Creolization of pidgin morphophonology

This work has been accepted for publication in a book that it is under copyright. The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use the material in any form.In support of the growing conviction that creolization, as a linguistic process, probablay begins before a 'creole' with native speakers emerges, this paper examines one of the alleged characteristics of creolization: morphophonological condensation: e.g., tônqànà > twà 'when' (Sango). Two pidgins of similar ages, one with a European lexifier language, the other with an African lexifier language, are compared: Tok Pisin and Sango. After examining seven explanations for condensation (intention, nativization, fluency, tempo, naturalness, style, child-language errors) and finding them wanting, we consider the agents of change (children and adults), evidence for condensation in the pidgin stage, the linguistic 'stuff that is changed, the etiology (the linguistic processes) of condensation in Sango, and the linguistic consequences of condensation. The latter in Sango is, among other things, the beginning of what may become subjectival prefixation and possessive suffixation