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MOSTLY FOR STUDENTS
This page contains Answers to Frequently Asked Questions on the Caribbean and on linguistics, and also provides links to fun pages. Scroll down for the FAQs and links, or choose from the menu below.
CARIBBEAN STUFF
POLITICAL DIVISIONS
- Q. What are the countries of the Caribbean (a.k.a. the West Indies, and the Antilles)?
A. There are 29 separate political entities in the Caribbean archipelago and on the American mainland. They are arranged below on the basis of official language:
Dutch-official (3) (N = Netherlands)
- Aruba
- the Netherlands Antilles: Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Maarten and Statia (N)
- Suriname
English-official (19) (BWI = British West Indies)
- Anguilla (BWI)
- Antigua & Barbuda
- The Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- British Virgin Islands (BWI)
- Cayman Islands (BWI)
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Montserrat (BWI)
- St. Kitts-Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent & the Grenadines
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Turks & Caicos Islands (BWI)
- U.S. Virgin Islands (USA)
French-official (4) (F = France)
- Haiti/Haïti
- French Guiana/Guyane Française (F)
- Guadeloupe (F)
- Martinique (F)
Spanish-official (3)
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic/República Dominicana (D.R.)
- Puerto Rico (USA).
Q. What is the political status of these territories?
A. The majority are independent (including four republics — Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Trinidad & Tobago), and others are colonies of Great Britain (BWI), and the Netherlands (N), and others are overseas departments of France (F).
Q. Are Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador considered part of the Caribbean?
A. Yes, they are part of the continental or Greater Caribbean. They are traditionally seen as part of Latin America (to which the insular Hispanic territories of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic also belong). These eight countries are not traditionally included in the above listing. That list includes the physical islands of the archipelago (regardless of language affiliation), and the four "linguistic islands" (English, French and Dutch) in an Iberian "sea." (Latin America should really be called Iberian America, since although French is also a Latin language, French Guiana is not included in Latin America.) These four non-Iberian continental "islands" are Belize in Central America, and Guyana, Suriname and Guyane (French Guiana) in South America. (Note that Spanish is also spoken in English-official Belize.)
South and Central America are often thought to be synonymous with Latin America, but they are not. Trinidad, for example, is geologically part of both the Caribbean and South America, but ceased to belong to Latin America upon British takeover in 1797–1802.
The Association of Caribbean States (ACS-AEC) includes as member states most territories whose shores are washed by the Caribbean Sea. Included also are El Salvador on the Pacific side of Central America, and France because of its three overseas Départements ("departments") in the Caribbean and South America. (The USA is not included, although southern Florida — especially Miami — has strong cultural connections with the anglophone, francophone, hispanophone and créolophone Caribbean, and Georgia and the Carolinas share strong historical and sociolinguistic ties with the English-speaking Caribbean, and Louisiana with the French-speaking Caribbean.)
Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean due to its location in the Atlantic, but is sometimes included in a listing of Caribbean countries because of common historical links with the Caribbean islands.
Pre-Colombian Amerindians, including those who gave their name to the region, no doubt had their own worldview and way of organising their world.
GEOGRAPHY
Q. Which are the Greater Antilles and which are the Lesser Antilles?
A. The Greater Antilles comprise Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles comprise the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands. Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos to the north, and the ABC Islands to the south do not belong to any of these groupings.
Q. Which are the Leeward Islands and which are the Windward Islands?
A. The Windward Islands comprise Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and Martinique. The Leeward Islands comprise Dominica (which was sometimes grouped with the Windwards), Guadeloupe and her dependencies (St. Martin, Marie-Galante and St.Barths), Montserrat, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla, the SSS Islands, and the Virgin Islands. The terms Windward and Leeward are also political terms, and the term Eastern Caribbean often refers to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States which share a common currency.
Q. Which are the ABC Islands and the SSS Islands?
A. The ABC Islands of the Southern Caribbean comprise Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. The latter two belong to the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba is independent), as do the SSS Islands — Saba, Statia (Sint Eustatius), and Sint Maarten/Saint Martin — which are further to the north.
Q. Where can I get a map of the Caribbean?
A. See http://maps.expedia.com. See below for creole language maps.
NAMES AND PRONUNCIATIONS
Q. What are the original indigenous (Amerindian) names of the territories of the Caribbean?
Go to Montray Kréyol for an article in French on indigenous names in the Caribbean, "Du nom indigène des îles de l'archipel des Antilles," by Thierry L'Etang.
Anguilla
Antigua — Wadadli
Aruba
The Bahamas
Barbados
Barbuda — Wa'amoni
Belize
Bermuda
Bonaire
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Cuba — Cubanacan
Curaçao
Dominica — Wai'tukubuli
Dominican Republic/República Dominicana
French Guiana/Guyane Française
Grenada
The Grenadines
Guadeloupe — Karukera/Kalaoucera
Guyana
Haiti/Haïti
Jamaica — Xaymaca, Land of Wood and Water
Martinique — Madinina, the Island of Flowers
Montserrat — Alliouagana
Nevis
Puerto Rico — Boriken
Saba
Statia
St. Kitts — Liamugua
St. Lucia — Iyanola
St. Marten/Sint Maarten — Oualiche
St. Vincent — Hairoun
Suriname
Tobago
Trinidad — Kairi or Iere
Turks & Caicos Islands
U.S. Virgin Islands
Q. What are the names of the nationalities of the peoples of the Caribbean (in English), and how are they pronounced?
Select Phonetic Guide (with reference to one variety of English, i.e. Trinidadian):
Consonants:
/j/ as in 'yes'
/ŋ/ as in 'sing'
/ʃ/ as in 'ship'
Vowels:
/a/ as in 'bat'
/ɑ/ as in 'bath'
/e/ as in 'bait'
/i/ as in 'bean'
/ɪ/ as in 'bit'
/ɒ/ as in 'bottle'
/ɜ/ as in 'burn'
/ʌ/ as in 'but'
A. Anguillans, pronounced
/aŋˡgwɪlʌnz/
Antiguans, pronounced /anˡtigʌnz/ and Barbudans, pronounced /bɑˡbjudʌnz/ or /bɑrˡbjudʌnz/*
Arubans
Bahamians, pronounced /bəˡhemiʌnz/
Barbadians, pronounced /bɑˡbediʌnz/ or /bɑrˡbediʌnz/*, often shortened to Bajans
Belizeans
Bermudans, pronounced /bɜˡmjudʌnz/
British Virgin Islanders
Caymanians
Cubans
Dominicans /dɒmɪˡnikʌnz/ from Dominica
Dominicans /doˡmɪnɪkʌnz/ from the DR
French Guianese
Grenadians /grɪˡnediʌnz/
Guadeloupeans
Guyanese
Haitians
Jamaicans
Martiniquans
Montserratians
Netherlands Antilleans (Curaçaoans, Sabans, Statians)
Kittitians, pronounced /kɪˈtɪʃʌnz/ and Nevisians, pronounced /niˈvɪʃʌnz/
Puerto
Ricans
St. Lucians, pronounced /sentˈluʃʌnz/
Surinamese
Trinidadians, pronounced /trɪnɪˡdadiʌnz/, often shortened to Trinis, and Tobagonians (Trinbagonians) — see below.
Turks and Caicos Islanders
US Virgin Islanders
and Vincentians (sometimes Vincelonians). The former is pronounced /vɪnˈsɛntʃʌnz/.
Note that the Concise Oxford (10th ed., rev ed., 2002) pronunciation /təˡbeɪgʌn/ for Tobagonian /təbeˡgoniʌn/ is an error. Tobagan is an archaic version of Tobagonian.
Here are some general pronunciation rules. Tobago is pronounced like 'sago', 'plumbago' and 'winnebago'. Here's a limerick of interest:
There was an old man of Tobago,
Who lived on rice, gruel and sago
Till, much to his bliss,
His physician said this —
"To a leg, sir, of mutton you may go."
(Edward Lear's Limericks 1812–1888)
Like the 'a' in Tobago, the second 'a' in Barbados and the first 'a' in Grenada are pronounced /e/, as in 'bay' and 'neigh'. The second 'a' in Bahamas is pronounced /ɑ/ as in 'father', but /e/ in Bahamian (the 'a' in Trinidad /a/ , as in 'bat', remains the same in Trinidad and Trinidadian, though some Trinidadians are known to say /trɪnɪˡdediʌnz/, like TriniDAYdians.
The last syllable in Haitian, St. Lucian, Vincentian, Kittitian, Montserratian and Nevisian is pronounced /ʃʌn/.
* In terms of numbers of Caribbean nations, most speak non-rhotic varieties of English — Trinidad & Tobago, the Windward Islands, and most of the Leeward Islands. (Rhotic — from the Greek letter 'rho', transliterated as 'r' in English — refers to varieties of English that pronounce the /r/ at the end of a syllable.) In terms of actual numbers of speakers, it can be said that the majority of Caribbean speakers of English speak semi-rhotic or fully rhotic dialects of English, since most come from Jamaica (2.3 million people), Antigua, Barbados, Cayman Islands, and Guyana.
Q. Do Caribbean people call themselves "Caribbeans"?
A. No, they don't. As a proper noun, the word "Caribbean" is reserved for the geographic region of the
Caribbean. It is used as an adjective for both people and
things Caribbean, hence 'a Caribbean woman' and 'Caribbean people'. 'Caribbean' is never used as a noun by Caribbean people in the Caribbean to describe or refer to themselves, and is in fact considered odd, and/or viewed negatively as non-standard usage. Similarly, one would say 'an Englishman' and 'English people', but never 'an English' or 'Englishes' (for people, although the latter is a neologism used in reference to varieties of English). Anglophone Caribbean people call themselves 'West Indians' or 'Caribbean people'; francophone Caribbean people call themselves 'antillais'; hispanophone Caribbean people call themselves 'caribeños', and Dutch-speaking Caribbean people call themselves 'Caraïbisch' or 'Antillean' in English (this is subject to correction!). We have many names. Gilberto Freyre had a great deal to say on naming oneself and being named.
Q. Is it 'CaRIBbean' or 'CaribBEan'?
A. Both. Anglophone Caribbean people say either one or the other or both, sometimes both in one sentence. The British tend to say /kəˡrɪbiʌn/, and Americans tend to say /karɪˡbiʌn/.
Q. Is it 'on' Antigua or 'in' Antigua?
A. 'In Antigua', or 'on the island of Antigua', never 'on Antigua'. Similarly, one would say 'in Europe' or 'on the continent of Europe', but never 'on Europe'. Prepositions are small but powerful words.
LANGUAGES
Q. How many languages were spoken in the Caribbean in times past?
A. There were several Amerindian, European, African, Asian and
Caribbean creole languages, many of which are no longer spoken in the
region. Some have disappeared altogether, such as Taino, Yao and other indigenous Amerindian languages, colonial European languages such as Danish, African languages such as Hausa, creole languages such as Negerhollands and Berbice Dutch Creole, and immigrant languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Cantonese and German. Portuguese, Bhojpuri and Arabic are disappearing slowly but surely.
Q. How many languages are spoken in the Caribbean today?
A. There are 5 official languages, namely 4 European languages (Spanish, French, English and Dutch) and 1 Caribbean one (Kreyol or Aiyisyen or Haitian French Creole), several
creole languages and several immigrant languages that came with their speakers during the mid-19th century, post-emancipation. Besides Haitian, other creole languages include Papiamentu, Jamaican Creole/Patois and Guyanese Creolese. Some post-emancipation languages include Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Javanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, Yoruba, Kikongo, and others, though many of these are almost obsolescent, as the majority of their speakers are bilingual and fluent speakers of their country's official and national and vernacular languages.
See also The Ethnologue.
Q. Which Caribbean language has the majority of speakers?
A. Spanish, with over 22 million speakers, mostly in the Greater Antilles, followed by French and French Creole (over 8 million speakers of mostly French Creole), English and English Creole (over 6 million speakers, mostly in the Lesser Antilles), and Dutch (about half a million speakers).
Spanish is spoken mainly in four (4) territories, including Belize, and also in the ABC islands off Venezuela. The ABC islands are home to Papiamentu, an Iberian creole (mainly Portuguese vocabulary, with more and more influence from Spanish).
English is spoken in at least twenty (20) territories, including Puerto Rico and St. Martin/Sint Maarten. Four English-lexicon creoles are spoken in Dutch-official Suriname.
French-lexicon creoles (called Patois in both the anglophone and francophone territories) are spoken in seven insular territories and four continental territories. The former include Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Lucia and Trinidad, all former French territories (except for Trinidad which, though not politically colonised by France, was socioculturally influenced by the French and French Creoles). The four continental territories include French Guiana, Brazil, the USA (Louisiana) and Venezuela (through contact with Trinidadians and St. Lucians). Guyana also has a fair number of French Creole-speaking communities of St. Lucian origin.
Q. How many creoles are spoken in the
Caribbean today? A.
There are almost as many creole languages as there are islands and territories,
and possibly more, depending on the definition and delineation of different dialects of the creoles. There are, however, no creole languages to be found in the insular Hispanic Caribbean.
Q. Do all English, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean people speak a creole as a mother tongue?
A. While the vast majority of West Indians in anglophone, francophone and Dutch-speaking islands do speak the creole language of their territory as a mother tongue, there are significant Caribbean-born minorities that do not speak a creole language as a mother tongue and/or first language, though members of these groups may be either a) quite proficient in it according to the situation and context, or b) passive bilinguals.
Linguistic situations of the Caribbean are, like most language situations around the world, quite complex. It is difficult to say who is monolingual, bilingual, monodialectal, bidialectal, etc., in strict terms. There are also issues of non-standard varieties of English co-existing with English-lexicon creoles and standard varieties of English. While English-lexicon creoles and standard dialects of English are quite different from each other, both varieties share a great deal with non-standard dialects of English! In referring to English, many substitute "Standard" or "the Standard," but English is far more than just one standard variety.
Q. Where can I get a creole language map of the Caribbean?
A. See SIL's Caribbean Creole Language Maps, prepared by SIL and SCL members Ken Decker and David Holbrook. More language maps to come. Of interest is the Atlas of the Languages of Suriname by Eithne B. Carlin and Jacques Arends (Ian Randle Publishers, 2003).
Q. What are the origins of Caribbean creole languages?
A. See below for a discussion on creoles. (More to come on the history of language contact in the Caribbean.)
Q. What is the working language of the SCL?
A. English by default, because the majority of our members are anglophone. All of our publications are in English. However, any one of the official Caribbean languages (Dutch, English, French, Haitian, Papiamentu and Spanish) is an official SCL language. Several papers have been presented in French at SCL conferences.
LINGUISTICS STUFF
What is Caribbean linguistics? A. See SCL member and SCL past president Hubert Devonish's article on Caribbean linguistics.
What is linguistics? A. Linguistics is the study of language in general, as opposed to the study of particular languages. It is the scientific or objective analysis of the nature, structure, function and usage of human language. Linguistics describes how languages actually work, how they vary and change, how they are born (or created) and die, and how they may be revived.
Language can be studied from a physical or biological perspective, as well as from social perspectives. Linguistics bridges the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Part of the wider fields of semiotics and cognitive science, linguistics has several multidisciplinary theoretical sub-fields, such as phonetics, phonology, morpho-syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.
This foundation discipline contributes to several other fields such as literature, education (including language arts and language teaching), communication, psychology, history, law, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, mathematics, computing, biology, physics, medicine, and neurology.
See also UWI, Mona's Explore! Linguistics.
What can I do with linguistics?.
A. Linguistics is foundational to these fields:
Linguistic Research
Language Survey(s)
Lexicography (dictionary making)
Speech pathology
ESP (English for Special Purposes), including ELT (English Language Teaching)
Translation
Linguistics is valuable in these fields:
Advertising (including New Product Naming)
Communication
Computer Industry (Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition)
Education (Teaching, Planning, Policy)
Foreign Language Learning
Information Processing
Interpreting
Journalism and writing
Literature and Literary Criticism
Literacy
Publishing and editing
Speech and hearing
Speech therapy
Technical writing
Writing Consultancy
Linguistics can be useful in these fields:
Law
Library Science
Neurosciences
Philosophy
Public Relations (Information flow)
See UWI, St. Augustine's site for a listing of careers in linguistics.
For careers in languages, see the CILT, and MLA websites.
What is the difference between studying languages and studying linguistics? A. As one person put it, learning a language is like learning to drive a car, and studying linguistics is like learning to become a mechanic. Everyone can learn how to drive a car, but not everyone needs to become a mechanic, although having some knowledge of how a car works is valuable indeed. Mark Mandel quotes Lynne Murphy: "Asking a linguist (language scientist) how many languages he speaks is like asking a doctor how many diseases she has" (Lynne Murphy), or to express this aphorism otherwise: "Asking a linguist how many languages s/he speaks is like asking a car mechanic how many cars he has."
A person, including a linguist, who learns and speaks many languages is also called a polyglot. A linguist who does linguistic research studies the structure of languages, not necessarily with a view to speaking them.
How many languages do linguists speak? A. At least one — their mother tongue. Linguists don't learn languages (they do that also, but not as a profession); linguists learn about languages.
What is the difference between a 'language' and a 'dialect'? A. A remark traditionally attributed to Weinreich is that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." (More to come.)
What is a 'standard' variety or dialect of a language?
What is a 'vernacular language'?
What is a 'dialect' and what is Dialect? A. A dialect is a variety or subset of a language. Uppercase Dialect /dajaˈlɛk/ is the proper name given to many English-lexicon creoles in the Caribbean. The term (whether capitalised or not) is often used disparagingly, not only in the Caribbean, but throughout the English-speaking world.
Lowercase dialect refers to language varieties that usually differ from each other at the levels of accent (phonology) and vocabulary (lexicon), with relatively minor differences at the level of grammar (morphosyntax). Speakers of different dialects of the same language usually understand each other, though sometimes they need time and effort to do so (depending on how different the dialects and accents are from each other, and depending on language attitudes, among other factors). All languages comprise dialects which differ from each other at the levels of accent and vocabulary, and which may be sociolinguistically defined on regional, ethnic, gender and socio-economic bases. Socially-based dialects are also referred to as sociolects or social dialects.
Speaking of accents.... A. See the LSA article Why Do Some People Have an Accent? and other interesting FAQs on language and language-related topics.
What are 'pidgins' and 'creoles'? A. See SCL member and SCL past president Don Winford's article Languages in Contact.
See also Yves Dejean's FAQs on Haitian Creole.
What is a 'patois' and what is Patois?
Are creoles and dialects one and the same? A. No, a creole is a type of language, and a dialect is a subset or a variety of a language. All languages, including creole types, have dialects.
Isn't English-lexicon Creole simply broken English or bad English? A. No, 'bad' English (or French or Dutch or Portuguese) does not equal 'good' Creole, and vice-versa. Try asking a non-native speaker to communicate effectively in Creole. Nor is it 'broken' English. People can speak a foreign language 'brokenly', but cannot speak their mother tongue 'brokenly' since nobody has a 'broken' brain. People speak their mother tongue fluently. (Note that semilingualism is a controversial topic.) To speak of someone speaking only a 'broken' language and no other suggests linguistic (and other) incompetence or ignorance or brain damage on the part of the creole language speaker. Further, creoles are also associated with low socio-economic status. Whereas relatively less money and power might put some limits on an individual's educational opportunities and advancement, and access to the language of education and power, socio-economic status is not an indicator of intelligence or lack thereof. Language attitudes are important. If they are not corrected, non-creole speakers (or even creole speakers) might look down on creoles and their speakers as poor and unintelligent. Money (and therefore power of varying types) 'talks', and makes some languages look better than others.
While English-lexified creoles and English do share a great deal of vocabulary, making English-lexicon creole languages lexically dependent on English (from both a historical and modern-day perspective), they are actually semantically and grammatically independent of each other (to quote Ian Robertson, Islands-in-Between Conference, St. Lucia 2002). This means that they have their own structures, systems and accents, and fulfil or can fulfil all the functions that any language does. Creoles have normally occupied informal contexts, but can occupy any context, once they are allowed to, once the need arises, and once proper language planning and development are in place.
Consider the history of the English language, for example. Once the language of both kings and peasants, it faced serious status issues in the eleventh century, after the Norman Conquest (it was viewed negatively by the conquerors) and again during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, during the Renaissance (it was viewed negatively by English speakers themselves). English was often negatively compared to Latin and French (even up to recently), and some felt that English did not have the expressive power of French, or the scientific authority of Latin. As David Crystal put it, some (during the Renaissance) felt that English was "not an appropriate vehicle for the expression of the new learning…. It was a language fit for the street, not for the library" (Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language 1995:60). Now English is the world's lingua franca (and has 'borrowed' or appropriated heavily from both Latin and French, inter alia), used in all spheres of communication. It's all about power, position and money (not necessarily in that order). Since creoles have not usually been the language of rulers and conquerors, they and their speakers also face negative attitudes and low social (socio-economic) status, but they are not bound to their history, and things can change and are changing for the good of their speakers.
Some think that creoles are 'just' a mixture of other languages. By that criterion, English is also a creole. English derives a huge percentage of its vocabulary from Latin and French (which is a Latin/Romance language), and has contributions from many others. Negative attitudes have come about because of the socially turbulent history of creole languages. Their more recent development causes some to see them as Johnny-come-lately languages, and as less respectable that the older languages that gave them their vocabulary. Their lack of respectability has more to do with the socio-economic status of their speakers, and the fact that these languages are now coming into their own as written languages, many only now gaining standard orthographies, dictionaries, and other forms of standardisation and codification.
Can creoles be written? Aren't creoles 'just' oral languages? A. Any language can be written, and creoles are languages. Several creole languages have their own standardised writing systems. Languages are, in fact, primarily oral — no one is born with a pen in their hands (or mouths!), just a tongue with which to use his/her mother tongue.
What is the difference between 'creole' and Creole? A. Lowercase 'creole' is a common noun (and also adjective) used to refer to the language type in general (whether as a sociohistorical reference to its genesis or as a typological term), and uppercase Creole is a proper noun, used as the name of a specific language; thus, "In the study of creole languages…" or "This is a characteristic feature of many creoles" but "In Haitian Creole…" or "In Haiti, Creole is…."
Note that uppercase Creole also refers to people, so French Creoles in Trinidad are Trinidadians of mainly French descent (although the term has erroneously been extended to other European Creoles as well; in a similar vein, 'coolie' has also moved away from its original meaning, that of 'labourer' and been misapplied to Indians, sometimes Chinese, and their descendants around the world). Some Indo-West Indians use the term Creole to refer to persons of African descent. Creole as a term for people refers to their ethnic origins. In most territories, the term is not used as a cover term for speakers of creole languages (so "Creoles" are not normally people who speak a creole, except in Belize). The feature that is common to these two usages ("French Creoles" and a Creole as "someone of African descent") is the etymon "originally born in the 'New' World."
Where can I find out more about Caribbean creoles? A. Check out our Links page for more information on courses on Caribbean creoles, research groups and more.
Where can I learn a Caribbean creole language in the Caribbean? A. GEREC in Martinique offers courses in French Creole.
The UWI campuses of Mona (Jamaica) and St. Augustine (T&T) both offer French-Lexicon Creole in their Linguistics degree programmes (course code — L280, taught mainly by créolophones to mainly non-créolophone students). Mona offers mainly Guadeloupean Creole, and St. Augustine offers mainly St. Lucian Creole.
With the exception of Jamaican Creole, English-lexicon creoles are not formally taught in the English-speaking Caribbean. Jamaican Creole was taught to Peace Corps volunteers, and is to be taught in Puerto Rico at the Universidad de Puerto Rico.
Papiamentu is taught in the ABC islands. See Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma.
But why would anyone want to learn a creole language? A. Why would anyone want to learn any language that is not their own? Regular and frequent (actual or anticipated) contact with speakers of other languages, as well as a strong motivation and desire, are important factors in learning a second language. Motivation can stem from perceived economic opportunities (although many people do not see creole languages as providers of lucrative opportunities for economic advancement), or simply an interest in society, culture and history. Bilingualism is actually the norm for most citizens of the world, except perhaps in the Americas. Being or becoming bilingual is important for communication, nurturing a healthy respect for others, and for personal development, including at the neurolinguistic level. See SIL's Linguistic Creed.
Why don't creole language speakers just learn standard English or French, for example? A. One might have asked this in the days of the Greek and Roman Empires — why didn't everyone learn Greek or Latin? Yes, in all societies, it may be important to master the language of power in order to function in spheres of education, government and so on. But mastering another language and culture does not require the abandonment of one's mother tongue and culture. There is richness in diversity, and languages are tied up with culture, history and society. To abandon a language is very often to abandon a culture and a society.
What about education in creole languages for mother tongue speakers? A. Some work is going on in Curaçao, San Andrés (Colombia), and Jamaica. With the exception of Jamaica and Haiti, and in very general terms, the territories which possess a creole language with no lexical relationship to their official language (e.g., Papiamentu in the Dutch-official Netherlands Antilles, Creole English in Spanish-official San Andrés, and Creole French in English-official St. Lucia) are making more progress in the educational arena than in territories where the creole language and the official language share the bulk of vocubulary (e.g., Creole French and French in the French Caribbean, and Creole English and English in the English-official Caribbean).
For a good overview of the linguistic rights of individuals and communities, see the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, especially Section II, Articles 23 to 30. The Declaration is downloadable here as a pdf file.
Is it possible for foreigners to go learn English, French, Spanish, or Dutch (as foreign/second languages) in their respective Caribbean territories? A. For EFL, check out the programmes at UWI, St. Augustine.
The three campuses of the UAG, serving the French Caribbean, offer FLE (Français Langue Etrangère).
What about sign languages in the Caribbean? A. Jamaica has its own indigenous sign language, one of the world's 114 deaf sign languages. Many other English-speaking territories use American Sign Language (ASL).
What linguistics research is being done in the Caribbean A. There are many research projects being carried out at both the individual and institutional levels. See UWI, St. Augustine's research foci, for example. (More to come.)
Is there any work being done on language and speech pathology in the Caribbean? A. Yes. (More to come.)
Where can I find out about books, dictionaries, newspapers and other
written literature in Caribbean creoles? A. Most of the written material produced in the Caribbean (novels, poetry, news, theses and dissertations, official government documents, etc.) is produced in the official languages of the respective territories, for historical and social reasons. Many novels include some writing in creole languages, but none are written solely in a creole, or translated completely into a creole language. To some extent, this reflects the sociolinguistic situation and make-up of the region. Some literature, however, is being produced in some Caribbean creoles.
For St. Lucian Creole, see the Folk Research Centre. An Tjè Nou in St. Lucia also publishes a variety of materials. See also the St. Lucian Creole website. Of interest is the official website of the Government of St. Lucia with the Kwéyòl Radio News Edition.
For Haitian Creole, see the Creole Clearing House.
There is also more and more material being produced in Papiamentu. See Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma.
What about online material? A. Check out our Links page for a Sranan dictionary, sample Jamaican texts, etc.
What about voice recordings and music in Caribbean creoles? A. For music in French-lexicon Creole, see Dominica's World Creole Music Festival. There are audio recordings of the works of Louise Bennet (Jamaica) and Paul Keens-Douglas (T&T) in the creoles of those countries.
Why don't you construct this whole website in a creole language? A. One day, one day, congote.
What is an 'endangered language'? A. Check out the SIL pages, as well as our Links page for more info.
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