The Development of English-based Creole in Jamaica - Case Study Example

The Development of English-based Creole in Jamaica Introduction The fact why and how an English-based Creole, more generally a Creole, is promoted in a country lies in the social concerns of the language that is fairly dominated, determined and shaped by the traits of the socio-cultural variables of a particular country in any given period. Very often sociolinguists define language as a kind of social behavior that plays a significant role in an individual’s interactions with his surroundings (McMahon, 1994). These individual-surrounding interactions are influenced by the geo-socio-political and economic variables of a particular age of the country. Consequently, an individual’s language also undergoes the interactions with other languages existing in his surroundings and such interactions between the languages result into the structuring of a new form of language, called Pidgin that the individuals of different languages can use at their own conveniences. Such Amenities and conveniences that a Pidgin provides its speakers evolves from the amalgamation of the convenient forms and contents of both of the languages (Kachru & Nelson, 2006). Indeed a Pidgin exists to serve a particular set of purposes such as economic, political, social, religious, etc. When along the passage of social transformation a Pidgin or a set of varied Pidgins is widely used by the people of a country, a Creole happens to exist in the form of a stable language with particular grammatical rules and norms. So it is difficult to distinct the separate existence of a Creole along the Pidgin-Creole continuum (Bickerton, 1975). This paper aims to substantiate the development of a Creole in a country, particularly in Jamaica. Definition and Development of Creole and Pidgin Various linguists have defined Creole in different ways. The commonalities of these is that all of them consider a Creole as a stable language with a set of grammatical norms and rules that evolve from its prior form, Pidgin, whereas the later serves as a lingua franca used by several linguistic communities for a particular purpose. Pidgin and Creole are often described as “trade language” and “contact language” and necessarily a Creole originates from a Pidgin. As Foy (2007) says in this regard, A Creole language is usually described as the descendant of a pidgin language and created when a pidgin language acquires native speakers and develops into a mother tongue, hence the popular assertion that a Creole language is any language with a pidgin in its ancestry (p. 9). An overall analysis of the development of a Pidgin and therefore, a Creole in any region is bound to reveal the fact that the cross-cultural interaction between two languages communities has played the role of a precondition in preparing the plot for the incarnation of a Creole. In such cases, the power balance was such that both of the language communities were forced to cope with each other in some way or other. The nature of these interactions between to language communities was such that most of these interactions occurred on the mass level. Consequently, Pidgin happened to emerge as the lingua franca of these language communities. Historical Context of the Development of the Jamaican Creole Around the mid seventeenth century, the rapid growth of industrialization pushed the European countries to set their colonies in the less developed countries for the accumulation of raw materials to feed the newly established the industries. The origin of Jamaican Creole was first embedded through the British evasion in 1655. The British came to Jamaica in the 16th century. But the true development of Jamaican Creole started through the invasion of 1655, which brought Jamaica under British control. During the Spanish colony, the Jamaican native language was significantly influenced by Spanish and French. However, the English based Jamaican Creole evolved during the British reign of 300 years in the country. It is remarkable that the British ruled Jamaica for about three hundred years. During this time span, the development of Jamaican Creole was significantly influenced by various national events. But the creolisation of Jamaican Pidgin was accelerated first by the growing nationalistic feeling among the Jamaicans during the 18th century. The emergence of a Pidgin in the county during the British rule is much determined by the nature of the presence of the British in this region. The British mainly invaded the country inspired by the advantages that its geographical position rendered. Being at the center of the Caribbean region the country was a perfect symbol of dominance. In addition, the lucrative trade of gold and silver was one of the reasons why the British invaded the country. Hereby the interactions of the British language community with the Jamaican native language community were on the trade and the dominant-dominated level. This interaction also occurred between Jamaican Vernacular and other linguistic communities, as JFLL (2008) says, [Jamaican Creole] developed out of a contact situation of English dominance and West African conquest during the period of New World slavery. Under the explosive pressure of the plantation economy, the languages of West Africa were mixed with dialects from varying classes and speech communities of Britain to produce a new vernacular and the language of the common people. (p.8) British Invasion of 1655 and the Birth of Jamaican Pidgin The Pidgin-Creole cycle in Jamaica started long before the British invasion in the country. Even before the invasion of 1655, the British came to Jamaica as settler and also there were some English-speaking pirates. However, the Pidgin-Creole cycle received a new twist around the late 17th century after the invasion, when the English speaking population started to come to the land at an increasing rate. The increasing presence of the English in the country largely contributed to the rapid formation of a Pidgin. Indeed the increasing presence of the English was an indicator of the expanded trade of the gold, silver, and other lucrative materials. Here it is significant to note that the extended trade of the gold and silver started to become increasingly a means of livings for Jamaican. So the Jamaican native language around that time was forced to interact with English. Natural of Late 17th Century and the Nativization Progress of Creolization The creolisation of Jamaican Pidgin was further contributed by the events of the late 17th century. After the destruction of Port Royal by an earthquake in 1692, the English Population began to leave the county and the African population increased when the slave trade was abolished. In addition, after some years, the British signed a peace treaty with the Spanish and the treaty drew an end to the need for the buccaneers. These events of the late 17th century exerted significant influences on the creolisation of the Jamaican Pidgin. As a lot of English Speaking people left the country trade of gold and silver sank and the Jamaican were forced to the cultivation and exportation of sugar, cocoa and other agricultural products. Around this time, Jamaican Pidgin started to expand. Accumulating more words and rules from the dominant language Jamaican Pidgin further narrowed its communication gap. Growing Jamaican Nationalism and Popularly Accepted Creole The Nationalist zeal during the late 18th century and the whole 19th century hugely affected the creolisation of the Jamaican Pidgin. Around the late 18th century, nationalist zeal swept over the whole country. People of Jamaica liked more to identified as Jamaican than to be identified as British. They showed a great concern for speaking in Jamaican Creole than in British English. With this nationalistic zeal, Jamaican Creole for the first time started to emerge as a language of Creole Family (Alleyne, 1971, p.178-89). During the 19th century, the course of events led rather to petrify the nationalistic zeal to speak in Jamaican Creole. The slave trade in Jamaica was brought to a halt in 1807. The abolition of the slave trade in Jamaica was tremendous. This abolishment of slavery trade was followed by the fierce rebellion in 1832 and finally the abolishment of slavery in the country in 1836. Suspended Immigration: The Stability of Jamaican Creole Though the 19th century is marked with some events that rather fueled the nationalistic zeal for a ‘language of own’, there also are some other aftereffects of these events that contributed to the stability of Jamaican. Among these events, the abolition of slavery is the most momentous. It not only affected the presence of the British in the country adversely, but also it choked the flow of the immigration of slaves. As the immigration of slave was ended, the Jamaican Creole was now more secured from the influences of a number of other African and Asian languages. Though Jamaica was under the British control until 1962, the British presence started to be disentangled from the Jamaican people at beginning of the 20th century. Consequently, further effects of the dominant English language on the Creole are less discernible. How Jamaican Creole is Being Promoted At present, several factors are working behind the present promotion of Jamaican Creole. First, there is a common popular trend to use Jamaican Creole. It is because of the popularity of the language that is related with the nationalistic passion of the people and the affinity of the young generation as their mother tongue. Even then, Jamaican Creole lacks some features and characteristics of a stable language. As a result, Jamaican Standard English was structured and fleshed out according to both of American English and British English. Jamaican Standard English is the officially used language of the country. It is used in most of the written forms of the language. As it is used in the educational system of Jamaica, it is the language of the educated people. It is remarkable that Jamaican Standard English is characterized with the pursue of perfection following both the British and American English but Jamaican Creole is widely used because of its popularity among the common Jamaicans, as Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL) (2008) says, “Although the official language is Jamaican Standard English (JSE), regardless of ethnic background, the majority of Jamaicans speak Jamaican Creole (JC), which is considered a dialect of English by some and a language in its own right by linguists” (p. 8). Interactions between Jamaican Standard English and Jamaican Creole Since the independence from the British dominance in 1966, Jamaican Creole does not have proper written form that was intended to ensure the stability of the language. However, a significant number of literary works were published in Jamaican Creole because of the popularity of the language. Such publishing has always played a significant role in fixing a stable form of it. At the same time, the combined effort to achieve a British standard has a great consequence on the stabilization of the language borrowing the compatible features from British English, yet retaining the popularity. The closeness of Jamaican Creole to English has posed several challenges for the promotion of the language. As it is pointed out in the National Report of Jamaica (2008), The closeness to English presents challenges...yet the experience for Jamaican children is that the language used and heard everywhere is Jamaican Creole. Teachers slip in and out of the two languages without consciously differentiating the two. (p. 8) Decreolization Trend in Jamaican Vernacular Whereas the decreolizing trend is visible in Jamaican Standard English, Jamaican Creole is opposite to this decreolizing spirit in essence. British English as a superstrate holds a prestigious place in among the people of the upper-class Jamaican society. There is always a pursue among the educated to achieve the British standard perfection in their language (McArthur, 1998). However, the opposite trend to use Jamaican Creole among the common people results into the intrusion of Creole in Jamaican Standard English. The reverse intrusion is also visible in the Creole language of the country. In this regard, it is really difficult to determine which language is to be considered as the superstrate or the substrate along the decreolizing continuum of Jamaican vernacular (Cheshire, 1991, Ch. 38). Conclusion Finally, Jamaican English-based Creole is undergoing many changes and transformation, as a language usually goes. Obviously, the socio-cultural, political, and economic contexts have greater effects on these changes. The center of these changes and transformation within the language is to achieve wholeness as a stable language. References Alleyne, M. C. (1971). Acculturation and cultural matrix of creolization. In Hymes, D. (Ed.), Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, pp. 169–187 University of the West Indies Mona, Jamaica. Cambridge University Press Bickerton, D. (1975). Dynamics of a creole continuum. Cambridge University Press Cheshire, (1991), Standardization in a Creole Continuum, Ch. 38 Foy, C. (2007), Pidgin and Creole Language Genesis Deconstructing the Status Quo, Retrieved on May 12, 2009 from http://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/csll/cfoy0607.pdf - Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning, (2008), National Report of Jamaica, Retrieved on May 12, 2009 from www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/INSTITUTES/UIL/confintea/pdf/National_Reports/Latin%20America%20.../Jamaica.pdf - Kachru, B. B. & Nelson, C. L., (2006), Pidgin and Creole, Part 2, Ch. 18 McMahon, A. M. S. (1994). Understanding Language Change. Cambridge University Press. McArthur, (1998), Substrates and Superstrates, Ch. 7 Read More