Creoles

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  • Creoles
    • The new generations are taught the expanded form and this becomes their native language
      • As a result, and with little influence from older speaker, the language form develops into a fully functional language (Socially and message oriented)
    • Creolisation involves the expansion and development of the grammatical systems, lexicon and writing system
    • Nature of Creoles
      • Historically, Creole languages were considered low in status and referred to as 'patois'/'patwa'
      • Most Creoles (within Europe) derive from our continents having originated in the slave trades: Europe, Africa, North and South America
      • Creoles do not demonstrate a lack of stability- they are as describable as any officially recognised language and are not 'simple' languages
    • Level of Creole
      • Acrolect
        • The 'top' level. Closest to standard
      • Like pidgins, they exist in many forms
      • Basilect
        • Far from standard and are deep Creoles
      • Mesolect
        • In the middle will be versions further from the standard both grammatically and lexically
    • Vocabulary
      • It may be that these words which reflect the Caribbean or adaptation of existing English words
      • 'Vex'= 'Angry'
      • There will be a large number of words that are specific to that form
    • Grammar
      • Creole grammars is systematic and have their own rules
      • Nouns are not usually marked for plurality using inflections, instead a quantifier is used. But when referring to people, 'dem' is attached to the noun
        • 'di gyal-dem' = 'the girls'
      • Verbs tend not to be inflected to show 3rd person '-s' and tense markers are usually ommitted
      • The past tense is likely to be identical to present forms, therefore auxiliary verbs and adverbs may be used to indicate tense
      • The copula 'to be' is often omitted altogether or used in its infinitive form (Base form)
        • 'Be'
      • Interrogatives pronouns 'wh-' may be inverted with the subject when used to create a interrogative
    • Phonology
      • There are some distinctive features of Creole phonology, most of which result from mixing
      • /t/ and /?/ are not distinguished and are both pronounced /t/
      • /d/ and /ð/ are not distinguished and are both pronounced /d/
      • There appears to be a lack of dental fricatives, with the Creoles using alveolar plosives in there place
        • Alveolar Plosives= Front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge /s/, /z/. /t/, /d/
        • Dental fricative= Between the teeth /?/
      • Consonant clusters are reduced with the final consonant being omitted
        • 'most' = /m??s/
      • Elision and reduction are common in Creoles
        • 'And'=/?n/, 'for'= /f?/
      • Metathesis
        • Rearranging of phonemes and syllables in lexemes
          • 'to ask'. 'ask'= /?ks/
    • Code Switching
      • People of Afro-Caribbean Descent born in Britain often learn BrEng as their first language but can use and understand Creole forms
      • Code-switching however, is frowned upon in some language communities
      • This may result in the use of features from both the Creole language and BrEng in the same sentence/ utterance
      • This is known as code- switching and is common in bilingual speakers when the conversation is private and informal
    • Decreolisation
      • This is a hypothetical phenomenon whereby over time a Creole language reconverges with one of the standard languages from which it was originally derived
      • This is influenced more so by the superstrate language than the substrate language
      • Typically, the language with higher prestige( most often the lingua franca) will exert a much greater influence on the lower prestige language (the Creole)
      • Thus leading to the reintroduction of such complexities in the superstate language
        • Inflections, subordination

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