~SCHUCHAR.DT~

'Schuchardt's contributions in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries'

'Schuchardt's critique of the Stannbaum model'

Some of the most important early interest in pidgins and

creoles arose from critiques of genealogical paradigms of

language descent current in the mid-nineteenth century. Foremost

among these was August Schleicher's _Stannbaum_ theory. Two of

his students, Johannes Schmidt and Hugo Schuchardt, developed a

critique of family tree paradigms, the wave theory in which

changes diffused from one language to another like series of

concentric rings washing into each other.

Schuchardt drew most of his evidence from creole

languages, which with their mixed descent fit wave theory and

called into question the validity of linear descent models.

Creoles, formed of disruptive linguistic and cultural contascts,

also provided exceptions to the Neogrammarian's rule of

absolutely regular sound change. Schuchardt was fuzzy on the

distinction between pidgins and creoles, never using the former

term. He did, however, use one of its referents, speaking of

"go-between languages" which rose and fell to meet the exigencies

of particular situations. <[LINK]>

'Schuchardt and "baby talk"'

He is partly responsible for the rise of "baby-talk" models

of creole genesis, in which the target language speakers simplify

their speech, providing the substrate speakers with a faulty

model. ({<[LINK]> Holm88} 27-25) This, along with pseudo-biological

racialist explanations by Schuchardt and others as to the

differences between creoles and their primary lexifier languages

(what Joey Lee Dillard refers to as the "thick lips, thick minds"

theory ({<[LINK]> Dillard --1972} 11; in <[LINK]> Holm88> 23)) are

among the favorite targets of today's Africanists. {<[LINK]>

--refer to Holloway book, Asante (and others?)}

<[LINK] to continue with the history of creole studies>

~schuchar.dt~