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Due to the relationship between a creole language and its superstrate language, that is, a language that is very closely related and whose speakers assert social, political, and economic dominance over speakers of said creole language, a post-creole continuum (or creole continuum) may arise. It is a process wherein a creole language will decreolize and become closer in phonology, morphology, and syntax to the standard of the dominant language but to different degrees depending on a speaker's status and education.

Contents 1 Stratification 2 Other examples 3 See also 4 References

In the 1970s, Bickerton proposed the term basilect to refer to the variety of a creole language that is least comprehensible to a speaker of the dominant standard language, acrolect to the variety with very few differences and mesolect, to the varieties in between. There are no discrete boundaries between the different varieties and the situation in which such a continuum exists involves considerable social stratification. These terms have since been generalized to similar phenomena in any language.

The following table (from Bell 1975) shows the 18 different ways of rendering the phrase I gave him one in Guyanese English:

1	aɪ	geɪv		hɪm	wʌn
2					wan
3	a			ɪm
4				iː
5		gɪv		hɪm
6				ɪm
7				iː
8		dɪd	gɪv
9		dɪ	gɪ
10		dɪd
11		dɪ	giː
12			gɪ	hiː
13	mɪ
14				iː
15		bɪn
16			giː
17				æm
18

The continuum shown has the acrolect form as [aɪ geɪv hɪm wʌn] (which is nearly identical with Standard English) while the basilect form is [mɪ bɪn giː æm wan]. Due to code-switching, most speakers have a command of a range in the continuum and, depending on social position, occupation, etc can implement the different levels with various levels of skill (DeCamp 1977).

If a society is so stratified as to have little to no contact between groups who speak the creole and those who speak the superstrate (dominant) language, a situation of diglossia occurs, rather than a continuum. Assigning separate and distinct functions for the two varieties will have the same effect. This is the case in Haiti with Haitian Creole and French.

It has been suggested (Rickford 1977; Dillard 1972) that AAVE is a decreolized form of a slave creole. Once blacks acquired recognition of equality under the law, opportunities for interaction created a strong influence of standard (American) English onto the speech of blacks so that a continuum exists today with Standard English as the acrolect and varieties closest to the original creole as the basilect.

In Jamaica, a continuum exists between Standard English and Jamaican English.

• Creolization

• Bell, R.T. (1976). Sociolinguistics:Goals, Approaches, and Problems. Batsford. 

• Bickerton, Derek (1975). Dynamics of a Creole System. Cambridge University Press. 

• DeCamp, D (1977). "The Development of Pidgin and Creole Studies", in Valdman, A (ed.): Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Indiana University Press. 

• Dillard, J.L. (1972). Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States. Random House. ISBN 0-394-71872-0. 

• Rickford, John (1977). "The Question of Prior Creolization in Black", in Valdman, A (ed.): Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Indiana University Press.