ABSTRACT:This paper argues for the extension of the term ‘new English’ to English creoles. It finds the distinction between ‘native’ and ‘indigenized/nativized’ Englishes as inadequate from the point of view of language genesis as the distinction between ‘indigenized’ and ‘creole’ Englishes. It argues that the criteria used for these distinctions are largely ethnographic and sociohistorical; more may be learned from treating them as different outcomes of the same language contact equation, which are determined by simply modifying the values of variab