Kofi Yakpo

Linguist.

I am Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, and I study what happens when languages meet. My research centers on creoles, lingua francas and little described languages of Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia, 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 people and the societies that produce them, and about the nature of language itself. Working across three continents with a network of collaborators keeps giving me new answers, and raising new challenges.