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There are two main geographical and linguistic groups in the Antilles or Caribbean Islands: the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. Intercomprehension between these two groups is possible, but despite a large proportion of shared vocabulary and largely similar grammatical functioning, it is limited by varying key vocabulary and different words for basic grammar. Nevertheless, it is easy to begin to understand each other completely, as long as one of the two has a basic knowledge of the other's language.
In a number of countries (including Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Brazil (Lanc-Patuá) and Venezuela) the language is referred to as patois.[4] It has historically been spoken in nearly all of the Lesser Antilles, but its number of speakers has declined in Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada. Conversely, it is widely used on the islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia; though they are officially English-speaking, there are efforts to preserve the use of Antillean Creole, as there are in Trinidad and Tobago and its neighbour, Venezuela. In recent decades, Creole has gone from being seen as a sign of lower socio-economic status, banned in school playgrounds,[5] to a mark of national pride.
Since the 1970s, there has been a literary revival of Creole in the French-speaking islands of the Lesser Antilles, with writers such as Raphaël Confiant and Monchoachi employing the language. Édouard Glissant has written theoretically and poetically about its significance and its history.
History
Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts). In 1626, he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, created to accomplish that with d'Esnambuc at its head. The company was not particularly successful, and Richelieu had it reorganised as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. In 1635, d'Esnambuc sailed to Martinique with 100 French settlers to clear land for sugarcaneplantations.
After six months on Martinique, d'Esnambuc returned to St. Christopher, where he soon died prematurely in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who inherited d'Esnambuc's authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean. Dyel du Parquet became governor of the island. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands.
The French permanently settled on Martinique and Guadeloupe after being driven off Saint Kitts and Nevis (French: Saint-Christophe) by the British. Fort Royal (now Fort-de-France) on Martinique was a major port for French battle ships in the region from which the French were able to explore the region. In 1638, Dyel du Parquet decided to have Fort Saint Louis built to protect the city against enemy attacks. From Fort Royal, Martinique, Du Parquet proceeded south in search for new territories, established the first settlement in Saint Lucia in 1643 and headed an expedition that established a French settlement in Grenada in 1649.
Despite the long history of British rule, Grenada's French heritage is still evident by the number of French loanwords in Grenadian Creole and the French-style buildings, cuisine and placenames (Petit Martinique, Martinique Channel, etc.)
In 1642, the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique received a 20-year extension of its charter. The king would name the governor general of the company, and the company would name the governors of the various islands. However, by the late 1640s, Cardinal Mazarin had little interest in colonial affairs, and the company languished. In 1651, it dissolved itself, selling its exploitation rights to various parties. The Du Paquet family bought Martinique, Grenada and Saint Lucia for 60,000 livres. The sieur d'Houël bought Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, La Desirade and the Saintes. The Knights of Malta bought Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin and then sold them in 1665 to the Compagnie des Indes occidentales, formed one year earlier.
Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (Latin: dies Dominica), on 3 November 1493. In the 100 years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time, it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people. Over time, more settled there after they had been driven from surrounding islands, as European powers entered the region.
In 1690, French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe begin to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and gradually become permanent settlers. France had a colony for several years and imported slaves from West Africa, Martinique and Guadeloupe to work on its plantations. The Antillean Creole language developed.
France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. The latter established a small colony on the island in 1805. As a result, Dominica uses English as an official language, but Antillean Creole is still spoken as a secondary language because of Dominica's location between the French-speaking departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
In Trinidad, the Spanish possessed the island but contributed little towards advancements, with El Dorado being their focus. Trinidad was perfect for its geographical location. Because Trinidad was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in Grenada, was able to obtain a Cédula de Población from King Charles III of Spain on 4 November 1783.
Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 by the end of 1789, from just under 1,400 in 1777. In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, despite its French-speaking population.
Origin of creole
Antillean Creole began as the pidgin "baragouin" in 1635.[6] It was spoken by French settlers, the Africans they enslaved, and Aboriginal peoples that resided on the islands.[6] It originated in the Guadeloupe and Martinique areas of the Lesser Antilles.[7] It was not until 1700, when there was an increase in African influences, that this pidgin transitioned into the creole that it is today.[6] The formation of this creole was influenced by many different dialects and languages. These include dialects of French, other European languages, Carib (both Karina and Arawakan), and African languages.[7]
Due to the influences from its origins, this creole has some distinctive linguistic features. Features of French included in Lesser Antillean Creole include infinitive forms of verbs, the use of only the masculine noun forms, oblique pronouns, and its subject to verb word order.[6] Features from African languages include their verbal marking system as well as providing a West-African substrate.[6] Other features of this creole also include doubling to emphasize a sentence, the word "point" to inflect the negative, and the non-distinguished adverbs and adjectives.[6]
The language emerged in a context of plantation slavery in the French Antilles. Due to differing native tongues, it was difficult for French settlers to communicate with the enslaved Africans and vice versa, as well as for slaves of different ethnic origins to communicate between each other. As a result, they were forced to develop a new form of communication by relying on what they heard from their colonial enslavers and other slaves. According to Jesuit missionary Pierre Pelleprat, French settlers would change their way of speaking to a simpler form to be more accommodating to the enslaved people.[6] For example, to say "I have not eaten" settlers would say "moi point manger" even though the proper French translation is "Je n'ai pas mangé".[6] This simpler form of French, along with linguistic influences from other languages, eventually evolved into Antillean Creole.
^a This sound occurs on islands where the official language is English in certain loanwords e.g radio/ɹadjo/.
The uvular r /ʁ/ only occurs on islands wherein French is an official language. Otherwise, where the uvular r would occur where other dialects use /w/. Furthermore, this sound is usually pronounced as a velar fricative and is much softer than the European French ⟨r⟩.[clarification needed]
There is some variation in orthography between the islands. In St. Lucia, Dominica and Martinique 'dj' and 'tj' are used whereas in Guadeloupe 'gy' and 'ky' are used. These represent differences in pronunciations. Several words may be pronounced in various ways depending on the region:
The letter 'r' in St. Lucia and Dominica represents the English /ɹ/ whereas in Guadeloupe and Martinique it represents the more French-like sound /ɣ/.
Grammar
Welcome sign in Martinican Creole: Kontan wè zot, "Happy to see you" (from the French words content, voir, vous-autres).
Personal Pronouns
Person
Pronoun
Alternate
Weak
Form
English
1sg
mwen
an, man, mon1
m, ng, n2
I, me
2sg
ou
-
w3
you
3sg
i
li4
y3
he, she, it
1pl
nou
-
n3
we, us
2pl
zòt
zò, hòt, hò
z3,h3
you
3pl
yo
yé
y3
they, them
Mon is used in Dominica and in Grenada #man is used in Martinique. An is used in Guadeloupe, but less so in the latter.
m, ng, and n are contracted forms of mwen which occur before certain verb particles: Mwen pa → m'a, mwen ka → ng'a or n'a mwen kay → ng'ay or n'ay
w and y occur after a vowel: Nonm-lan wè i → Nonm-lan wè'y, Koumonon ou? → Koumonon'w?
li occurs after consonants: Ou konnèt i? → Ou konnèt li?
Personal pronouns in Antillean Creole are invariable so they do not inflect for case as in European languages such as French or English. This means that mwen, for example, can mean I, me or my; yo can mean they, them, their etc.
Possessive Adjectives
English
General
Guadeloupe
Iles des Saintes
my
mwen
an-mwen
an-mwen
your
ou/ w
a-w
òw
his, her, its
li/ y
a-y
èy
our
nou
an-nou
an-nou
your
zot
a-zòt
a-zòt
their
yo
a-yo
a-yo
Possessive adjectives are placed after the noun; kay mwen 'my house', manman'w 'your mother'
'ou' and 'li' are used after nouns ending in a consonant and 'w' and 'y' after nouns ending in a vowel. All other possessive adjectives are invariable.
Kaz ou - Your house, Kouto'w - Your knife
Madanm li - His wife, Sésé'y - Her sister
Indefinite article
The indefinite article is placed before the noun and can be pronounced as on, an, yon, yan. The word yonn means "one".
On chapo, Yon wavèt
An moun, Yan tòti
Definite article
Creole sign in Guadeloupe reading Ti boutik-la ouvè kòté Lari Bryon ("Entrance to the little shop at rue Brion"). Postposition of the definite article (boutik-la instead of la boutique) is evident.
This exemples doesn't work for Guadeloupe Creole where article are always "la", and for haitian creole whose article are more similar but have "nan" in addition.
In Creole, there are five definite articles (la, lan, a, an, nan) which are placed after the nouns they modify, in contrast to French. The final syllable of the preceding word determines which is used with which nouns.
If the last sound is a nasal consonant, it becomes nan, but this form is rare and is usually replaced by lan:
Antillean Creole
French
English
machin-nan
la voiture
the car
machin-lan
moun-nan
les gens
the people
moun-lan
fanm-nan
la femme
the woman
fanm-lan
Note that in Guadeloupean Creole there is no agreement of sounds between the noun and definite article and la is used for all nouns
Demonstrative article
Like the definite article this is placed after the noun. It varies widely by region.
Region
Demonstrative
Example
English
St.Lucia
sala
sa'a
motoka sala
that/this car
Guadeloupe
lasa
boug lasa
that/this guy
Martinique
tala/taa
tab tala/taa
that/this table
Verb Tenses
Creole
Negative
Tense
ø
pa
Preterite/ Present Perfect
I vini
He came
He has come
I pa vini
He didn't come
He hasn't come
ka
pa ka
pa'a
Present Progressive
Mwen ka palé
Ng'a palé
I am speaking
Mwen pa ka palé
Mwen pa'a palé
M'a ka palé
I wasn't speaking
ké
pé ké
Future
Ou ké ay/alé
You will go
Ou pé ké ay/alé
I won't go
kay
pa kay
Immediate Future
Mwen kay alé
Ng'ay alé
I'm going to go
Mwen pa kay alé
M'a kay alé
I am not going
té
pa té
Past/ Past Perfect
Nou té di
We said
We had said
Nou pa té di
We didn't say
We hadn't said
té ka
pa té ka
Progressive Past
Zòt té ka manjé
Y'all were eating
Zòt pa té ka manjé
Y'all were not eating
té ké
té'é
pa té ké
Conditional
Yo té ké enmen
Yo té'é enmen
They would like
Yo pa té ké enmen
Yo pa té'é enmen
They would not like
té kay/ké
pa té kay/ké
Conditional
An té kay/ké pran
I would take
An pa té kay/ké
I would not go
soti
'have just'
Man sòti rivé
I've just arrived
Man pa sòti rive
I have not just gone out
té soti
'had just'
Albè té sòti sòti
Albert had just gone out
Albè té sòti sòti
Albert had not just gone gone out
ja
p'oko
po'o
'already'
Sé timanmay-la ja fè
The children already did
Sé timanmay-la p'òkò fè
Sé timanmay-la pò'ò fè
The children have not already done
The children had not yet done
té ja
potoko/pokote
Hò/zot té ja koumansé
Y'all had already started
Hò/zot potoko/pokote koumansé
Y'all had not already started
Y'all had not started yet
Verbs in Creole are invariable and unlike French or English have no inflection to distinguish tenses. A series of particles placed before the verb indicate tense and aspect. There is no Subjunctive mood.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Antillean Creole is based mostly on French, with many contributions from West African languages, Spanish, English and Amerindian languages.
Varieties
Dominican Creole French
Dominican Creole French is the generally-spoken language in Dominica.[8] Its mutual intelligibility rate with other varieties of Antillean Creole is almost 100%. Its syntactic, grammatical and lexical features are virtually identical to that of Martinican Creole, but like its Saint Lucian counterpart, it has more English loanwords than the Martinican variety. People who speak Haitian Creole can also understand Dominican Creole French. Even though there are a number of distinctive features, they are mutually intelligible.
Like the other Caribbean Creoles, Dominican French Creole combines a syntax of African and Carib origin with a vocabulary primarily derived from French.
Saint Lucian Creole French
Saint Lucian Creole French is commonly spoken in Saint Lucia. Its syntactic, grammatical and lexical features are virtually identical to that of Martinican Creole.
Like the other Caribbean creoles, Saint Lucian French Creole combines a syntax of African and Carib origin with a vocabulary primarily derived from French. The language can be considered to be mutually intelligible with French creoles of the Lesser Antilles and is related to Haitian Creole, which has nonetheless a number of distinctive features.
It is still widely spoken in Saint Lucia. In the mid-19th century, migrants took the language with them to Panama, where it is now moribund.
Grenadian Creole French
Historically, French, or French Creole, was the language of the large majority of the inhabitants, enslaved Africans and estate owners. Though the new British administrators spoke English, French was still predominant.
Grenadian Creole French is a variety of Antillean Creole French.[9] In Grenada and among Grenadians, it is referred to as Patois or FrenchPatois. It was once the lingua franca in Grenada and was commonly heard as recently as 1930 when children in some rural areas could speak it. In the 21st century, it can be heard only among elderly speakers in a few small pockets of the country. They are becoming fewer and fewer because unlike St. Lucia and Dominica, which lie close to the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Grenada does not have Kwéyòl-speaking neighbours to keep the language alive.
Additionally, the language is not taught in schools.
The Cedula of Population of 1783 laid the foundation and growth of the population of Trinidad. French planters and the Africans they enslaved, free coloureds and mulattos, from the French Antilles of Martinique, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica, migrated to Trinidad during the French Revolution. The immigrants establishing local communities of Blanchisseuse, Champs Fleurs, Paramin, Cascade, Carenage, Laventille, etc. Trinidad's population, which numbered less than 1,400 in 1777, soared to over 15,000 by the end of 1789.
In 1797, Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking and Patois-speaking population. Today, Trinidadian French Creole can be found spoken in regional pockets among the elders, particularly in the villages of Paramin and Lopinot.
Example vocabulary
Road sign in residential area in Guadeloupe. Slow down. Children are playing here.
Boyfriend (or male relative) - Boug pronounced[buɡ]
(To) engage in a fight - Goumé épi moun pronounced[ɡumeepimun]
Sample texts
Below are samples of St. Lucian Creole French taken from a folktale.[10]
Pwenmyé ki pasé sé Konpè Kochon. I di, "Konpè Lapen, sa ou ka fè la?"
Konpè Lapen di'y, "Dé ti twou yanm ng'a (mwen ka) fouyé bay ich mwen pou mwen bay ich mwen manjé."
Konpè Kochon di, "Mé, Konpè, ou kouyon, wi! Ou vlé di mwen sa kay fè yanm?"
An English translation from the same source:
First to pass was Konpè Kochon (Mister Pig). He said, "Konpè Lapen (Mister Rabbit), what are you doing there?"
Konpè Lapen told him, "I am digging a few holes to plant yams to feed my children."
Konpè Kochon said, "But, Konpè, you're too foolish! You mean to tell me you can grow yams there?"
Related Research Articles
Patois is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, patois can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.
The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc which begins east of Puerto Rico at the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, swings southeast through the Leeward and Windward Islands towards South America, and turns westward through the Leeward Antilles along the Venezuelan coast.
The music of Martinique has a heritage which is intertwined with that of its sister island, Guadeloupe. Despite their small size, the islands have created a large popular music industry, which gained in international renown after the success of zouk music in the later 20th century. Zouk's popularity was particularly intense in France, where the genre became an important symbol of identity for Martinique and Guadeloupe. Zouk's origins are in the folk music of Martinique and Guadeloupe, especially Martinican chouval bwa, and Guadeloupan gwo ka. There's also notable influence of the pan-Caribbean calypso tradition and Haitian kompa.
The music of Guadeloupe encompasses a large popular music industry, which gained in international renown after the success of zouk music in the later 20th century. Zouk's popularity was particularly intense in France, where the genre became an important symbol of identity for Guadeloupe and Martinique. Zouk's origins are in the folk music of Guadeloupe and Martinique, especially Guadeloupan gwo ka and Martinican chouval bwa, and the pan-Caribbean calypso tradition.
The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east.
The Windward Islands are the southern, generally larger islands of the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean islands or West Indies. Located approximately between latitudes 10° and 16° N and longitudes 60° and 62° W, they extend from Dominica in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south, and lie south of the Leeward Islands and east of Leeward Antilles.
The French West Indies or French Antilles are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the music of this chain of small islands making up the eastern and southern portion of the West Indies. Lesser Antillean music is part of the broader category of Caribbean music; much of the folk and popular music is also a part of the Afro-American musical complex, being a mixture of African, European and indigenous American elements. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be musically divided based on which nation colonized them.
The culture of Dominica is formed by the inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Dominica is home to a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, it was the Taíno and Island Caribs (Kalinago) tribes that remained by the time European settlers reached the island. "Massacre" is a name of a river dedicated to the murders of the native villagers by both French and British settlers, because the river "ran red with blood for days." Each claimed the island and imported slaves from Africa. The remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) Carib Territory on the east coast of the island. They elect their own chief.
A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. This article also contains information on French pidgin languages, contact languages that lack native speakers.
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The lesser Antillean bullfinch is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Saint Barth, Saint Martin, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The languages of North America reflect not only that continent's indigenous peoples, but the European colonization as well. The most widely spoken languages in North America are English, Spanish, and to a lesser extent French, and especially in the Caribbean, creole languages lexified by them.
The Caribbean bioregion is a biogeographic region that includes the islands of the Caribbean Sea and nearby Atlantic islands, which share a fauna, flora and mycobiota distinct from surrounding bioregions.
Saint Lucian Creole is a French-based creole language that is widely spoken in Saint Lucia. It is the vernacular language of the country and is spoken alongside the official language of English.
The languages of the Caribbean reflect the region's diverse history and culture. There are six official languages spoken in the Caribbean:
Dominican Creole French is a French-based creole, which is a widely spoken language in Dominica. It can be considered a distinct dialect of Antillean Creole.
Afro-Saint Lucians or West African-Saint Lucians, are Saint Lucians whose ancestry lies within West and Central Africa. However, many Afro-Saint Lucians also have small amounts of other ancestry such as Arawak, European and Indian.
Grenadian Creole is a variety of Antillean Creole. In Grenada and among Grenadians, it is referred to as patois.
↑ Ethnologue codes Guadeloupean Creole French (spoken in Guadeloupe and Martinique) and Saint Lucian Creole French (spoken in Dominica and Saint Lucia) distinctly, with the respective ISO 639-3 codes: gcf and acf. However, it notes that their rate of comprehension is 90%, which would qualify them as dialects of a single language.
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