Mixed Languages

<jats:p>This chapter examines eight criteria used to define mixed languages through both their diachronic development and resulting structures. Through a thematic analysis of these criteria, involving 13 contact languages, it becomes apparent that no single criterion definitively categorizes a language as ‘mixed’. Rather the ‘mixed language’ designation is better understood as a descriptive term based on the accumulation of criteria that places a language near the extreme end of a language contact continuum. This perspective supports Thomason's claim that mixed languages are extraordinary outcomes resulting from ordinary processes of language contact.</jats:p>