As a phenomenon to be explained, convergence in historical linguistics is substantively no different than in creolistics. The general idea is that accommodation by speakers of “established” languages in contact and the formation of new language varieties both involve a process of leveling of different structures that achieve the same referential and nonreferential effects. The relatively short and well-documented history of Afrikaans presents an important case study in the competition and selection of linguistic features during intensive language contact.

中文翻译：

---

趋同和南非荷兰语的形成

作为一种需要解释的现象，历史语言学中的趋同与克里奥尔学派在本质上没有什么不同。一般的想法是，“既定”语言的说话者在接触中的适应和新语言变体的形成都涉及到实现相同指称和非指称效果的不同结构的平衡过程。南非荷兰语的相对较短和有据可查的历史提供了一个重要的案例研究竞赛和选择密集语言接触过程中的语言特征。