistic, socio-historical as well as ethno-cultural ‒ of pidgin and creole languages, synchronic studies on contact, variation and change seem to be more or less scarce. Thus the conference provides an expert contribution focusing on creoles based on French, Portuguese and Spanish around the world. The following topics will be looked into:

Language contact: Creoles are independent languages which are used by their speakers as any other languages in the world. Nevertheless their communicational range is often limited to non-official spheres, a situation which causes their speakers to know at least one more language, the official national language and/or a regional wider-spread language, in order to cope with the communicational needs within modern complex societies. This, intermarriage and the fact that outsiders also learn the respective creole languages, produce multifaceted types of language contact with just as many different kinds of (socio)-linguistic repercussions. The role of the respective lexifier language may also still play a certain role as a source for linguistic inspiration and creativity. What are the contact scenarios and what are their (socio-)linguistic effects?

Language variation: Creole languages underlie the same diasystematic variation as any other languages. This becomes even more evident as many of them are being put into writing systematically raising many questions concerning the alpha-bet to be used, orthography, evident variation in pronunciation and so forth. At the same time many creole languages exhibit the same diatopic and diastratic variation. Which kinds of variation can be detected? In what way are they discussed by the local speakers, national institutions and linguists? What is the reason or function of the respective type of variation?

Language change: Creole languages are definitely subject to language change, an evolutionary procedure which can be found in every language. In this context, all levels of the linguistic system may be affected, the phonological, the morphological, the morphosyntactic, the syntactic as well as the lexico-semantic level, whether in the case of contact-induced or internal change. Which ongoing or recent changes can be detected? Are they externally or internally motivated? Are there cases of shared grammaticalization detectable in a contras-tive perspective among the various Romance-based creoles?

Mon 24.06.

17:00-18:00 registration
18:00-18:30 Hans-Jörg Döhla (Universität Tübingen) Opening of the conference
18:30-19:15 Enoch Aboh (Universiteit van Amsterdam) “The human multilingual mind or why we all speak a creole”
19:15- Stand-up reception (finger food, drinks etc.)

Tue 25.06.
09:00-09:45 Hugo Cardoso (Universidade de Lisboa) “The last speakers of Malabar Indo-Portuguese: multilingualism, code-switching and obsolescence”
09:45-10:30 Alan Baxter / Larissa Santana (Universidade Federal da Bahía) “Stratification of the pro-drop variable in Malacca Creole Portuguese”
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-11:45 Robert Laub (SOAS University London) “Genitives in Makista and Kristang and the complexity of creole grammars”
11:45-12:30 Mário Pinharanda-Nunes (University of Macau) “Makista subordinate clauses: morphosyntactic variation”

12:30-14:30 Lunch break

14:30-15:15 Alexander Lebel (Universidade de São José, Macau) “Cleft constructions in Macau Creole Portuguese”
15:15-16:00 Christina Märzhäuser (Universität Mannheim) “VP coordination in Capeverdean and Kriyol (Guinea-Bissau)”
16:00-16:30 Coffee break
16:30-17:15 Marivic Lesho (Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio) “Challenges and best practices in the (socio)phonetic documentation of Romance creoles”
17:15-18:00 Eduardo Tobar (Universidade de Vigo) “The many names of language contact in the Zamboangueño context”

Wed 26.06.
09:00-09:45 Sibylle Kriegel (Université Aix-Marseille) “Accelerated functionalization in Indian Ocean Creoles. The coding of co-reference”
09:45-10:30 Alan Baxter (Universidade de São José, Macau): “Adjective fronting in the Malacca Creole Portuguese noun phrase – a curious vestige of South Asian substrate”
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-11:45 Armin Schwegler (University of California at Irvine) “The re-engineering of language: The recent re-Africanization of Palenquero”
11:45-12:30 John Lipski (Penn State University. Pennsylvania) “The Palenquero-Spanish interface: a psycholinguistic exploration”

12:30-14:30 Lunch break

14:30-15:15 Eva Eckkrammer (Universität Mannheim) “Papiamentu in the face of Spanish, Dutch and English as the source of lexical innovation: evidence for a diatopical dispersion of the standard variety”
15:15-16:00 Clancy Clements (Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana) “Form selection and the restructuration process”
16:00-16:30 Coffee break
16:30-17:15 Alla Klimenkowa (Universität Göttingen) “Antilles French: a third way between French and Creole?”
17:15-18:00 André Thibault (Université Paris Sorbonne) “‘Frenchification’ phenomena in the French Creoles of the Lesser Antilles as shown by the ALPA (Atlas Linguistique des Petites Antilles)”

Thu 27.06.
09:00-09:45 Inga Hennecke (Universität Tübingen) “Syntagmatic compounding as productive word formation process in Haitian creole?”
09:45-10:30 Magnus Fischer (Universität Bremen) “Mauritian Creole in Canada: Language attitudes and language variation in the context of diaspora”
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-11:45 Charlotte Coy (Universität Tübingen) “Effects of heavy language contact between a creole language and its lexifier: the case of Reunion creole spoken in the Parisian area”
11:45-12:30 Hans-Jörg Döhla (Universität Tübingen): “The Chabacano varieties between tradition and (contact-induced) innovation”
13:00 Abschlussdiskussion: “Variation, change and language contact in Romance-based creoles”