Relexification's a term in linguistics used to describe the mechanism of language change by which one language replaces much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with that of another language, without drastic change to its grammar. It's principally used to describe pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages. Relexification isn't synonymous with lexical borrowing, which describes the situation where a language merely supplements its basic vocabulary with words from another language. Lang… (More on Relexification)