Creoles and Patois

Creole patois refers to the variety of creole dialects and the accompanied patois of native, local, or regional people.

Background

On several territories presently or formerly under French rule, a French-based creole language is widely spoken. These include (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Martin, St. Barths, Marie-Galante, Les Saintes, La Désirade, Mauritius, Seychelles and Réunion. In addition, in the Republic of Haiti, Haitian Creole is one of the two official languages. The language spoken in several other West Indian islands is called Antillean Creole. In countries under English influence, French-based creoles have less standing. There are, however, also English-based creole languages spoken in the Caribbean, most notably in Jamaica.

The word "Creole" can also stand for a creole person, or groups of people. The word has carried many meanings over the course of time. It still retains some of them, such as a designation of a white person born in the islands, or his or her descendants. It can also stand for groups fully or partly of African descent, especially those that speak a Creole language. "Patois" is a French word referring to a regional language. A French synonym for "un patois" is "un parler".

Adaptation of Creole patois

Creole and its many varieties evolved as a new form of patois as a result of interaction on the overseas plantations of Europe. It is a common language emanating from the culture of people who have evolved in a Creole environment, where French masters living far from France adopted this life-style during the time they had African slaves and later, indentured Indian and Chinese laborers. When Indian indentured laborers, or coolies, were called to live in places like Trinidad or Jamaica in the French West Indies and elsewhere from parts of India, they spoke a variety of languages and village vernaculars. Eventually, they resorted to using the language spoken by the masters and former slaves in order to communicate; grabbing what was already universal and convenient.

Besides many varieties of French, the creativity of Creole also stems from words, grammar forms or inflections taken or adapted from Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Tamil, English and many other languages. The impact of this flexibility on the harmony of the Creole populations today is an obvious fact.

Disappearance and re-emergence of Creole patois

Most regions of France like Picardie, Jura, Savoie, Provence or Aveyron, etc. who have had their patois or local parler disappear are slowly having it revived. The people of Québec in Canada have kept the language and accents of the time they left France, as have the Louisiana Cajun descendants. Their old French language is a carefully preserved ancestral tongue like Sanskrit in Bali, remote Tamil Nadu village speech in the French West Indies, or Bhojpuri in Guyana or Trinidad & Tobago.

Many West Indians who emigrated to other countries have not taught their language to their offspring. This abandonment of the language may be because for a long time the Creole patois was considered a handicap to proper education "à la Française"; thus, an obstacle to learning good French (or English) but rather a way to learn the bad manners of uneducated “country” people - "moun la kanpay".

Fortunately, just when one thought it would have disappeared, Creole's grammatical structures and vocabulary have been standardized. It is being taught in schools as a means of preserving its rich heritage. Specialized linguists groups like (Groupe d'Etude et de Recherche en Espace Créolophone) GEREC iand grassroots cultural gatherings have widely contributed to this renewal.

Many Creole phrases can be recovered by Creole linguists from old parlers of various French regions. This is one of the reasons why when a Guadeloupean or Martinican meets a Reunionese or Mauritian, they soon manage to understand each other completely, all the while being charmed by the inflection of each other’s tongue. This is a unique phenomenon. International Creole conferences will take place anywhere between Seychelles or Reunion and Martinique or Guadeloupe. St Lucia and Dominica could take part in such conferences; in fact, they should in a near future. The Creole heritage of these two formerly French islands is just immeasurable. Haiti, one of the largest Creole-speaking countries on the planetFact|date=September 2008, has always maintained Creole as an institution.

ee also

* Cajun
* Criollo
* Gullah language