lexifier

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

lexifier

Wikipedia

Etymology

From lexify +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

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• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

lexifier (plural lexifiers)

1. (linguistics, lexicography) The language of a pidgin or creole that serves as the basis for most of its vocabulary.
   • 2018, John H. McWhorter, The Creole Debate, Cambridge University Press, page 9:

     A great deal of linguistic evidence reveals that creole creators transformed the lexifier in a fashion unexplainable as just hybridization, but well known from studies of pidginization and second-language acquisition.

Derived terms

• English-lexifier

Related terms

• lexified