Meaning of satellect | Babel Free

Definitions

A creole that exists within a culture where one of the parent languages remains the dominant local language.

Examples

“There is reason to suspect that since this over-generalization is done by one satellect (i.e., HC), it must be a fundamental phenomenon of all satellects.”

“In Day (1971), I proposed that in doing so, the creole (or, in the terminology used in that paper, the satellect), could demonstrate the reverse of natural language development. That is, instead of language change through a process of rule simplification, re-ordering, and deletion (cf. King 1969; Kiparsky 1968a), the satellect could change by some of its rules becoming more restrictive, less simple.”

“If one parent remains culturally dominant, however, the creole becomes a satellite ('satellect' or 'acolutholect') to that dominant language, which may be termed the 'matrilect'. In time, the creole normally begins recreolizing with the matrilect by borrowing from it. The different degrees in which the matrilect has been mixed into the creole consititute a 'gradatum' of overlapping systems in which the farthest from the matrilect at any moment is termed the 'basilect' by William Stewart.”

CEFR level