English-based creole language  An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the "lexifier", meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creole's lexicon. Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The main categories of English-based creoles are Atlantic (the Americas and Africa) and Pacific (Asia and Oceania). It is disputed to what extent the various English-based creoles of the world share a common origin. The "monogenesis hypothesis" posits that a single language, commonly called "proto–Pidgin English", spoken along the West African coast in the early sixteenth century, was ancestral to most or all of the Atlantic creoles (the English creoles of both West Africa and the Americas). Not strictly creoles, but sometimes called thus: