Lessons Learnt

I finally have the opportunity to read the information that Karlene forwarded to me. I cannot say that I am not enjoying the richness of this history lesson. It brought me to the realization of how uninformed I am of Trinidad. I feel however that the power is in the hands of those of us who decided to pursue this course to document Trinidad's dying culture and icons as much as possible so that the generations after can have an identity.

Now on to the lesson:

HISTORY OF PATOIS:
According to Gertrud Aub-Buscher in an article he wrote on www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/trinidad.html

• "... by the latter half of the 18th century, the (Trinidad) population, composed of Spaniards, the few Amerinidians who had survived, and some slaves imported from Africa, was decimated by disease to the point where the economy was stagnating for lack of manpower. To remedy this, in 1783 the King of Spain published a cédula de población, inviting any catholic subject of a monarch friendly to the Spanish crown to come and settle in Trinidad. The very favourable conditions set out (grants of land, exemption from taxes for 10 years etc.) attracted a large number of French colonists, who were ready to leave the French islands of the Caribbean following natural disasters and to escape from the unrest which was beginning to make itself felt. They came with their families and slaves, and the latter brought with them the language which had developed in the French posessions. Trinidad French Creole is therefore very similar to that of the French islands, especially Martinique, though it also developed its own traits, notably in its vocabulary.
• During the 19th century, Trinidad French Creole was in effect the lingua franca of the working population of this British colony, spoken not only by the slaves who had brought it, but also learned and used by the indentured labourers imported from Asia after the abolition of slavery in 1838, and picked up from their nannies by the children of the French planters. It maintained its position into the beginning of the 20th century, but then was superseded by Trinidad English Creole, becoming only a very minor mosaic of Trinidad linguistic usage...
• In the early part of the 20th century, there were still monolingual speakers of patois, especially in the villages of the Northern Range. However, it was stigmatized as 'broken French', even by its native speakers, and under increasing pressure from Trinidad English Creole. At the beginning of the 21st century there remain very few Trinidadians for whom Trinidad Fench Creole is the natural or main means of communication, and it is to be feared that, despite the efforts fo those trying to revive it as an important part of their heritage, Trinidad French Creole may before long join the long list of languages becoming extinct...
• There is no standard orthography for Trindad French Creole, as it is essentially an oral language...."

HOW TO SAVE AN ENDANGERED LANGUAGE
On October 1st, 2006 there was an article printed in the Sunday Express entitled: Pou lanmou Patois - For the love of Patois, by Julien Neaves in an interview with Dr Jo-Anne S. Ferreira. According to the article, Dr Ferreira is a Lecturer in Linguistics at UWI and coordinator of the French Lexicon Creaole course at UWI. In her interview she outline six main support factors based on David Crystal's book "Language Death" (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

1. "The first step for an endangered language to progress is for its speakers to raise their visibility or social profile in the wider community, for example beginning with the media such as regular column in the daily newspaper, an occasional programme exposing the language on radio or television, a cultural celebration or a religious festival, and other areas eventually....
2. The second step is if the language's speakers have a strengthened and stable economic base such as language and culture tourism. Ferreira noted that in Venezuela they are planning to get government funding to assist in various ways....
3. The third step is if its speakers have legal suport of their linguistic rights through legislation protecting their language such as The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.....
4. The foruth step is if speakers have a strong presence in the educaitonal system such as bilingual and other educational programmes, and native speakers should be trained as teachers....
5. The fifth step is if speakers can write their language down (literacy). Ferreira noted that there is already the standardized writing system accepted throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere with minor modifications per territory.... She added that we already have J.J. Thomas ' The theory and Practice of Creole Grammar, one of the first ever patois grammars fo any French Creole anywhere, produced by a Trinidadian in Trinidad back in 1869.
6. The final step according to Crystal is that if speakers make use of electronic technology such as websites with audio recordings of songs and storeis, history, news, recipes. Ferreira noted that there are over 500 languages with an internet presence now."