Véhicularisation, vernacularisation et situations créoles en Afrique. Le cas du songhay

Nicolaï Robert, "Vehicularisation, vernacularisation and creole situations in Africa: The case of Songhay". This paper presents indices of ancient pidginisation and of vernacular restructuration at the origin of three groups of peripherical dialects, geographically separated both one from the other and with respect to the central group - of songhay language. It explains the differences by the intervention of a change in the functional sociolinguistical status of this language in the course of History. These droppings imply the "catastrophic" principle in the history of languages. Moreover, evidence of analogous phenomena at the origin of this same primitive Songhay language implies the uniformitarian principle. Socio-historical, linguistical, typological and lexico-statistical principles are forwarded.