Creoles are a form or variant of a language that should be accepted by national governments and societies. Creoles and pidgins are variants of a language, often having English, French or other European languages as the “mother-language” that dominate the spoken language of a society. While creoles are established languages, such as Gullah and Papiamentu, pidgins are unofficial versions that are devised to speak with an unfamiliar language. When a pidgin language is taught to a younger generation or other people, it becomes a creole. As the use of that creole is popularized and spread, it can grow in numbers of speakers up to the millions. These vernacular languages, as explained by Irene Thompson, (2016) in Creole Languages, states “When groups …show more content…
To fuel a global economy, efforts are made to establish a standardized language that will make communication as simple as possible for all foreign endeavors. It could be said that creoles undermine this philosophy, individualizing and personalizing languages rather than uniting them. As authors Pieter Muysken and Norval Smith, (1995) state “It is clear in fact that creole languages develop as the result of ‘linguistic violence’ and, as we shall see, frequently social violence too” (P. 4). Social and linguistic violence are key factors in the development of creoles as societal and governmental persecution have shaped the languages of regions in the world. In the U.S. and other countries in the world that speak English as a primary language, great efforts have been taken to establish standardized English as the primary or secondary language of use. Words such as slang, dialects, and language mixtures have all been attributed to non-standard usages of a language. Yet, Even in Hawaii, a U.S. state, Hawaiian English and Pidgin English have become official languages. Kerry Chan, (2015) from CNN explains “The results from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed a number of Pidgin and Hawaiin Pidgin speakers. Both languages were added to the census list that included over 100 languages, representative of the islands diversity” (pp. 3). From these results, it can be seen that cultural diversity is an important aspect of society on this island. Why then, should any language hold precedence over another when there is a clear example of how developments in language can prosper while having multiple or even a hundred officially spoken languages? From this example, it seems that the development and success of creoles is not only accepted, but also
“Standard English was imposed on children of immigrant parents, then the children were separated from native English speakers, then the children were labeled “inferior” and “ignorant” (Hughes 70) because they could not speak Standard English. In addition to feeling inferior about their second language skills, these students also felt inadequate in regard to speaking their own mother tongues” (qtd in Kanae)
What does Bethell mean when he writes, "If the Creoles had one eye on their masters, they kept the other on their servants"? conscious social position, not friendly w/ peninsulares but worried from lower class revolution
Even though the dominance of a language can allow for the loss of a culture, it can also bring awareness. In schools, local community centers and other various places, foreign languages are taught, not only do non-native speakers take on these languages but native speakers do as well to keep their culture. By doing so it “revitalizes cultures and cultural artifacts through foreign influences, technologies, and markets.” (Gerdes
Have you ever been to another country, state, or even city and realized how different your accent may be? Have you been asked to repeat a word or phrase that you may say differently? Sometimes we were asked for a good laugh, but that’s not always the case. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both authors use personal narrative to demonstrate how their lives and identity are affected by their language and culture.
Language can bring people together but can also isolate. The United States is known as a melting pot, not only does that refer to culture but also the many different languages. We know of language barriers, but very seldom do we think of the language barriers within our borders. Even with the language barriers it solidifies the need for a national language, the United States of America should allow the freedom to express one’s culture while maintaining English as our national language, therefore offering common ground to its citizens.
“Religion is a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man and nature” (107). When the Europeans colonized Haiti, they brought over African slaves with them. These slaves had already established African religious practices, prior to being brought to Haiti. As the French got acquainted with Haiti, they were also forcing Roman Catholic traditions upon the slaves. As a result, there was the birth of the religion Haitian Vodou. These enslaved Africans were not allowed to practice Haitian Vodou openly because it offended those that practiced Catholicism, the French wanted full control over the slaves in every aspect, and anyone outside of
Hawaii is greatly known as a “mixing pot of ethnicities”, due to the early plantation years; because of the mix in ethnicities a common language structure developed and produced a language that stemmed from diverse backgrounds. With the development of various ethnicities forming into one common language, Hawaii Pidgin was produced. Common sentence structures used today result in sentence structure such as, “How-zit sistah!” “Ehh, Aunteh no get nutz” “Da buggah was ono”. This form of language is commonly spoken today by majority of the locals throughout Hawaii. It is usually known that once one is born and raised in Hawaii, they tend to regularly speak Hawaii’s native tongue in their daily life. As a result, Hawaii Pidgin, also
The word community is defined as a group of individuals residing in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. We all, whether we know this or not, belong to particular communities and even sub communities (self contained community within an unusually large area). One particular community that I've been a part of during my entire life is the Haitian community. An Haitian Community is usually a place where a group of Haitian nationals reside, we share many cultural beliefs and practices together. In this paper I will be investigating some of the beliefs and practices of the Haitian Community.
Language is an important value for the nationalistic identity of a nation. Hispanic culture is the way of life of people from Latin America and Spain, and their main identifying factor is the fact that they speak Spanish as their main language. Therefore, Hispanics are not necessarily Spaniards but other groups like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans who speak Spanish are also part of this group (Shaw and Dennison 207). American culture on the other hand is mainly comprised of the people who speak English as their main dialect. Therefore, the Spaniards have Spanish as their native language while the Americans use Englis...
Day by day the World becomes more interconnected, we talk to people from other countries in languages that usually aren't our own, multi linguists now outnumber mono linguists and around 25% of the world's countries recognise two or languages as official (see Pearson). English has become the Lingua Franca of the world and native languages are starting to disappear. The fewer the number of speakers the quicker. One language that seems to have reversed the trend is the Garifuna language, indigenous to the Carribean coasts of Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Unique in the sense that, until recently, unlike other native languages in the Carribean Area, it did not form a creole. In the following I will give a brief overview of the origins of the language, the structure, it's current state and the reasons why it has been able to resists the phenomenon of language disappearence.
The two cultures that I identify myself with Haitian culture and American culture. The American culture is more dominant and I identify myself most with this culture. Although I was born in Haiti and Haitian culture was once my dominant culture, it is now my co-culture. Nonetheless, a combination of these two cultures would be Haitian-American culture.
Haiti is a very interesting country, people always want to visit places like Florida where it’s tropical. Well, if you want to visit a really tropical place you should go to Haiti. I promise you it doesn’t matter why you are going there: vacation, mission trip, or anything. You won’t regret it. I’m going to tell you more about Haiti, and how amazing it can be.
Hispanic American language is one that is adorable to many people due to its pattern of communication. In the article, there are many of the languages used in that exist in the United States some of which includes; African Americans, European Americans, Hispanic Americans among others. Some of the communication patterns of these languages have been clearly stated by identifying various factors like; emotions, eye contact, gestures, identity orientation, pacing and pause time, vocal patterns and the volume of their voice whenever they speak to someone. The article depicts Hispanic American languages as one of the best which can be used in public or businesses since it shows the one talking as a very humble individual.
Spanglish is known as a hybrid language combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English especially Spanish speech that uses many English words and expressions. Around the US, millions of citizens in major cities are speaking what some are calling a third language. According to an essay forum on Spanglish, some consider Spanglish a language disease, slang that should be taken care of immediately. A threat to the purity of both languages as a whole. To others they seek to develop their Spanglish speaking skills. Spanglish has changed the world, corporations have discovered it and it’s on television, radio, novels, rap and rock music. In this essay I will explain the significance the language ‘Spanglish’
Being bilingual always made my life differ as if I lived two lives, speaking Spanish at home and English everywhere outside of home. On the daily basis at my house, my family speaks Spanish. When we communicate we speak very fast, at times we can not even understand one another. After this occurs we all burst out in laughter super loud, no boundaries are enforced in our lexicon. The enforcement changes when entering a different discourse community.