Introduction French Language(S) in Contact Worldwide

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Introduction French Language(S) in Contact Worldwide journal of language contact 7 (2014) 3-35 brill.com/jlc Introduction ∵ French Language(s) in Contact Worldwide History, Space, System, and other Ecological Parameters Françoise Gadet Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense & CNRS MoDyCo [email protected] Ralph Ludwig Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg [email protected] Abstract The awareness of language that culminated in France with the French Revolution has remained dominant till the present day: a nation une et indivisible corresponds to a concept of the national language as a homogenous entity, self-sufficient and free from outside and dialectal influences. This conception is contradicted by two historical facts, however. Firstly, various waves of language contact were constitutive of the emergence and development of the French language from the very beginning. Secondly, a new structure of varieties developed through the colonial expansion of France outside Europe, in which many forms of language contact are of significant importance. The best way to capture this diversity adequately is to adhere to a broadly ecological approach (linguistic ecology) that takes into account various parameters, such as history, social context, competence, and universals. This is demonstrated with samples of transcribed speech from Togo, Guadeloupe and Nova Scotia. The linguistic ecology approach is the guiding principle of all the articles in this volume. * The authors would especially like to thank France Martineau and Steve Pagel for their in- sightful remarks and stimulating discussions. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi 10.1163/19552629-00701002Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 09:50:50AM via free access <UN> 4 Gadet and Ludwig Keywords francophonia discontinua – ecology – Togo – Guadeloupe – Nova Scotia – Ewe – Creole – English The often complex history of the French language worldwide has given rise to a great diversity of vernaculars all around the world, in what could be called (following the tradition for English) “colonial French” or “post-colonial French”, i.e. French as it is spoken in every territory beyond the original European ones – “le berceau”. The diversity of French1 today is the result of complex eco- logical factors, events and processes, concerning its history and more particu- larly its contacts. The various types of contact with languages of different types, the relationships to standardisation and norms, and the degree of vita- lity (several Francophone situations are today obsolescent or close to attrition) are to be considered in relation to the consequences of two historical peculia- rities: colonial expansion during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (mainly in America first and then in Africa); and the effects of normative pressures in France itself after the high time of standardisation in the 17th century. French is therefore of great interest for general linguistics due to the diversity its vernaculars offer, fanning out as far as creole languages: French-based creoles are among the most widespread, and belong to two different geographic areas. There are many different ways of speaking French, and this gives it its impor- tance, more than its number of speakers, which remains modest: with roughly 90 million L1 speakers, together with about 20 million L2 speakers, French is usually ranked the 11th or 12th most spoken language in the world; English, by comparison, is probably the second (after Chinese) or the third (after Spanish). The French language appears to be the outcome of manifold language contacts and continues to be involved in contacts with a wide range of lan- guages worldwide. The attitudes and linguistic competence of French speakers in our modern world are the product of a long history of French language contact and can only be understood with such a background in mind. That is why this introduction will start by characterising what we call “Francophonia discontinua”, in a brief recap of the contact history of French in France and worldwide, and a review of the main corpora available (Part 1). Part 2 will present the analytical framework used to encompass the several factors 1 Unfortunately, the term “Frenches”, by analogy with “Englishes” to convey a pluralistic conception of the language, does not exist. But we mean here a plural when using the word “French” for the language. journal of languageDownloaded contact from Brill.com09/27/2021 7 (2014) 3-35 09:50:50AM via free access <UN> Introduction 5 for studying the ecology of present-day French worldwide. Part 3 presents three exemplary cases chosen among the (very numerous) situations not illus- trated otherwise in this issue: based on fine-grained corpus approaches, these cases provide insight into the complexity of Francophone situations. Finally Part 4 is a presentation of the global project and of the five articles of this issue of Journal of Language Contact. 1 French Language: Francophonia discontinua and the Role of Contact 1.1 Language Contact as Midwife for the French Language The history of French in France itself can be looked at as a long and constant history of different kinds of contacts.2 It is common knowledge that French developed from an oral variety of Latin spoken in Gaul. When Caesar conquered the Celts between 58 and 51 BCE his soldiers spoke a variety of Latin in different guises. This basic variety of modern Romance met with a Celtic substratum and absorbed, in particular, lexical traces of the Celtic language. New dominant constellations in language contact resulted from the collapse of the Roman Empire as a consequence of the German invasions. The Franks left the most lasting superstratum traces, accor- ding to Wartburg’s theory (1946 / 1971). These early centuries of Romance and French language history were characterised by social processes of “colonisation“ and “migration“; and on the linguistic level by “language contact”, “dominance of orality”, “demarcation” (sometimes referred to as “simplification” – see below Part 2.1.), such that the concept of “creolisation” has been put forward as a cen- tral hypothesis for describing the emergence of the Romance languages (see in particular a discussion in Schlieben-Lange, 1977; also Mufwene, 2001, 2008). In this context the statement that Roman colonisation led in general to the development of a “Romania discontinua” is also relevant. This term refers to the formation of a linguistic and cultural area which was not completely co- herent geographically – Greece was not linguistically Romanised, the Mediterranean area was a language threshold, and Dacia, a province colonised after 106 CE, was separated by a linguistic-cultural corridor. Amado Alonso, who introduced the term Romania Continua, considered that geographical 2 See in particular Amit (2013). It is also a major theme in the influential book by Lodge (1993) and such a stance appears to be among the objectives of Kremnitz (2013) for France within and beyond the Hexagon, as well as of Pöll (2001) for French outside France. Such ways of looking at French are not (not yet?) the mainstream perspective for considering this language. journal of language contact 7 (2014) 3-35 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 09:50:50AM via free access <UN> 6 Gadet and Ludwig proximity played an important role in the development of a common language type. At the same time he placed French close to Romanian typologically, al- though isolated in terms of language geography, since he (like Wartburg) consi- dered French as a “hybrid language” (his words) that achieved a particular status through the strong influence of language contact.3 The first coherent French text, the Oaths of Strasbourg (842), displays the occasional influence of written Latin alongside central French grammatical features and could therefore be said to be “hybrid”. As French became esta- blished as a written language soon after the turn of the millennium and eman- cipated itself from the diglossic role of the Low Variety with respect to Latin, it incorporated many “copies”4 from Latin, and then from Italian. Many French people are probably not aware of the fact that basic terms such as “chiffre”, “sucre” or “jupe” come from Arabic, transmitted through Moorish Spanish.5 French also acts as a “donor language”. The Anglo-Norman dialect which invaded England with William the Conqueror in 1066 was widespread in the English upper class by the 14th century, and bequeathed a number of lexical 3 Cf. Alonso (1945 / 1952: 118 s.): “El francés actual, con su carácter tan apartadizo de los otros idiomas románicos, es, pues, el resultado de una doble hibridación eficaz: la una, la acción del sustrato céltico, más triunfante que en ninguna otra región románica; la otra, la acción del superstrato franco, incomparablemente más persistente que la de ningún otro supers- trato germánico. […] el francés, nacido en territorio galo nunca bien latinizado y luego ger- manizado más intensamente que ninguna otra región del imperio, es un idioma de mestizaje […].” And: “[…] dentro de la Romania continua el francés resulta inagrupable” (ibid.: 126). “Present-day French, with its very different character from the other Romance languages, is thus the outcome of a double efficient hybridization: on the one hand the influence of the Celtic substrate, which is more prevalent here than in any other Romance area, and on the other hand the influence of a Frankish superstratum, which is incomparably more lasting than for any other Germanic superstratum. […] French, born in Gaul, a territory that was never entirely Latinized and was more intensively Germanized than any other area in the empire, is a mixed language.” And: “Within Romania continua French turns out to be unclas- sifiable.” Of course today Alonso’s classification is not defensible as such. Still, two points re- main worthy of consideration: the importance of language contact in the development of French, and the fact that isolated language areas might be more accessible to contact in- fluences (as is the case for Romanian).
Recommended publications
  • The Origin of the Peculiarities of the Vietnamese Alphabet André-Georges Haudricourt
    The origin of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese alphabet André-Georges Haudricourt To cite this version: André-Georges Haudricourt. The origin of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese alphabet. Mon-Khmer Studies, 2010, 39, pp.89-104. halshs-00918824v2 HAL Id: halshs-00918824 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00918824v2 Submitted on 17 Dec 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Published in Mon-Khmer Studies 39. 89–104 (2010). The origin of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese alphabet by André-Georges Haudricourt Translated by Alexis Michaud, LACITO-CNRS, France Originally published as: L’origine des particularités de l’alphabet vietnamien, Dân Việt Nam 3:61-68, 1949. Translator’s foreword André-Georges Haudricourt’s contribution to Southeast Asian studies is internationally acknowledged, witness the Haudricourt Festschrift (Suriya, Thomas and Suwilai 1985). However, many of Haudricourt’s works are not yet available to the English-reading public. A volume of the most important papers by André-Georges Haudricourt, translated by an international team of specialists, is currently in preparation. Its aim is to share with the English- speaking academic community Haudricourt’s seminal publications, many of which address issues in Southeast Asian languages, linguistics and social anthropology.
    [Show full text]
  • Spanish Through Time
    ROMANCE LANGUAGES Rhaeto-Cisalpine at a glance Spanish through Time Vol.1 Phonology, Orthography, FLORA KLEIN-ANDREU Morphology Stony Brook University CLAUDI MENEGHIN MIUR (Ministero dell'Istruzione Università Spanish through time is an introduction to the development of the Spanish language, e ricerca) designed for readers with little or no prior experience in linguistics. It therefore stresses explanation of the workings of language and its development over time: They are viewed as Rhaeto-Cisalpine (or Padanese) is a western attibutable to characteristics of human speakers, in particular social and historical Romance language, spoken in the Po valley (extended to include the Ligurian coast), which circumstances, as illustrated by the history of Spanish. has developed in an independent fashion from The development of Spanish from Latin is presented divided into three broad periods-- Italian and is strictly related to French, Occitan, "Vulgar Latin", Castilian, and Spanish--characterized by specific linguistic developments and Catalan. This subject has been relatively and the historical circumstances in which they occurred. In each case the mechanics of neglected in recent years, apart from a monumental work by Geoffrey Hull, dating back particular language changes are explained in detail, in everyday terms. Emphasis is on the to 1982. more general developments that differentiate, first, various Romance languages, and finally This book aims at both offering a solid different current varieties of Castilian-- Peninsular and Atlantic (American). Evidence is reference about, and at proposing a complete also presented for the chronology of some major changes, so as to familiarize the reader synthesis of this diasystem, including the Rhaeto-Romance languages and the so called with traditional linguistic reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • Help Languages
    Edutasia – Help languages Talk Now help languages ▪ Abruzzese ▪ Hausa ▪ Punjabi (Indian) ▪ Afrikaans ▪ Hawaiian ▪ Quechua ▪ Albanian ▪ Hebrew ▪ Romanian ▪ Alsatian ▪ Hindi ▪ Romansh ▪ Amharic ▪ Hungarian ▪ Russian ▪ Arabic ▪ Icelandic ▪ Saami ▪ Arabic (Egyptian) ▪ Igbo ▪ Sardinian ▪ Arabic (Modern Standard) ▪ Indonesian ▪ Scottish Gaelic ▪ Armenian ▪ Irish ▪ Serbian ▪ Assamese ▪ Italian ▪ Sesotho (Southern) ▪ Aymara ▪ Japanese ▪ Shona ▪ Azeri ▪ Jèrriais ▪ Sinhala ▪ Basque ▪ Kannada ▪ Slovak ▪ Belarusian ▪ Kazakh ▪ Slovenian ▪ Bengali ▪ Khmer ▪ Somali ▪ Berber (Tamazight) ▪ Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) ▪ Spanish ▪ Breton ▪ Kirghiz ▪ Swahili ▪ Bulgarian ▪ Klingon ▪ Swedish ▪ Burmese ▪ Korean ▪ Swiss German ▪ Canadian English ▪ Lao ▪ Tagalog ▪ Canadian French ▪ Latin ▪ Tamil ▪ Cantonese ▪ Latin American Spanish ▪ Telugu ▪ Catalan ▪ Latvian ▪ Thai ▪ Chichewa ▪ Lingala ▪ Tibetan ▪ Chinese (Mandarin) ▪ Lithuanian ▪ Tswana ▪ Chuvash ▪ Luganda ▪ Turkish ▪ Cornish ▪ Luxembourgish ▪ Ukrainian ▪ Corsican ▪ Macedonian ▪ Urdu ▪ Croatian ▪ Malagasy ▪ Uzbek ▪ Czech ▪ Malay ▪ Vietnamese ▪ Danish ▪ Malayalam ▪ Welsh ▪ Dari ▪ Maltese ▪ Xhosa ▪ Dutch ▪ Manx ▪ Yiddish ▪ English ▪ Marathi ▪ Yoruba ▪ English (American) ▪ Mongolian ▪ Zulu ▪ Esperanto ▪ Māori ▪ ▪ Estonian ▪ Navajo ▪ Faroese ▪ Nepali ▪ Finnish ▪ Norwegian ▪ Flemish ▪ Occitan ▪ French ▪ Papiamento ▪ Frisian ▪ Pashto ▪ Galician ▪ Persian ▪ Georgian ▪ Pidgin (Papua New ▪ German Guinea) ▪ Greek ▪ Polish ▪ Greenlandic ▪ Portuguese (Brazilian) ▪ Gujarati ▪ Portuguese (European) ▪ Haitian Creole ▪ Provençal
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 5 Variation in Romance Diego Pescarini and Michele Loporcaro
    Variation in Romance Diego Pescarini, Michele Loporcaro To cite this version: Diego Pescarini, Michele Loporcaro. Variation in Romance. Cambridge Handbook of Romance Lin- guistics, In press. hal-02420353 HAL Id: hal-02420353 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02420353 Submitted on 19 Dec 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Chapter 5 Variation in Romance Diego Pescarini and Michele Loporcaro 5.1 Introduction This chapter sets out to show how the study of linguistic variation across closely related languages can fuel research questions and provide a fertile testbed for linguistic theory. We will present two case studies in structural variation – subject clitics and (perfective) auxiliation – and show how a comparative view of these phenomena is best suited to providing a satisfactory account for them, and how such a comparative account bears on a number of theoretical issues ranging from (rather trivially) the modeling of variation to the definition of wordhood, the inventory of parts of speech, and the division of labour between syntax and morphology. 5.2 Systematic variation: the case of subject clitics French, northern Italian Dialects, Ladin, and Romansh are characterized by the presence, with variable degrees of obligatoriness, of clitic elements stemming from Latin nominative personal pronouns.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey 2010
    Copyright by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Planning language practices and representations of identity within the Gallo community in Brittany: A case of language maintenance Committee: _________________________________ Jean-Pierre Montreuil, Supervisor _________________________________ Cinzia Russi _________________________________ Carl Blyth _________________________________ Hans Boas _________________________________ Anthony Woodbury Planning language practices and representations of identity within the Gallo community in Brittany: A case of language maintenance by Cécile Hélène Christiane Rey, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2010 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents and my family for their patience and support, their belief in me, and their love. I would like to thank my supervisor Jean-Pierre Montreuil for his advice, his inspiration, and constant support. Thank you to my committee members Cinzia Russi, Carl Blyth, Hans Boas and Anthony Woodbury for their guidance in this project and their understanding. Special thanks to Christian Lefeuvre who let me stay with him during the summer 2009 in Langan and helped me realize this project. For their help and support, I would like to thank Rosalie Grot, Pierre Gardan, Christine Trochu, Shaun Nolan, Bruno Chemin, Chantal Hermann, the associations Bertaèyn Galeizz, Chubri, l’Association des Enseignants de Gallo, A-Demórr, and Gallo Tonic Liffré. For financial support, I would like to thank the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin for the David Bruton, Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Linguistic Context 34
    Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory Series Editor Brian D. Joseph (The Ohio State University, USA) Editorial Board Artemis Alexiadou (University of Stuttgart, Germany) Harald Baayen (University of Alberta, Canada) Pier Marco Bertinetto (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy) Kirk Hazen (West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA) Maria Polinsky (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) Volume 7 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ealt Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman A Study of Superstrate Influence By Mari C. Jones LEIDEN | BOSTON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jones, Mari C. Variation and Change in Mainland and Insular Norman : a study of superstrate influence / By Mari C. Jones. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25712-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25713-9 (e-book) 1. French language— Variation. 2. French language—Dialects—Channel Islands. 3. Norman dialect—Variation. 4. French language—Dialects—France—Normandy. 5. Norman dialect—Channel Islands. 6. Channel Islands— Languages. 7. Normandy—Languages. I. Title. PC2074.7.J66 2014 447’.01—dc23 2014032281 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2210-6243 ISBN 978-90-04-25712-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25713-9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing.
    [Show full text]
  • Francia. Band 44
    Francia. Forschungen zur Westeuropäischen Geschichte. Herausgegeben vom Deutschen Historischen Institut Paris (Institut historique allemand) Band 44 (2017) Nithard as a Military Historian of the Carolingian Empire, c 833–843 DOI: 10.11588/fr.2017.0.68995 Copyright Das Digitalisat wird Ihnen von perspectivia.net, der Online-Publikationsplattform der Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland, zur Verfügung gestellt. Bitte beachten Sie, dass das Digitalisat urheberrechtlich geschützt ist. Erlaubt ist aber das Lesen, das Ausdrucken des Textes, das Herunterladen, das Speichern der Daten auf einem eigenen Datenträger soweit die vorgenannten Handlungen ausschließlich zu privaten und nicht-kommerziellen Zwecken erfolgen. Eine darüber hinausgehende unerlaubte Verwendung, Reproduktion oder Weitergabe einzelner Inhalte oder Bilder können sowohl zivil- als auch strafrechtlich verfolgt werden. Bernard S. Bachrach – David S. Bachrach NITHARD AS A MILITARY HISTORIAN OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE, C 833–843 Introduction Despite the substantially greater volume of sources that provide information about the military affairs of the ninth century as compared to the eighth, the lion’s share of scholarly attention concerning Carolingian military history has been devoted to the reign of Charlemagne, particularly before his imperial coronation in 800, rather than to his descendants1. Indeed, much of the basic work on the sources, that is required to establish how they can be used to answer questions about military matters in the period after Charlemagne, remains to be done. An unfortunate side-effect of this rel- ative neglect of military affairs as well as source criticism for the ninth century has been considerable confusion about the nature and conduct of war in this period2.
    [Show full text]
  • Orientations to French Language Varieties Among Western Canadian French-As-A-Second- Language Teachers
    Meike Wernicke The University of British Columbia ORIENTATIONS TO FRENCH LANGUAGE VARIETIES AMONG WESTERN CANADIAN FRENCH-AS-A-SECOND- LANGUAGE TEACHERS Abstract: In Canada, official French-English bilingualism and the long-standing presence of Indigenous and immigrant languages has shaped how these languages and their varieties are learned, taught, and used in educational contexts. To date, there has been little inquiry into French-as-a-second-language (FSL) teachers’ orientations to the varieties of French they teach, in particular Canadian French language varieties (Arnott, Masson, and Lapkin 2019), despite studies showing that ideologies associated with different language varieties can impact teachers’ instructional choices. This article presents an analysis of the narrated experiences of FSL teachers from Western Canada, drawn from journal and interview accounts, about their encounters with different language varieties while on professional development in France. Thematic and discourse analytic perspectives bring to light complex negotiations of ideological meaning and representation related to language variation in French, as well as the discursive strategies employed by the participants in orientating to these meanings. These discursive actions make evident deeply embedded language ideologies that have significant implications for both French as a first and as a second language education, not only in terms of a prevailing linguistic insecurity among francophones but equally significant for FSL teachers’ professional identity construction, especially those who are themselves second language speakers of French. The analysis and discussion highlight the importance of integrating pluralistic perspectives into teacher education programs and ongoing teacher professional development initiatives. Keywords: French language education w Canadian French w linguistic insecurity w standardized language w language ideology Wernicke, Meike.
    [Show full text]
  • Thoughts on a Concept of Language Geography
    Jordan, P. Thoughts on a concept of language geography RHGT, Vol. XI, Issue 21-22, pp. 33-46 THOUGHTS ON A CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE GEOGRAPHY Peter JORDAN Austrian Academy of Sciences Institute of Urban and Regional Research, Postgasse 7/4/2, A-1010 Wien Email: [email protected] Abstract: It is the goal of this article to highlight the relationship between language and space from the geographical perspective. After a screening of the position of language in sciences and the involvement of geographers so far, selected spatial aspects of language are highlighted: languages as reflections of the spatial context of cultures, spatial spread and retreat of languages and the powers behind them, rise and fall of languages, the different relation of language functions (standard language, dialect, official language, military language, sacred language etc.) to space, the role of language for space-related identity, trade and educational languages and their processes of expansion and regression, the function of place names in relating man to space. Keywords: cultural geography, language, linguistics, conceptual thoughts, culture, space, language functions, space-related identity, place names 1. INTRODUCTION Language is a social phenomenon. As such, it has intrinsic space relation – if only because its speakers are spread over space. Besides, however, language is in many more ways related to space, which are rarely noted. In this paper, I want to highlight some important spatial aspects of language, and give in this way some reasons to consider, why geographers should not be more active in this field and establish a kind of language geography. 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origin and Development of the Lingua Franca”
    Manuel Sedlaczek “The Origin and Development of the Lingua Franca” A historical linguistic study DIPLOMARBEIT zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Magister der Philosophie Studium: Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universität Klagenfurt Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften Begutachter/in: O. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Allan Richard James Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik November 2010 i Declaration of honour For Master’s Theses, Diploma Theses and Dissertations I hereby confirm on my honour that I personally prepared the present academic work and carried out myself the activities directly involved with it. I also confirm that I have used no resources other than those declared. All formulations and concepts adopted literally or in their essential content from printed, unprinted or Internet sources have been cited according to the rules for academic work and identified by means of footnotes or other precise indications of source. The support provided during the work, including significant assistance from my supervisor has been indicated in full. The academic work has not been submitted to any other examination authority. The work is submitted in printed and electronic form. I confirm that the content of the digital version is completely identical to that of the printed version. I am aware that a false declaration will have legal consequences. (Signature) (Place, date) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 1.1 THE STUDY OF THE LINGUA FRANCA ............................................................. 1 1.2 HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND ANTHROPOLOGY ........................................... 4 1.3 THE CREATING OF HISTORY ............................................................................ 5 1.4 THE RE -INTEGRATION OF HISTORY ................................................................. 8 1.5 THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY ..................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE LINGUA FRANCA .....
    [Show full text]
  • French Creole
    Comparative perspectives on the origins, development and structure of Amazonian (Karipúna) French Creole Jo-Anne S. Ferreira UWI, St. Augustine/SIL International Mervyn C. Alleyne UWI, Mona/UPR, Río Piedras Together known as Kheuól, Karipúna French Creole (KFC) and Galibi-Marwono French Creole (GMFC) are two varieties of Amazonian French Creole (AFC) spoken in the Uaçá area of northern Amapá in Brazil. Th ey are socio-historically and linguistically connected with and considered to be varieties of Guianese French Creole (GFC). Th is paper focuses on the external history of the Brazilian varieties, and compares a selection of linguistic forms across AFC with those of GFC and Antillean varieties, including nasalised vowels, the personal pronouns and the verbal markers. St. Lucian was chosen as representative of the Antillean French creoles of the South-Eastern Caribbean, including Martinique and Trinidad, whose populations have had a history of contact with those of northern Brazil since the sixteenth century. Data have been collected from both fi eld research and archival research into secondary sources. Introduction Th is study focuses on a group of languages/dialects which are spoken in Brazil, French Guiana and the Lesser Antilles, and to a lesser extent on others spoken in other parts of the Americas (as well as in the Indian Ocean). Th is linguistic group is variously referred to as Creole French, French Creole, French-lexicon Creole, French-lexifi er Creole, French Creole languages/dialects, Haitian/Martiniquan/St. Lucian (etc.) Cre- ole, and more recently by the adjective of the name of the country, particularly in the case of the Haiti (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of the Franco-American Novel of New England (1875-2004)
    BORDER SPACES AND LA SURVIVANCE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE FRANCO-AMERICAN NOVEL OF NEW ENGLAND (1875-2004) By CYNTHIA C. LEES A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006 Copyright 2006 By Cynthia C. Lees ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my supervisory committee, five professors who have contributed unfailingly helpful suggestions during the writing process. I consider myself fortunate to have had the expert guidance of professors Hélène Blondeau, William Calin, David Leverenz, and Jane Moss. Most of all, I am grateful to Dr. Carol J. Murphy, chair of the committee, for her concise editing, insightful comments, and encouragement throughout the project. Also, I wish to recognize the invaluable contributions of Robert Perreault, author, historian, and Franco- American, a scholar who lives his heritage proudly. I am especially indebted to my husband Daniel for his patience and kindness during the past year. His belief in me never wavered. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................ iii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................... vii ABSTRACT.......................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 SITING THE FRANCO-AMERICAN NOVEL . 1 1.1 Brief Overview of the Franco-American Novel of New England . 1 1.2 The Franco-American Novel and the Ideology of La Survivance ..........7 1.3 Framing the Ideology of La Survivance: Theoretical Approaches to Space and Place ....................................................13 1.4 Coming to Terms with Space and Place . 15 1.4.1 The Franco-American Novel and the Notion of Place .
    [Show full text]