Open Controversy: Weaknesses in Genetic Classification Theories
According to DeGraf (2014, p. 233), in spite of the volumes of studies on creole, it has not been “operationalized with rigorous and reliable criteria in linguistic theory.” Creole is a sociohistorically as well as politically-motivated construct that is usually misidentified as linguistic (DeGraf 2014; Mufwene, 2008). The word creole itself comes from the Portuguese word “crioulo” as well as the Spanish “criollo” which generally means “raised in the home” (DeGraf 2014, p. 233). The term was first used in the classification of certain animal and plant varieties rather than in languages. In the history of the Caribbean, the term was eventually used for the classification of biological beings, including man. Therefore, the word “Creole” usually precedes the official classifications of different types of species. As seen here, the original use of creole did not have any structural properties, and may be applied as a descriptor of speech varieties rather than species varieties. DeGraf (2014) explains that the original creole speakers were those working in Caribbean plantations (Classic creole) with significant
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Creole exceptionalism is comprised of several enduring hypotheses regarding Creole languages in which they are regarded as constituting “a sui generis class on phylogenetic and/or structuralgrounds” (De Graf, 2014, p. 233), For instance, it has been hypothesized that creoles are “degenerate offshoots” of their European predecessors (DeGraf, 2014, p. 233). There are also creoles with ‘special hybrids” with distinctive Genealogy (DeGraf, 2014, p. 233). Also, creoles arethe only modern languages that have not evolved in a normal manner relative to other languages simply because they do not have structurallyfull-fledged predecessors. Lastly, the pidgin-to-creole transition “recapitulates the transition from pre-human protolanguage to human language” (DeGraf, 2014, p.
The larger of the two subgroups, Cajun French, is more properly known in today’s society as Louisiana French. Cajuns are an ethic group that is comprised of the Acadian exiles. The Acadians are a group of French speaking people who travelled from Canada to Louisiana in the late eighteenth century. The reason they wore forced to leave Acadia is because of the British Conquest. The language of the Acadians originated from the French of seventeenth century France. Once they arrived and settl...
Creoles struggle loyalty to their motherland and birth country. In Document A Simon Bolivar stated that creoles are in a complicated situation. They are trying to decide which side they should support. In Document B it showed how unfair creoles were treated even though by blood, peninsulares and creoles are the same. The creoles had a lot less power and worst jobs. The
Gervel, David. "Island Magazine Discover the Creole Culture around the World : Louisiana Creole Culture & Voodoo Tradition." Island Magazine Discover the Creole Culture around the World : Louisiana Creole Culture & Voodoo Tradition. N.p., 26 Aug. 2012. 30 Apr. 2014. Web.
The caudillo often came from the creole aristocracy, which was supported by the military and the Roman Catholic Church. Occasionally, a mestizo or mulatto took power who quickly adopted the characteristics of the upper class. The main problem with having a creole in power was that his const...
...d issues of post-colonialism in Crossing the Mangrove. It is clear that Conde favors multiplicity when it comes to ideas of language, narrative, culture, and identity. The notion that anything can be understood through one, objective lens is destroyed through her practice of intertextuality, her crafting of one character's story through multiple perspectives, and her use of the motif of trees and roots. In the end, everything – the literary canon, Creole identity, narrative – is jumbled, chaotic, and rhizomic; in general, any attempts at decryption require the employment of multiple (aforementioned) methodologies.
The Creoles wanted to somehow get political power, but they were being rejected of it; however, they were gaining nobility. They owned the “largest and richest mines and haciendas” (Hook Exercise), but even with wealth, the Creoles “held few high-ranking jobs in the government” (Hook Exercise); hence, those jobs went to the peninsulares. They were also the “least oppressed” (Modern World History) of those who were born in the Latin America as well as the most educated, for they adopted the Enlightenment ideas. Also, when the monarchy collapsed, the Creoles wouldn’t let the “political vacuum to remain unfilled, their lives and
...e, Geneviève, and Armin Schwegler. Creoles, Contact, and Language Change: Linguistics and Social Implications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub., 2004. Print.
...spoke a Spanish Creole. This made a clear distinction between the two and made it easy for the government to identify the difference. The reader sees how such themes of Birth and Death show so prominently throughout the characters that one must focus on how birth and deaths affect the concept of the individual relating to their own Negritude. It is culture, not skin tones but rather the beliefs and values that each country be it Haiti or Dominican Republic relate to. Danticat’s novel helps us understand the strengths and limits that Rene Depestre states in The Birth of Caribbean Civilisation “there is a progressive ‘negritude’ that expounds the need to rise above all the alienations of man . . . and there is “an irrational reactionary and mystic version of ‘negritude’ which serves . . . as a cultural base for neo-colonialist penetration into our countries” (244).
Louisiana is filled with a great number of diversified and varied people all ranging from French, Spanish, English, German, and Acadian to West Indians, Africans, Irish, and Italian, and they were all a part of the original settlers that established the state (“About Louisiana”). They are also the ones who inspired the “Cajun Country” that Louisiana is today by bringing their culture, traditions, and heritage with them. The original French pronunciation of the w...
Ness. Philip A. Grafting Old Rootstock: Studies in Culture and Religion of the Chamba, Duru, Fula, and Gbaya of Cameroun. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., 1982.
Creole population began in the late 18th century to realize that the colonial system greatly hindered their development. From an economic point of view, the colony was only a source of precious metals and products from the plantation economy and hindering the development of the modern metropolis industrial productions. It was blocked and hindered foreign trade. Spain forced the colonies to trading only with him.
Language is a mean of communication in any given society. It represents the ability to evolve and progress through the ongoing process of living with other human beings. Many can perceive this instrument as tool of liberation and transformation but others as an instrument to enslave, manipulate or oppress a group of people. Whichever the case one need to acknowledge that it is necessary and not a waste of time the many different discussions about this ongoing topic regardless of the time period or social context any country might have. In Puerto Rico, there has been an ongoing dilemma about languages; Dr. Alicia Pousada examines on her essay what many might define “the language madness on the island”. Throughout this paper some of her most interesting ideas will be shared and discussed so that this already extended topic might find another page to take place.
Ordinarily, Native American tribes were separated by ethno-linguistic groups. The immense linguistic diversity was due to the isolation and disperses of the tribes all throughout the United States. The surviving languages were not numerous and they had the widest geographic distribution that was all over the country. A few became combined with roots of other tribe languages, which evolved new languages and dialects causing a great deal of miscellany and variety. Unfortunately, a large quantity of these languages became extinct with the European contact the...
The Cherokee language is spoken today by about fourteen thousand people in western North Carolina and northeastern Oklahoma. During the period in which American natives faced European invasion, three major dialects were recognized (Power Source). These di...
...d the study of linguistics has allowed postcolonial historians to get a view point from theses Indigenous cultures about the European influences they have encountered. Both of these theories benefit from each other, and are able to help historians elaborate on finding the facts and presenting them as a primary source. To consider these theories not to be main factors for historians would be a false statement, as historians in the twenty-first century, we must enable ourselves to use such theories because there are always issues to argue about and pulling from the past and engaging in it can complete our argument.