Abstract: The presentation examines general issues related to the indigenous languages of the Caribbean region, including those which were spoken in the islands but no longer are, and those currently found in Guyane, Suriname, Guyana and Belize. It first discusses the marginalisation of these languages and their speakers and the need to correct the warped social psychological attitudes implied in the designations used to refer to them. The imperative for studying these languages is both scientific and moral. Studies of language structure are urgently needed both to add to the store of scientific knowledge of human culture and cognition and to aid in social development engineered by the peoples themselves. Sample illustrations of interesting structural features are given. The genetic classification of the languages through appropriate historical comparative methodologies is another area which needs to be pursued. In all of this, the peoples themselves must be fully involved not as passive subjects but as leading actors.
About the Author:
DR. MERVYN C. ALLEYNE, Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, is currently based at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. A pioneer in Creole Studies, Professor Alleyne’s main research interests are Caribbean language and culture. He is an honorary member and former President of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics (1990–1992), and an Honorary Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America since 1996. He has recently published Syntaxe Historique Créole (Editions Karthala, 2000), The Construction and Representation of Race and Ethnicity in the Caribbean and the World (UWI Press, 2002) and The Folk Medicine of Jamaica: A Source of Healing with Arvilla Payne-Jackson (UWI Press, 2004).
Abstract: Creolisation is a process encompassing both objects and abstracts. The term creole is perhaps most widely known now in terms of language, although in its earliest meanings it most often referred to someone or something (e.g., livestock) born in the Caribbean/New World in post-Columbian times. This paper (originally presented at SCL 1998 in St. Lucia) examines several aspects of the culinary lexicon of Trinidad from a perspective of a creolising process that has taken and continues to take place within a “creole space” (Carrington 1992). Five specific lexical items are examined: creole cuisine, pepper, seasoning, browning down, and roti.(1) Discussed are meanings—both literal and socio-cultural—and evidence of historical origin and development, within a particular, dynamic, cultural and geographical creole context.
(1) A variety of sources have been used to investigate these areas, including: 1) newspaper articles (e.g., Hosein 1990, Sankar 1994, Waterman 1993); 2) locally published Trinidadian cookbooks (e.g., Baptiste 1987, Beharry 1983, de Boissière ca. 1945, Hunt 1985a, 1985b, Mahabir 1992, Wood 1973); 3) Caribbean cookbooks (e.g., Bastyra 1987, Benghiat 1985, Clark 1976, Donaldson 1994, Miller 1979); 4) Caribbean-topic cookbooks published in the U.S. (e.g., DeWitt 1993, DeWitt and Wilan 1993, Gerlach 1993, Harris 1988, 1995, Harris 1989, Lalbachan 1994, MacKie 1991, Ortiz 1973, Walsh and McCarthy 1995, Wolfe 1970); and 5) reference works and essays on the cuisines of Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe (e.g., Barnes 1993, Harris 1989, Mintz 1996, Parkinson 1999, Sokolov 1989a, 1989b, 1991, van der Post 1970, Wilson 1971).
About the Author
LISE WINER, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, McGill University, Canada. Her research interests are in two main areas: teaching English as a second or other language, focusing on methodology and teacher training; and Caribbean English Creoles in educational, literary, linguistic and historical aspects. Her current projects include the preparation of the historical Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago and an edited series, Caribbean Heritage, Novels from Trinidad, 1838–1907. Prof. Winer is Immediate Past President of the SCL.