Creoles

1
Creoles Language Rights

• LG474 notes
• Language Rights
• Peter L Patrick
• Univ of Essex

2
Two Creole Cases

• Contrast 2 situations
• Jamaica large majority of Creole speakers with
  no guarantee of non-discrimination on grounds of
  language (based on Brown-Blake 2005)
• Nicaragua small minority of coastal Creole
  speakers with problematic conception
  implementation of language rights on ethnic
  grounds (based on Freeland 2004)

3
The Caribbean
4
Creole English in Jamaica

• JamC a language of ethnic and national
  identification
• Formed c1700 from African British English
  inputs
• Other language groups now very small bilingual
• 2.5m speakers of JC in Jamaica, 20-50k overseas
• gt90 of population of African origins, lt2
  white
• Under 10 are native speakers of Standard JamEng
• Ie societal bilingualism but not for many
  individuals
• Std Eng language of school/govt/media til
  1970-80s
• Diversity not diglossic, bilingual or
  bidialectal, but a Creole continuum linked to
  social stratification

5
Mural at University of the West Indies, Mona,
Jamaica
6
Status of Creole English

• English, JamC are not recognized as official
  languages in law
• But English is presumed to be the national
  language, eg
• Art. 20 of the Jamaican Constitution provides for
  assistance of interpreters in court for suspects
  who cannot understand English
• Legislative review of Bill of Rights (2001)
  proposed to include language as grounds for
  prohibiting discrimination.
• Does not yet exist in any Commonwealth Caribbean
  constitution,
• though most are based on European Convention for
  the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
  Freedom which does have it
• Is it because JamC is not perceived as distinct
  from English?
• Pre-Independence debates considered recognizing
  some African language for heritage reasons in
  Constitution no mention of JC!
• Compare LPP 29 Selling National Language
  Ideology

7
Grounds for discrimination

• Jam. Constn prohibits discrimination on grounds
  of race, colour, place of origin, political
  opinion, creed
• Revised Charter of Rights plans to add sex, class
• Arguably mother tongue is immutable like race,
  sex, etc.
• One can alter ones linguistic identity so too
  other grounds (political views, religion) can be
  easily changed
• Committee strongly favored outlawing
  discrimination based on language in comparable
  situations, but had
• ...reservations about the state being vulnerable
  if it failed to give equal prominence to Creole
  in all contexts

8
2 theories of discrimination, I

• Direct discrimination (US law disparate
  treatment)
• Objective to promote equality of treatment
• People distinguished on specific ground may not
  be treated differently in the same context,
  resulting in (dis)advantage
• Negative duty the state must simply not
  discriminate
• Ex equal opportunity hiring practices
• (Proving disp. treatment in US law requires
  evidence of intent)
• Matches definition of discrimination in Jam.
  Constitution
• Not burdensome or costly for state to put into
  practice
• What then is the problem? Why the reservations?
  Cant language be incorporated in Charter of
  Rights?

9
2 theories of discrimination, II

• Indirect discrimination (US law disparate
  impact)
• Objective to promote substantive equality of
  outcome
• Formally equal treatment may lead to unequal
  results
• Such practices may be prohibited where they
  result in disadvantage to a protected group
• (No need to prove intent to discriminate under US
  law)
• Positive duties may be required of the state
• Principle treat different groups differently to
  achieve comparable results movement toward
  equality over time
• Ex affirmative action hiring practices
• May impose high costs on state to achieve social
  goals

10
Direct vs indirect discrimination
11
Nature of the reservations

• Must the state provide translation/interpretation
  from/ into JamC in all public forums and
  communications?
• Is official bilingualism required to support said
  rights?
• How can it work if most Jamaicans dont recognize
  that JamC is a language distinct from English?
• What are the consequences for the school system?
• Are other-language speakers entitled to said
  rights?
• No action taken, pending clarification and
  language planning work see Jamaican Language
  Unit

12
Comparable case in US law

• Lau v Nichols (1974) 14th Amendment equal
  protection
• 2,856 Chinese-dominant schoolchildren needed
  language help
• 63 received no translation or ESL class only
  15 full-time help
• Court argued all children had the same
  educational opportunity, hence it did not
  illegally discriminate no duty to give special
  aid
• Ie, the deficiency lies within the children
  themselves in failing to learn the English
  language the Constitution offers no relief
• US Supreme Court moved analysis to Civil Rights
  Act Title VI
• students received fewer benefits from school,
  were deprived of a meaningful opportunity to
  participate mark of discrimination
• School must take steps to rectify the language
  deficiencies of children belonging to a minority
  group based on national origin
• Court did not endorse bilingual education (but
  Lau Guidelines by HEW and Equal Educational
  Opportunity Act of 1974 did for a time..)

13
Can indirect cases be won?

• Lau and the EEOA invoked positive duties of (US)
  state
• Since most Jamaicans are Creole
  monolingual/dominant and JamC is historically
  associated w/class and colour,
• A monoglot policy of public education and
  communication in English creates disparate
  impact, advantaging English/ bilingual group over
  Creole monolinguals
• Creole-dominants are excluded from full
  participation in activities and processes
  sponsored and required by state
• English-only is policy but already not reality in
  classrooms
• Reservations not legally well-founded since new
  Charter only outlaws direct discrimination
  indirect type unlikely to succeed in litigation
  (acc. to Brown-Blake)

14
Political basis for opposition?

• Social stratification historically marked by
  race/colour but competence in Std Eng is the most
  overt marker today
• Middle-class bilinguals inherited political
  hegemony from colonial govt. nation-building
  via education
• MC act as language brokers for lower class
  dealing w/officialdom
• Outlawing indirect linguistic discrimination
  could redress limited access of WC to state
  info/institutions/control, thus
• Threaten source of political and economic power
  of MC
• Reservations of Committee may thus be ideological
  and protective of self-interest
• JC remains a (90!) minority language not a
  means of vertical mobility or full participation
  in national institutions

15
The way forward in Jamaica

• Language planning (corpus, status acquisition
  LP) in order to remove objections to legislative
  changes
• Implement orthography for JamC 1 Std, or many
  NStd?
• Develop mass literacy in it alongside StdEng
  literacy?
• Develop admin./technical JamC terminology for
  officials
• Expand mass-media and publishing domains for JamC
• Language policy initiatives
• Define employment criteria in terms of language
  needs
• Monitor provision of state services w.r.t.
  bilingual materials
• Educate the public ( legislators) on language
  issues
• Ultimately
• Endorse both English JamC as official national
  languages

16
What has been happening re LRs in the Caribbean?

• 2001 proposal to include language as a basis for
  non-discrimination in the Constitution of Jamaica
• 2002 Establishment of Jamaica Language Unit
  pursuant to report by parliamentary committee
  which had considered the proposal.
• 2011 Charter on Language Rights and Language
  Policy in the Creole-speaking Caribbean adopted
  by Kingston conference
• Significance
• One of few international documents dealing
  exclusively with language rights
• Regionality
• Recognises the particular linguistic environment
  of Caribbean Creoles ie they are majority
  languages w/o official recognition
• Deals with all languages (including indigenous,
  endangered and sign) within the linguistic space
  of the Caribbean Creole-speaking territories

17
Plans, Problems and Politricks I

• Ministry of Education Youth and Culture (MOEYC)
  has set options for bilingual education in
  Jamaica
• 1. Declare the Jamaican Language situation
  bilingual ascribing equal language status to SJE
  and JC. Tailor instruction to accommodate this
  status and permit instruction and assessment in
  both languages. Produce printed materials in both
  languages, and permit teaching in both languages
  using appropriate instructional strategies.
• 2. While retaining SJE as the official language,
  promote the acquisition of basic literacy in the
  early years (eg. K 3) in the home language
  JC and facilitate the development of English
  as a second language.

18
Plans, Problems and Politricks II

• 3. Maintain SJE as the official language and
  promote basic communication through oral use of
  the home language in early years while
  facilitating development of literacy in English
• (Draft Language Education Policy, 2001 p. 20)
• ...MOYEC has adopted Option 3, despite
  reservations as it was viewed as the most
  feasible. The objections to Options 1 and 2 are
  on the grounds that they are
• not immediately feasible as there is no agreed
  orthography for Jamaican Creole... Issues such as
  funding for the adequate supply of literacy
  materials as well as political and social
  attitudes to Creole as a medium of instruction
  (Bryan 2000), particularly the latter, present
  obstacles difficult to overcome.

19
Jamaican Patwa in mass media
20
Comparing Creole Cases

• Problems of JamC are typical African diaspora
  ones
• State goals nation-building, modernization,
  social/economic progress, participatory
  democracy, social inclusion
• Herderian myth of 1 people (Out of many, one
  people), 1 national identity, 1 (official,
  standard) language poor match with post-slavery,
  creolized, syncretic Caribbean realities
• Similar issues in very different context
  Nicaragua
• African-descent English Creole in
  Spanish-dominant state
• Size/scale contrasts instead of 95 of
  population, now 1
• Regional links with indigenous peoples of coast
• Both sociolinguistic factors crucial to
  interpreting law, securing/implementing language
  rights

21
Caribbean 1730 Miskito Coast
22
Nicaragua Miskito/Creole

• Miskito Coast of Nic. pop. 118,000 (Foladori et
  al 1982)
• Eng Creole spoken by various coastal ethnic
  groups
• Creoles, African-European ancestry MCC L1
  50k/20
• Negro/Creole racial divide, upward assimilation
  gt Creole
• Indigenous peoples Sumu (4), Rama (0.5) MCC
  L1
• Post-slavery ethnicities Garifuna African-Indian
  (1), L1 and Miskito African-Indian-European
  ancestry (57), L2
• Also Ladinos Spanish-speaking mestizos (15),
  L2
• Spanish conquest 1520 British in Providence 1631
• Pacific region the focus of Nic., Hispanic
  mestizaje state cultural, economic, linguistic
  assimilation of indigenes
• Caribbean coast multilingual, interethnic
  w/indigenous cultures, English influence,
  tradition of regional autonomy

23
Mestizaje Indigenismo

• Nic. inherits Latin Am. liberal indigenismo
  philosophy
• Indigenismo a benign form of mestizaje
  (assimilation), with an essentialist focus on
  group identity
• separates material culture from non-material
  practices
• After Sandinista revolution, plans to develop
  Coasts economy and foster local culture, esp.
  language
• Languages need revitalizing and rescate.
• Accepts definition of culture as bounded by
  national or ethnic lines and internally
  homogenous
• Idealizes indigenous past, little knowledge of
  present
• Sees culture/identity as best expressed in
  language

24
Sandinista vs(a-vis?) Costeño

• Costeño identity all on coast, focus on
  indigenous
• All distinguished from Mestizos, usurpers of
  local power
• Traditionally marginal to Hispanic colonial
  process
• How did 1979 Sandinista revolution affect
  Costeños?
• Region never effectively incorporated into Nic.
  state
• Distrust of mestizo interventions, different
  assumptions
• Shared goal of ending racial and ethnic
  discrimination
• Sandinismo version of indigenismo blend
  indigenous European cultures into new Latin
  American one
• But S. distrust Anglo culture, ambivalent re
  African identity
• Purist focus on revitalizing indigenous
  languages/cultures
• Sees cultural change loss of authentic identity
• Attempt to split Creoles from Miskitu, Sumu Rama

25
Transnational creole Identities

• Creoles have triple identity, each
  trans-national
• Negros African diasporic heritage out of
  slavery lt Jamaica via Rastafari, Garveyism, US
  identity politics
• Creoles Anglo diasporic focus on English,
  elite lt free people of colour independent,
  Protestant, literate
• Costeños - autochthonous (c) creole group,
  (blood) links to indigenes, resistance to
  Spanish/Sandinistas
• Focus on Creole asserts (nationally-/racially-de
  rived) non-inferiority, status, via education
  devalues Negro
• Focus on Costeño asserts affiliation with
  indigenous peoples, claim to Nic.
  roots/citizenship undercuts Anglo
• Focus on Negro asserts African class
  awareness, reminder of colour, class divisions
  w/in Anglo Creoles

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Mixing peoples gt language

• All mark distinction from usurping Mestizo group
• Irony C/creole mestizo/aje opposed, but
  both are ways of naming cultural syncretism,
  change and invention
• Recent identities, unvalidated except at state
  level
• Reflect conflict b/w European powers/languages
  Creole recalls English struggle vs Spanish,
  resists Sandinistas
• Common investment in Miskito Coast Creole
  language
• English-lexicon Creole w/early Miskito (flora,
  fauna) and later Spanish (modern/public life)
  borrowings Spanish bilingualism gt syntactic
  calques (Holm 1978, 1988)