lexifiers

Noun

lexifier (plural lexifiers)

1. The language of a pidgin or creole that serves as the basis for most of its vocabulary.
   • A great deal of linguistic evidence reveals that creole creators transformed the lexifier in a fashion unexplainable as just hybridization, but well known from studies of pidginization and second-language acquisition.2018, John H. McWhorter, The Creole Debate, Cambridge University Press, page 9