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 English based African-Caribbean Creoles today
The history of African-Caribbean Creoles
The history of African-Caribbean Creoles
Slaves speaking a wide range of languages were forcibly transported from West Africa to the Caribbean and Americas from the sixteenth century. In the early stages, a pidgin with simplified grammar and limited vocabulary allowed them to communicate in a basic way among themselves. Over time, parents started using the pidgin with their children who, in turn, played a crucial role in expanding the grammar and vocabulary into a creole - a full-blown language, that met all the communication needs of its speakers. Although creole is the term preferred by linguists, most people refer to their language as 'patwa'. Most of the creoles spoken in the former British territories are described as 'English-based' because English is the main source of their vocabulary. There are subtle differences between the various English-based creoles, but all are mutually intelligible. There are also French-based creoles in St Lucia and Dominica and other islands colonized by France, and Spanish- and Dutch-based creoles in former Spanish and Dutch territories. There are, however, striking similarities between the grammar of creoles not only in the Caribbean but in many other parts of the world. The linguistic situation in the Caribbean can best be described in terms of a continuum with broad Creole at one end and standard English at the other. Factors such as social class and education determine where on the continuum a speaker is located. Equally important, the speech of the same person will vary a great deal depending on the subject of the conversation and the person they are talking to. Until quite recently, African Caribbean creoles were written down only occasionally. Today, they appear more regularly in print, for instance, in poems, songs lyrics on CD inserts and for first person narrative in novels. There are established orthographies for writing the French-based creoles of St Lucia and Haiti. However, there is no standardized spelling for the English-based creoles.
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