A Japanese-lexifier creole language, Yilan Creole, in Taiwan
What is it about?
A Japanese-based creole language is spoken by Atayal and Seediq (also written Sediq) people living in four villages of Yilan County, Taiwan. Japanese is the superstrate (lexifier) language; Atayal is the substrate language. This short note discusses the sociohistorical background and the structural characteristics of the language to establish that it is indeed a creole, and suggests that the language be named “Yilan Creole.”
Why is it important?
Yilan Creole has been used for more than half a century, but no investigation of it was carried out until Sanada and Chien (2007; in Japanese). This short note is the first publication in English on this Japanese-based creole. The paper discusses (a) its distribution, names, and speakers; (b) its current status in terms of usage; (c) the sociohistorical background of the formation of this creole language; (d) some linguistic characteristics of the language.