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7 - Uniformitarianism and the Social Ecology of Anguilla’s Homestead Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2025

By
Don E. Walicek
Edited by
Salikoko S. Mufwene  and
Enoch O. Aboh
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Enoch O. Aboh
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam
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Summary

This chapter offers a close analysis of the Uniformitarian Principle and its use as a conceptual tool for understanding and narrating language contact and language change, paying special attention to the social life of Anguillian, the English-lexifier Creole language of Anguilla, the most northerly of the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands. The language and aspects of the situation of contact that led to its emergence are described from a novel uniformitarian perspective that integrates insights from general linguistics, Communication Accommodation Theory, and the analysis of early colonial-era archives.

Keywords

Language contactAnguillacolonizationsocial lifemetalanguageCaribbeanCommunication Accommodation Theory

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Chapter
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Uniformitarianism in Language Speciation
From Creolistics to Genetic Linguistics
 , pp. 265 - 309
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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Partial List of Archival Materials Consulted

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English Board of Trade. Report of the Lords of the committee of council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to trade and foreign plantations … concerning the present state of the trade to Africa, and particularly the trade in slaves [London], 1789.

The Invoice Book Homeward of the Royal African Company of England, Nov. 2, 1696 to Nov. 22, 1699.

St. Kitts National Archive, Anguilla ledgers.

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