lexifier

The language of a pidgin or creole that serves as the basis for most of its vocabulary.

Noun

  1. The language of a pidgin or creole that serves as the basis for most of its vocabulary.
    • 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. -...

Origin

From lexify + -er.

Forms

lexifiers

Related

lexified

Derived

English-lexifier