satellect

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noun

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

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nounsatellect (plural satellects)

plural satellects

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

    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.

    1971, Working Papers in Linguistics - Volume 3, Parts 3-4, page 24
    2 more examples

    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.

    1972, Richard R. Day, Patterns of variation in copula and tense in the Hawaiian post-creole continuum (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Hawaii), page 14

    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.

    1974, David De Camp, Ian F. Hancock, Pidgins and Creoles: Current Trends and Prospects, →ISBN, page 89

    Synonyms: acolutholect

Synonyms & antonyms

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

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Origin

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Cite this entry
APA

satellect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/satellect

MLA

“satellect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/satellect. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “satellect,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/satellect.

Source: satellect on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.