Creole – more than a language phenomenon
Created | Updated Sep 11, 2009
Illustrated by the example of La Réunion
A question of definition
Creole, what is it? First of all, every modern woman living in the Western World will agree: creoles are earrings. This is definitely true. Though, the term “Creole” has a broader meaning if we focus on so-called creole islands, for example the Mascarenes (Mauritius, Reunion, Rodrigues and Cargados Carajos). The majority of people living on these islands consider themselves as Creoles. Their culture does not only include a particular skin colour or language, but also creole kitchen, creole rituals and creole religion. But what does “being creole” mean then and how did the “creole language” emerge? Although we will have a closer look on Reunionese Creole in this article, we have to keep in mind that this particular Creole has a close resemblance to any other Creole in the world, especially to those deriving from French settlers. Even though the various creolophone islands of our days never got in touch with each other throughout history, their languages work identically. But how is this possible? This question is exactly what makes Creole that interesting for us.
Geographical orientation
To investigate this phenomenon, let us put the focus on La Réunion, an island which is situated in the Indian Ocean and which is lying between Madagascar and Mauritius. Appearing first on a map in 1502 after a volcanic eruption in the ocean and suffering a long time under French colonialism, La Réunion finally reached a new status in 1946: it was integrated into the nation of France as French overseas department, called DOM in French political terminology. This was the end of slavery and oppression under French settlers and plantation owners. Being released from colonial status, does not mean total independence in this particular case. Up to now La Réunion still constitutes a region of France (among 25 others) as well as it is a French department, which is even allowed to send five delegates to the Parisian National Assembly. De jure, La Réunion is French, but looking at its cultural identity, we will soon be astonished about the striking differences to the nation on the mainland.
Historical emergence and function of Creole
But where does the language, Reunionese Creole in our case, now come from? During the long period of colonialism (1710-1946) the island was ruled by French settlers, who spoke different varieties of French. These settlers bought an enormous amount of slaves, mainly from Madagascar, eastern Africa and India in order to till the sugar cane fields. As the colonialists intended to avoid the slaves to break free from oppression or to form groups of resistance, they decided to make communication among them impossible. The separation of tribal groups was therefore carried out systematically and was seen as required measure of precaution. This is also the fact that triggered creolisation. Although communication was impeded forcefully, plantation owners still had to give orders to their slaves. This was done in reduced French. The slaves, on their behalf, most of them being very young, picked up these reduced French orders and enriched it with their own vocabulary. This was, of course, an unconscious process, if we take it as a fact that human beings naturally have a need for language and for communication. Analyzing Creole vocabulary today, we can easily filter out lexicon from African, Malagasy, Tamil and Hindu languages as well as some elements deriving from contact to Portuguese, Persian or English mariners. However, it is certainly not enough for a language to have a large amount of vocabulary at its disposal. With the piled-up vocabulary, an urgent need for a common grammar emerged. As the slaves were not able to come up with a mixture of different grammars, theirs being too far apart from each other, they developed a new simplified version of grammar. Up to now, linguists have still not agreed exactly on this point, but we can act on the assumption that every human being has a basic, inborn knowledge of grammar, which he or she can unpack in emergency situations. Being in such a situation, the Reunionese slaves enriched this basic grammar with the vocabulary they had collected. This special grammar works, compared to any other language, in a very simplified way: no differentiation between singular and plural, no conjunctions or substitution of tenses through temporal particles (“Koman i lé?”/ “How do you do?” The simple “i” stands for present tense). Due to this enormous simplification, linguists have been arguing for many years about the inferior quality of Creole compared to other languages. Finally, they have come to the conclusion that, in fact, its value is equal to any other existing language. It even has very rich ways of expression, especially in domains such as swearing and threatening, sexuality metaphors and comic paraphrases. All kinds of Creoles, may it be on La Réunion or on Haiti, are highly allusive and extremely pictorial languages. If you wish to entirely understand one of the numerous Creoles, you will need a lot of background information on the religious believes and superstitions that are part of insular everyday life. Only with and through this knowledge, we can understand why Reunionese people avoid talking about sex in direct terms and why they are shouting at a small male figure in red with expressions we would have never thought about.
What happened to this language?
Once arrived on La Réunion, it won’t take you long to find out that people are different to those you have met before in your life. They will soon ask you: “Ousa ou i sort ?” / “Where do you come from?” If you do not answer in Creole right away, they will nod and smile: “Ah, peí deor!” / “Ah, from a foreign country!” Creole people are basically descendants from those slaves that were already born on the island. Nowadays, on the island of La Réunion, French is the official language, representing all spheres of public life (education system, bureaucracy, news and media, etc.). On the other hand, Creole is still a strongly used vernacular language, especially in the fields of rural communities, in families that are less well-off, in families preserving traditions, on the markets and among fishermen. Young people often communicate in Creole. Though, they are likely to switch to French if they recognize that someone pays attention to them; they still feel bad about their identity. As a matter of fact, the Creole language reveals the sad story of their ancestors. We have to consider that being a slave, or a descendant of one, is nothing towards what you would aspire. Traditionally people rather hid their knowledge of the Creole language. France used this bad image Creole had already suffered from and supported the insulars in becoming more and more francophone. During the entire 20th century Creole therefore had to face an enormous loss of speakers.
A new direction for Creole consciousness
Interestingly enough, matters have started to change in recent years. Although French has become first language on the former colonial island, people now appreciate their creole history at the same time. We will find more and more books with recipes or fairy tales in creole language, we will hear more and more music in Creole and we will overhear people talking about the weather or about the latest gossip expressively in Creole. Creole has become a sign of unification for this extremely diversified population. Believing linguists from the Université de la Réunion, situated in the island’s capital, Saint Denis, French will take over the island’s everyday life at any rate. But coming back to Creole, we should recognize the importance of not giving up this vernacular language. Doing so, Creole would at the same time signify a loss of the most important link to the island’s history, to slavery and to traditions. It would mean a loss of identity for the Reunionese insulars. With the revitalization of the creole language, they definitely set a right step into the right direction.
