Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
| Subject: | Is creole considered a language? |
|---|---|
| Question: |
I've been debating with someone on whether Jamaican Creole is a language. The person believes that it is a language since it contains all of the features of a language. I believe that it would be considered a dialect since English is the standard language of the country and Jamaican Creole is used colloquially. However, I've read that defining a creole as a language differs from linguist to linguist. Who is correct? |
| Reply: |
English is, technically, a creole, given its historical origins. The same is likely to be claimed of many uses of language that we currently call “languages”. A dialect, on the other hand, is usually defined as a variety of the same language. For example, American English and British English are dialects of English – each with various sub-dialects. As you note, the choice to call a language a dialect or a dialect a language has to do with political decisions about which way(s) of speaking is/are official in a country. It has nothing to do with linguistic factors, hence the difficulty that you also note in providing linguistic criteria for a definition. These blog posts of mine may be of interest to you: Language “integrity”: http://beingmultilingual.blogspot.com/2012/05/language-integrity.html Being multilingual in a single language?: http://beingmultilingual.blogspot.com/2012/05/being-multilingual-in-single-language.html Madalena |
| Reply From: | Madalena Cruz-Ferreira click here to access email |
| Date: | 08-Jun-2012 |
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