Title: Language contact and linguistic imperialism in the Caribbean
Abstract:The linguistic territory of the Caribbean is characterized by the coexistence of many languages, partly of very diverse origin and structure: English and various European languages such as French, Spa...The linguistic territory of the Caribbean is characterized by the coexistence of many languages, partly of very diverse origin and structure: English and various European languages such as French, Spanish and Dutch coexist with pidgins and creoles that take one or more of the European languages as their lexifier. Thus, for instance, Jamaican Creole is English-based, whereas Papiamento derives its lexicon from both Spanish and Portuguese. To make the situation even more complex, most of the numerous Caribbean creoles have experienced the influence of various languages or even language families in the course of their emergence. For example, Papia-mento, spoken on the so-called ABC
islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), shows traces of both indigenous and African substrate languages, as well as Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. The aim of this paper is to analyse the linguistic situation in the Caribbean from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, paying special attention to the problem of language contact and language dominance on the different islands. After presenting an overview of the current linguistic situation in the Caribbean, various points are discussed that may have led to the current structure and position of selected Caribbean languages.Read More
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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