Mobilian Jargon: Linguistic and Sociohistorical Aspects of a Native American Pidgin(Oxford Studies in Language Contact)

The study of Native American languages has traditionally paid little attention to linguistic convergence, just as linguists focusing on language contact have often neglected Native American cases. Drawing both on fieldwork and on archival research Emanuel Drechsel presents a grammatical, sociolinguistic, and ethnohistorical study of Mobilian Jargon, a Muskogean-based American Indian pidgin of the Mississippi valley.Mobilian Jargon functioned as an interlingual medium of communication among linguistically diverse southeastern Native American groups, and in contact between these groups and non-Indians, from at least 1700 until the mid-twentieth century. It also served as a a sociolinguistic buffer, providing native peoples with some protection against outside intrusions. The linguistic and extralinguistic evidence points to a pre-Columbian origin, and a role as a lingua franca among mound-building paramount chiefdoms of the lower Mississippi valley.Because of its focus on a non-European based case, Drechsel's study questions the universality of some concepts developed in pidgin and creole linguistics. It also carries significant implications for the ethnology of Native American peoples, and for the history of North America, suggesting that Native American peoples have had a greater historical role than has been acknowledged hitherto.

Review :
`It contains plenty of information about MJ and the Southeastern languages ... Even avid followers of Drechsel's writings on the language, myself included, will find a number of facts and citations which are new to them. The bibliography shows that Drechsel has examined a huge amount of literature ... Anyone interested in Southeastern US languages or in pidgins of non-European bases should acquire this book ... a well-written and commendable record, as complete as one can hope for, of a fascinating non-European pidgin which survived 200 years longer than expected.' A Grant, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages Vol 14 1999 `This book makes a number of important contributions to sociohistorical linguistics, Pidgin and Creole linguistics and linguistic reconstruction. Moreover, it provides an excellent account of a hitherto poorly documented language, Mobilian Jargon. I have found it well written and most enjoyable to read. ... a very informative, well written and intellectually stimulating book which is recommended not just to Pidgin and Creole scholars but everyone in the business of reconstructing non-Indo-European languages.' source unknown `"This is an encyclopedic book, but that is not to say that it is daunting reading. The book is rationally organized and lucidly written. The encyclopedic nature of the book is in its contents-in its comprehensiveness...The book is also beautifully designed and manufactured, one of the best works of scholarship I have seen in a long time, from the dust jacket to the printed page. It reveals an intelligent and artistic use of fonts, styles, tables, figures, and maps. One gets pleasure just in looking at it".' Notes in Linguistics `"This book makes a number of important contributions to sociohistorical linguistics...Moreover, it provides an excellent asccount of a hitherto poorly documentened language. Mobilian Jargon. I have found it well written and most enjoyable to read..I have found this a very informative, well written and intellectually stimulating book which is recommended not just to Pidgin and Creole scholars but everyone in the business of reconstructing non-Indo-European languages".' Journal of Sociolinguistics `Readers who are interested in learning more about Mobilian Jargon will find most of the relevant data and passages from early sources in this volume ... the provocative issues that Drechsel has framed so forcefully in this book should not go ignored.' Language in Society The book makes an enduring contribution to Mobilian studies, to Native American linguistics and sociolinguistics, to ethnohistory, and to the comparative study of jargons, pidgins, and creoles./ ... the book offers an abundance of information and a rich discussion of a fascinating subject./ David W. Dinwoodie, University of New Mexico, Jrnl of Anthropological Research, Vol 54, 1998.