A phylogenetic networks approach to the classification of English-based Atlantic creoles

This paper deals with the issue of genetic relationships between English-based Atlantic creoles. A method borrowed from biology will be applied to a set of lexical and structural features found in the sample presented in Hancock (1987) in order to assess the degrees of affinity between these languages and their evolutionary histories. We will argue that the phylogenetic networks approach proposed here is the most suitable for the classification of creole languages. At the same time, we will show that this tool can also be used to assess the degree of radicalness of a creole, another issue which has been at the heart of creole studies.