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This paper discusses approaches to studying synchronic language contact in creole settings.

There are multiple connections between Pidgins and Creoles (P/Cs) and sociolinguistics. They reflect the very nature of their inception as well as the fact pointed out by Rickford (1988), that many of the early and current researchers who have worked on P/Cs are also sociolinguists and have applied sociolinguistic methods and approaches to the study of P/Cs.

International audience; This book examines the place of creoles from a typological perspective using modern phylogenetic modeling tools. Exploring the similarities and differences that exist among creoles and between creoles and their input languages, the authors aim to generate new insights into persistent and at times hotly debated topics such as creole genesis and the relationships among creoles and between creoles and other languages, most specifically their input languages. The volume casts a very wide net. It investigates creoles from the Atlantic, Asian, Pacific and Africa region and also considers creoles associated with a range of so-called lexifiers (Arabic, Dutch, English, French and Iberian), common superstrates and some of the substrate inputs. But diversity does not stop there either. The authors also examine data from a range of linguistic levels, including phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic phenomena.

International audience; REVIEW : African American, creole, and other vernacular Englishes in Education: A bibliographic resource. By John R. Rickford, Julie Sweetland, Angela E. Rickford & Thomas Grano. London/New York: Routledge. 2012.

Language Education in the Caribbean opens with a preface highlighting Craig’s proactive social engagement through a discussion of his popular Viewpoint columns written for the Guyana Broadcasting Company and an introduction outlining the main concerns of his academic publications. It then reprints four of his articles dealing with the socio-linguistic context of the English-official Caribbean and four focusing on effective teaching and learning policies and approaches for this context. With respect to the first issue, Craig echoes the creole continuum perspective and argues that the English-official Caribbean is characterized by variation between Standard English and local creoles resulting from creole speakers’ “striving for social status through English” (p. 17) and inappropriate teaching methods. This has given rise to a third system, the “interaction area” (p. 17) or the mesolect(s); children from creole dominant homes mistakenly equate it with English and thus face problems in school where Standard English norms are enforced. Craig argues that all three varieties share the same conceptual base but make use of different grammatical principles and lexical forms to express it. The creole and creole-influenced varieties (or mesolects) mostly share the same grammar and mainly differ on the lexical level. Thus shifting simply entails substituting English-like lexical forms for creole ones. However, since there are significant structural differences between the creole and English forms, acquisition of English requires learning of a set of new procedures, rules, and principles.

In this paper we present, compare and critically assess programs that aim to integrate local languages and cultures into the local education system of two French Overseas regions, French Guiana and Guadeloupe that is otherwise identical to that of Metropolitan France. We discuss and compare their emergence, development and the premises, assumptions and approaches on which they are based. I argue that while these initiatives make an important contribution towards questioning the educational monopoly of French and towards adapting the education system to the local context, their impact currently remains limited as they only reach a relatively small number of students and the overall delivery of the initiative are not very coherent. This is in large part due to a lack of a concerted will on the part of the education system to undertake far-reaching change and program-inherent problems which are though related to the lack of engagement of the local education system.

Discussions of creole language heavily draw on the creole continuum model and the notion of decreolization to explain patterns of language variation and change in creole communities. This is quite unsatisfactory because the continuum model and decreolization assume that the development of creoles is different in kind and in degree from that of other languages. In this paper we challenge this assumption by investigating the synchronic development of the creoles of Suriname in French Guiana. We show that their development is due to complex social forces and linguistic processes and that these are the same as in the case of non-creole languages.

International audience; Sociolinguistic research on Creole communities has so far focused mainly onthe social and linguistic distinctiveness of Creoles and on their synchronicinteraction with their European lexifier. To date, little work has been doneon the stylistic make-up of Creoles and on how these styles are employedin interactions to negotiate social identities and relationships. This paperinvestigates patterns of code-switching between different Creole varieties inthe Eastern Maroon community using Myers-Scotton’s markedness model.It demonstrates that such patterns are structurally similar to those foundin other bilingual communities and function as an important resource forcreating interactional meanings. Moreover, it shows that overall similarpatterns of code-switching convey partially different meanings due to theirinteraction with situational factors.

In the early 17th century, French speakers simplified their language when communicating with indigenous populations and later Africans in the Lesser Antilles. Through a process of mutual adjustment, a pidgin developed. French missionaries were the only ones to leave linguistic observations in the 17th century. The type of reduction as observed in their Foreigner Talk appears also in the speech of Africans and Amerindians. The documentation leads to the conclusion that the resulting French pidgin was a consequence of interaction and a common creation of the three groups.