Social Stratification &

Language in the Modern

Caribbean
Part II

Aims

To explore the linguistic reality hidden

behind the labels
Spanish-/English-/French-/Dutch
Speaking.

To examine alternative labels which better

capture the linguist reality of territories.

To identify the social factors which might

motivate a particular linguistic situation.

Territory Labels

English Speaking
French Speaking
Spanish Speaking
Dutch Speaking
What do these labels mean?

Territory Labels contd

The labels suggest that the official

language of the territory is
English/Spanish/French/Dutch.

The language of the ultimate

colonizing power.

The Distribution of Languages in

the Caribbean
Country

Official
Mass
Language Vernacula
r/Creole

Cuba
Spanish
Dominica Spanish
n
Republic
Puerto
Spanish
Rico

Spanish
Spanish

Spanish

Other
Language
s
-

English

The Distribution contd

Country

Off. Lang

Barbados
Jamaica
Antigua
St. Kitts
St.
Vincent
Monsterra
t

English
English
English
English
English

Mass
Vern.
EC
EC
EC
EC
EC

English

EC

Other
lang.

The Distribution contd

Country

Official
Lang.(s)

Haiti

French
Creole,
French
Guadelou French
pe
Martiniqu
e

French

Mass
Vernacula
r/Creole
French
Creole

Other
Language
s
-

French
Creole

French
Creole

The Distribution contd

Country

St. Lucia

Official
Mass
Language Vernacula
r/Creole
English
FC, EC

Other
Language
s
-

Grenada

English

EC

FC

Dominica

English

FC, EC

The Distribution contd

Country

Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
St.
Maarten

Official
Mass
Language Vernacula
r
Dutch
Papiamen
tu
Dutch
Papiamen
tu
Dutch
Papiamen
tu
Dutch
EC

Other
Language
s
E&S
English
E&S
E, P & S

The Distribution contd

Country

Guyana

Official
Mass
Lanugage Vernacula
r
English
EC

Suriname

Dutch

Sranan

Other
Language
s
Amerindia
n
languages
Saramacc
an,
Ndjuka,
Javanese,
Sarnami,E
nglish

The Labels Which Better Reflect

The Linguistic Realities

Continuum
Diglossia
Bilingualism/Multilingualism

Labels contd
Labels may refer to the speech
community
or the individual.
Always keep in mind the De facto
(factual/real) and the De Jure
(legal/law) situation.

The Creole Continuum

What is the Creole Continuum

a continuous spectrum of speech

varieties ranging from the Creole to the
standard language.
Main levels of the continuum
Acrolect (standard variety)
Mesolect (intermediate varieties)
Basilect (Creole)

The Creole Continuum contd

The Creole Continuum is usually used

to describe the linguistic situation in
Jamaica and Guyana.

(Read DeCamps quote in Rickford 1987:18 )

The Creole Continuum contd

Many Jamaicans and Guyanese persist

in the myth that there are but two
varieties: the patois and the standard.

The standard is not British English (as

is the claim) rather there is an evolving
standard (Jamaican, Guyanese) English
which is mutually intelligible with but
different from the British Standard.

The Creole Continuum contd

Each speaker (Jamaican& Guyanese)

commands a span of this spectrum.
The breath of the span depends on:

The breath of his/her social contacts

(DeCamp 1971:350) which among other
things is informed by his/her education
and the need to portray his presence in
or familiarity with a particular social
group (acts of identity).

The Creole Continuum contd

Guyanese e.g.
I told him
Ai told him
A tel im
A tel ii
Mi tel am

(Acrolectal)

(Basilectal)

(Jamaican example from H/Work)

The Creole Continuum contd

Jamaican e.g.

I was walking to school

Ai woz waakin tu skuul
A woz a waak tu skuul
mi woz a waak go skuul
mi did a waak go skuul
mi wehn a waak go skuul
mi wehn de waak go skuul
mi behn a waak go skuul
mi behn de waak go skuul

The continuum contd

Things to consider

What is so special about the Caribbean

continuum situation?
Is the continuum a social or linguistic
description?
How may underlying systems are were
really dealing with one, two, three?
Are we just speaking of diglossia anyway?
Can the acrolect, mesolect and basilect
be clearly isolated?

Diglossia

The concept was developed by

Ferguson (1959) and extended in its
scope by Fishman (1971).

A diglossic situation is one in which

there exists two separate language
varieties, each with its own specific
functions within the society
(Devonish, 1986:9)

Diglossia contd

A diglossic situation exists in a

society when it has two distinct
codes which show clear functional
separation; that is one is employed in
one set of circumstances and the
other in an entirely different set
(Wardhaugh 1986:87)

Diglossia contd

In diglossic situations the High

language variety is the one used in
writing, in education, in government
administrative and legal institutions,
and generally in public and formal
situations.

These domains are dominated by and

under the control of the ruling class and
their values (Devonish 1986:9)

Diglossia contd

Diglossia is a relatively stable language

situation in which, in addition to the
primary dialects of the language (which
may include a standard or regional
standards), there is a very divergent,
highly codified (often grammatically more
complex) superposed variety, the vehicle
of a large and respected body of written
literature, either of an earlier period

Diglossia contd

Or in another speech community,

which is learned largely by formal
education and is used for most
written and formal spoken purposes
but is not used by any sector of the
community for ordinary
conversation (Ferguson 1959:336)

Diglossia contd

The Low variety is the one used by

the mass of the population in the
course of their everyday private and
informal interaction, within the family,
and in the various forms of popular
culture.

It typically involves two distinct

language but may also involve dialects
of the same language.

Defining Characteristics of
Diglossia

Both varieties are kept apart functionally.

The H variety is the prestige variety; L
lacks prestige.
H is highly codified.
All children learn the L variety.
H variety is usually learnt in school.
L variety tends to borrow learned words
from the H variety especially to express
new ideas.

Examples of Diglossic Situations

outside the Caribbean

Arabia - Classic Arabic (H) and the

various colloquial varieties (L)

Swiss Germany -Standard German (H

)and Swiss German (L)

Greece - Kataharevousa (H) Demotic

(L)

Diglossia contd

Haiti was once seen as the prime example

of Diglossia in the Caribbean.
Standard French (H) and French Creole (L)
FC has been given Official status. The
Speech community by law is bilingual.
Most of the population is monolingual in
French Creole (In light of this, consider that
for diglossia to persist the individual has to
command both codes) Are speakers in Haiti
really diglossic?

Monolingualism

Refers to the ability to use a single

language.

The speech community and the majority

of individuals can be monolingual.
Example Cuba (official language is
Spanish and the Mass Vernacular is
Spanish)
Keep in mind that in this situation
individuals may be bi/multilingual.

Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Refers to the ability to speak more than one languages (Bi-two

and Multi-multiple/several).

When is a person truly bilingual? (Extremesknows a few

words cannot be differentiated from a native speaker)

A bilingual speaker will switch between codes and is not

necessarily
restricted by speech context.

Example of bilingual speech community outside the Caribbean is

Canada (French and English).
For e.g. of Caribbean bilingual situation consider
individual/defacto situation (examine Puerto Rico which has
English as an additional language in the speech community but it
(English) is not official)
Multilingual Suriname, Trinidad, Curacao

Multilingualism outside of the

Caribbean

The Tukano (live in the Northwest

Amazon, on the border between
Colombia and Brazil).

Multilingualism is the norm in this

community because men must marry
outside their language group. They
choose women from various tribes.
After marriage the women move into the
mens households. Consequently in any
village several languages are used.

Conclusion
The key is being able to argue the
extent to which the labels adequately
capture the linguistic situation in the
territories.

ALL THE BEST!!!