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Description:
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This new work brings together both reviews and critiques of current
theories of creolization and provides new data from a sociolinguistic case
study of speakers of St. Lucian French-lexifier Creole (Kwéyòl) on the
island of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. St. Lucian Kwéyòl has its origins
in the 17th century after the French settled there in 1651 from Martinique
with their slaves. In the following years, thousands more African slaves
were imported. A rugged volcanic island with a roadless interior, St. Lucia
provided a haven for runaway slaves (nègres marrons or maroons) from other
islands. Buffeted by the forces of globalization and the continued impact
of English, Kwéyòl continues to be widely-spoken on St. Lucia today. The
crux of the book is the case study that examines Kwéyòl-speaking St.
Lucians as a minority community on St. Croix where Kwéyòl is but one of
numerous languages spoken, including Caribbean English, Crucian Creole,
several other Caribbean Creole languages, Spanish, and Arabic. The
collection of data and analytical attention are centered on questions of
language choice, language attitudes, ethnolinguistic identity, and
bilingualism. This book will be welcomed by students and researchers in
linguistics, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics and anthropology with a
special interest in Creole languages and linguistic minorities in
multilingual speech communities.
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