Creole epistemology and Southern Theory

Abstract This paper revisits the Creole Prototype/Simplicity debate through the lens of linguistic complexity, colonial and missionary linguistics, and Southern Theory. I argue that claims about the relative simplicity of Creole grammars rest on unstable assumptions about what counts as linguistic complexity, and on selective attention to grammatical domains historically privileged by European linguistic traditions. Debates over Creole complexity have been framed as typological disputes, but they also reflect histories of knowledge production in which Creole languages appear derivative, exceptional, and theoretically peripheral. The paper reviews the debate and the limits of complexity measurement, then undertakes an epistemological archaeology of one influential line of Creole research, showing how lexifier-based classification, morphology-centered comparison, prototype thinking, and standard-language assumptions reproduce a metropole-centered gaze. I conclude by proposing a Just Creole epistemology that treats Creole languages not as exceptions to linguistic theory, but as central sites for rethinking contact, transmission, and change.