Mixed Languages - Examples

Examples

Genuine mixed languages include:

• Michif, a mixture of French and Cree, where the nouns and adjectives tend to be French (including agreement), and the polysynthetic verbs are entirely Cree. There are two simultaneous gender systems, French masculine/feminine as well as Cree animate/inanimate, and the Cree obviative (fourth person).
• Mednyj Aleut, a mixture of Russian and Aleut, which retains Aleut verbs but has replaced most of the inflectional endings with their Russian equivalents.
• Cappadocian Greek, comprising mostly Greek root words, but with many Turkish grammatical endings and Turkish vowel harmony, and no gender.
• Mbugu or Ma’a, an inherited East Cushitic vocabulary with a borrowed Bantu morphology in one of two registers, the other register being Bantu.
• Media Lengua, an inherited Quechua grammar and phonology with a borrowed Spanish lexicon (see relexification).
• Light Warlpiri, with Kriol verbs and verbal morphology and Warlpiri nouns and nominal morphology, in addition to numerous English loan words.
• Gurindji Kriol, which emerged from code-switching between Australian Kriol and Gurindji. This mixed language is structurally similar to Light Warlpiri.
• Erromintxela, which derives most of its lexicon from Kalderash Romani but uses Basque grammar and syntax.
• Bonin Mixed Language, of the Bonin Islands, a mixture of American English and Japanese with additional Polynesian and Melanesian influences.

The histories of these languages differ. Michif and Mednyj Aleut appear to have risen through the mixture and intermarriage of two bilingual peoples, French with Cree and Russian with Aleut. Cappadocian Greek and Media Lengua, on the other hand, appear to have arisen as minority languages (Greek and Quechua) shifted under the influence of the surrounding majority language (Turkish and Spanish). While the Greek and Quechua were bilingual in Turkish and Spanish, the reverse was not true. The history of Mbugu is not known.

Possible examples include:

• Surzhyk, a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian spoken in Ukraine, especially the Central area.
• Wutunhua (a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan).
• Revived Cornish, which often uses Breton and Welsh as sources of vocabulary and guides to pronunciation and grammar.
• Yeniche (a mixture of German, Yiddish, and Romani).
• Jopará, mixture of Guaraní and Spanish, Spanish verbs are changed to match Guaraní phonology and conjugated following Guaraní patterns.
• Biblical Hebrew, according to a theory of the Hebrew verbal system postulated by Hans Bauer.