I think the point was that that was their home language.
I'm sorry; I failed to state my assertion that, in their own homes, people most likely spoke their native language, especially if the "society language" was awkward. (The quote said it was laboriously complex in the way it had to express things and relatively simple in what it could express. Why would they say to their child [creole] 'make milk gone', when they could say [native language] 'drink all your milk'? I am keeping in mind that the quote referred specifically to a newly-formed group of settlers.
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there is a surprisingly common structure to the syntactical strategies adopted by the first generations to creolize the new language. This effect has been observed across widely varying groups of mother-tongue collections, hence leading to the suggestion that there is a 'hard-wired' language instinct at work deep in our currently evolved brains.
Can't say I'm convinced of the hard-wired bit, but certainly can't argue against it, either. My question, though, is: why does the development have to be furthered so much by children? I should think, especially if we're "hard-wired", that the adults would do the same thing, given enough time together.
(Ooh, I lurve this thread! Speaking of lurve, Capital Kiwi, where are you on this one?)
