Certains aspects sociolinguistiques des parlers créoles français aux Antilles [Some sociolinguistic aspects of French Creole languages in the Antilles

Abstract

This article deals centrally with the role that creole languages can be expected to play in four West Indian territories : The Dutch Antilles, Guadeloupe, Saint-Lucia and Haiti. Creole languages are defined on the basis of their origin from a pidginized variety of a West-European language in a situation of language contact and from their current socio-linguistic status in communities where they are spoken. While creole languages share with substandard varieties of such languages of culture as French or English an inferior status vis-à-vis the standard dialect, they can be distinguished from substandard varieties by the special circumstances of their genesis. Can a creole language attain a status equal to that of the official language with which it coexists today ? To answer this question for the four territories selected, four sets of criteria are posited : (1) Intensity of use of the Creole as reflected by the percentage of speakers ; (2) attitude of authorities — proscription or toleration ; (3) attitude of monolingual speakers and members of the bilingual elite toward the creole and degree of loyalty toward the creole and the official language ; (4) absence of a linguistic gradient between the creole and the official language. These criteria make possible predictions about the amount of language engineering undertaken in behalf of the creole, and it comes as no surprise that only in the Dutch Antilles and Haiti have the creole languages been endowed with a relatively stable orthography, for instance. Because of economic conditions that result in very low percentages of school attendance by children and, consequently, in a high proportion of creole monolinguals, it is only in Haiti that the creole may be expected to displace, or at least attain equal status with, the official language, French. But this new role will require, in addition to recognition of Haitian Creole as an official language and normalization of the orthography, extensive standardization. The establishment of a standard norm will require more rigorous observation of the sociolinguistic setting of creole in Haiti and of the attitude of various types of speakers toward geographical and social dialects.