Caribbean Creole in Britain
A presentation by
Marlies Thiemann, Marie-Luise Beer,
Beate Scior, Jens Winter, Maria Weidner,
Linda Tiefenbrunner and André Falk
History of Creole
The first development
• Europeans traded goods for slaves along the African coasts
• Slaves learnt the pidgin
• Children of the slaves grew up in a pidgin – speaking environment and
learnt the pidgin as the first language
Æ Pidgin became a creole
Creole in London
• Caribbeans moved to Britain in 1950s and 1960s
• The first generation of migrants came with distinctive language
varieties associated with their birthplace
→ Jamaica
→ Guyana
→ Trinidad ….
• First generation migrants were mostly high educated and skilled
Æ Their language was similar to the English language
Today’s situation of Caribbean’s – by – heritage
• The children are mostly grandchildren of the generation who settled to
Britain
• The Kids speak Creole (a mixture of all Creole languages spoken by first
generation)
• British- born Caribbeans have adopted Jamaican Creole
• Language is not learnt from parents at first, but peer groups and older
children
Jamaican Creole
• also known to foreigners as Patois / ( Patwa )
• used primarily on the island of Jamaica
• Jamaican exists mostly as a spoken language
• Jamaican Creole contains many words borrowed from English as well as
from Spanish, Portuguese and African languages
Example: “ pickney “ meaning “ child “
( borrowed from Portuguese “ poquerno “ )
•
there is no standard or official way of writing Jamaican Creole
Examples:
• That man was swimming.
→ Da man de did a swim.
• Three men swam.
→ Tree man did a swam.
• I do not like what you are saying about your girlfriend.
→ Mi nuh like wah yu a seh bout yu gyal.
• I did not say anything about you.
→ Mi neva seh nuttn bout yu.
Pidgins & Creoles
•
A pidgin is a „system of communication“
• Limited vocabulary
• Reduced grammatical structure
• Narrow range of functions
• Are used as a „contact language“ (mainly for trade purposes)
•
Transition from pidgin to creole
• in multilingual areas pidgins are used more frequently for easier
communication
• Growth in: grammar, vocabulary and range of functions
• Children hear language more often and adapt it
• Over several generations it becomes the mother tongue
• The pidgin becomes a creole (creolization)
•
Characteristics of a creole
• It is a new language type
• Emerges in a few generations
• Term invented by linguists
• NOT “bad English” or “broken English”
• Most of vocabulary provided by lexifier
Creole vs. Dialect
• Difference between language and dialect:
less a linguistic one, much more a political one
• A language is connected to a nation or statehood
• A dialect is a altered version of an existing language
Bakrakondre n’abi tifi, ma a beti!
• Surinamese creole (Sranan)
“Bakrakondre n’abi tifi, ma a beti!”
“The European‘s country doesn‘t have teeth, but it bites!”
tifi = teeth
beti = bites
London Jamaican
• J:
• C:
•
•
•
•
J
C:
J:
C:
• J:
• C:
• J:
• C:
(whisper) you start
all right, we went to this party on Sa%urday night you know Jane
and I (.) and I tel you boy de pa%y was well rude, you know,
well rude. (1.0)
whe you s seh? (seh = ‘say’)
mi seh dis party well rude!(0.6)
that good, was it?
yeah! me tell you seh dere some boy down de boy, (0.4) I seh
(0.4) z – ‘e was (my) (ting) for the night
was it? did ‘im give you what you a look for?
no sir, no sir, not mean it in dat way I just mean de phone
number an’ t’ing (1.0)
im did phone you?
no man me phone ‘im you know wha’ I mean? me ne really like
give out de phone number an’ t’ing
•
•
•
•
J:
C:
J:
C:
is it? so how comes you just tell me about it now?
‘cause like seh (0.5) feel like tell you y’know
I see so did you enjoy yourselves
seen man (.) de scene up dere ard y’know (.) place call nations (.)
I tell you you go dere and you riot all night
Sociolinguistic Aspects of London Jamaican
• Why is recreolisation a fact?
→ Sociolinguistic answer: Speakers are attracted to the creole forms,
or rather, to the image they convey
• Creole has covert prestige
→ It is an attractiveness for young British Caribbeans, which derives
from its associations with solidarity, Black Britishness, and being a
non-legitimated language variety
• Not only black people are London Jamaican
→ There are individuals who have a network of black friends
• Patois is a symbol of Black Britishness
→ It is different from the Creole Speech of the Caribbean
• Patois association with original Jamaican popular cultural movement like
Raggae and Rastafarianism is for young speakers a source of pride
• Furthermore: Jamaicans are numerically dominant in most Black British
communities, therefore Jamaican Creole has become the model
• Phenomenon: Under-twelves seem to use Creole much less than
teenagers, although there are some fluent young speakers.
→ Some speakers „make up“ Creole by adapting English, using a set
of rules which sometimes give wrong output, that means it is a
„second language“ for them