Kofi Yakpo

Linguist.

I am a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, and I study what happens when languages meet. My work spans the creoles and lingua francas of Africa, and the Asian and African diaspora languages of the Caribbean – from the megacities of Nigeria to the hamlets of Suriname – always following the same thread: how do ordinary speakers, moving between languages every day, reshape grammar, pronunciation, and habits of conversation? I am interested in what these changes tell us about the societies that produce them, and about the nature of language itself. Work across three continents keeps giving me new answers and new challenges.