Saint Lucian Creole ( ) is a French-based creole language that is widely spoken in Saint Lucia.Ethnologue code for Saint Lucian Creole French (spoken in Dominica and Saint Lucia) with the ISO 639-3 code: acf. However, it notes that their rate of comprehension is 90%, which would qualify them as dialects of a single language. It is the vernacular language of the country and is spoken alongside the official language of English.
Kwéyòl is a variety of Antillean Creole, and like other varieties spoken in the Caribbean, it combines the syntax of African language origins and a Latin-based vocabulary as shared by the French. Like its similar Dominican counterpart, some words are derived from the English, French and African languages. There has also been a recorded syntactical influence of the Carib language.
It remains in widespread use in Saint Lucia across the island. Though it is not an official language, the government and media houses present information in Kwéyòl alongside English.
Origins Saint Lucia was first settled by Amerindian groups, more recently the Caribs, and subsequently colonised by the French and the British, who changed hands of control over the island a total of fourteen times. The British first attempted to colonise the island in 1605, but were killed or driven out by the Carib inhabitants. French groups gradually began colonising the island, and by 1745 they succeeded in regaining control over the island as well as establishing functional administrative settlements.
Like other forms of Antillean Creole, Saint Lucian Creole emerged as a form of communication between the African slaves on Caribbean plantations. It combines Latin-based vocabulary shared by the French with syntax from the various African languages of the slaves.
From French groups immigrating from Martinique, a form of Creole was imported and adopted by the black population living in small, remote mountain settlements as a vernacular.
Ownership of St. Lucia alternated between the French and the British between 1778 and 1802 until the British gained complete control over the island in 1803, which was formalised by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. St. Lucia became independent in 1979 with Sir John Compton serving as the first prime minister. English became the official language of the country, though Kwéyòl remained in widespread use throughout the island and was the sole language of the majority of the population. Kwéyòl monolingualism increasingly became less common over time due to the precedence of English within the education system, which became more accessible to the general population through the mid-1960s.
History It is a subvariety of Antillean Creole, which is spoken in other islands of the Lesser Antilles, and is very closely related to the varieties spoken in Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. The intelligibility rate with speakers of other varieties of Antillean Creole is almost 100%. Its syntactic, grammatical and lexical features are virtually identical to that of Martinican Creole, but, just like its Dominican counterpart, it includes more English loanwords than the Martinican variety.
Like the other Caribbean Creoles, Saint Lucian French Creole combines syntax of African and Carib origin with vocabulary derived primarily from French. In addition, many expressions reflect the presence of English influence. As younger bilingual speakers of Kwéyòl and English grew up, the Kwéyòl language changed to reflect this bilingualism. It is not considered to be mutually intelligible with Standard French, but it is intelligible with the other French creoles of the Lesser Antilles. Kwéyòl is related to Haitian Creole and is mutually intelligible with it despite its distinctive futures.
Kwéyòl is still widely spoken in Saint Lucia and movements from the 1980s onward have increased its use in media, education, and government. Although it has not yet been recognized as an official language alongside English, a large number of St. Lucians has come to view the language more positively and support its official implementation. In the mid-19th century, Kwéyòl was exported to Panama, where it is known as San Miguel Creole French and is now moribund.
Orthography The Kwéyol writing system contains 24 letters representing 32 phonemes. This writing system used in St. Lucia and Dominica differs slightly from that used in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The letters <q> and <x> are not used, and the letter <r> only appears in English loan words. The letters <c> and <u> never appear by themselves and are always part of the digraphs <ch> and <ou>.
These are the combinations of letters (digraphs) that represent one sound: <ch>, <dj>, <ng>, <tj> represent the consonants , , , . <an>, <en>, <on> represent the nasal vowels , , respectively. <ou> represents the vowel .
+Letter PhonemeLetterPhonemeA a//M m//An an//N n//B b//Ng ng//Ch ch//O o//D d//Ò ò//Dj dj//On on//É é//Ou ou//È è//P p//En en//R r//F f//S s//G g//T t //H h//Tj tj//I i//V v//J j//W w//K k//Y y//L l//Z z//
Phonology Consonants LabialAlveolarPost-
alveolarPalatalVelarGlottalNasalmnŋPlosive/
affricatevoicelessvoicedFricativevoicelesshvoiced32Approximant1
Phonetic notes: This sound only occurs in a select few loan words from English ex. radyo radio. In many varieties of Creole most notably rural dialects the voiced velar fricative // merges with the velar approximant //. In this article we will use the written standard for Saint Lucian creole which does not indicate the distinction between the two phonemes. The voiced post-alveolar fricative // often alternates with the unvoiced glottal fricative //: > "to eat", > "to bark", > "garden"
Vowels +OralFrontCentral BackCloseClose-midOpen-midOpen+NasalFrontBackClose-midOpen
Antillean Creole Dominican Creole French Grenadian Creole French Haitian Creole
Grammar Personal Pronouns KwéyolWeak FormEnglishmwen, an -I, meouwyoui, liyhe, she, itnou -we, uszòt, zò, hòt, hò -you (plural)yo -they, them Kwéyòl makes no distinction of grammatical case in pronouns: 'mwen' can mean I, me, or my.
The first person singular form 'an' is uncommon, but its use is quite widespread in spoken Creole in Guadeloupe.
The pronouns above can fulfill several syntactical roles:
Subject — Mwen ka palé kwéyòl. Object — Nonm-lan bo'y. Possessive pronouns — Papa yo malad.
The weak forms occur after vowels: Palé ba'y! Mwen wè'w.The pronoun mwen has several contracted forms:M’a - mwen pa Ng’a - mwen ka
N’a - mwen pa ka Ng’ay - mwen kay
N’ay - mwen pa kay M’òkò - mwen pa ankò
Possessive Adjectives +CreoleEnglishExampleExamplemwenmyfiyèl mwendo mwenou, wyourfiyèl oudo'wli, yhis, her, itsfiyèl lido'ynouourfiyèl noudo nouzòtyour (pl.)fiyèl zòtdo zòtyotheirfiyèl yodo yo In Creole, possessive adjectives are placed after the noun. Ou 'your' and li 'his, her, its become w and y after a vowel.
Unlike in English or French, possessive adjectives can be used in addition to the indefinite and definite articles: "jan mwen" is 'my friend', "an jan mwen" is 'a friend of mine', and "jan mwen-an" is 'my friend'.
The use of the definite article changes the connotation; whereas "jan mwen" would refer to my friend as opposed to someone else's, "jan mwen-an" would refer to a specific friend who had already been mentioned at a prior point in the conversation.
Possessive Pronouns +SingularPluralminesan mwen(-an)sé san mwen-anyourssa (w)ou(-a)sé sa (w)ou-ahis, hers, itssa li(-a)sé sa li-aourssan nou(-a)sé san nou-ayourssa zòt(-la)sé sa zòt-latheirssa yo(-a)sé sa yo-awhosesa ki moun
Interrogatives howkouman, ki jan, ki mannyèwhatki sa, sawhenki lèwhereki koté, ki bò, kotéwhich, whatkiwhich onekilèswhoki mounwhoseki mounwhypoutji Ki is used as an interrogative adjective placed before a noun meaning 'what' or 'which'. — "Ki chimiz ou simyé?"; Which shirt do you prefer?
Kilès is an interrogative pronoun. — "Kilès ou simyé?"; Which do you prefer?
Kilès used as the subject directly before the verb is followed by the relative pronoun ki. — "Kilès ki pli gwo?"; Which is bigger?
When ki moun is used as the subject and comes directly before the verb it is followed by the relative pronoun ki. — "Ki moun ki di'w sa?"; Who told you that?
Note, however: Ki moun ou yé?; Who are you?
Ki moun used to mean 'whose' (belonging to whom) and as such directly follows the noun in question. — "Had ki moun ou ka lavé?"; Whose clothes are you washing?
Nouns
Nouns in Kwéyòl are invariable, they do not inflect for case or number. There is no grammatical gender, unlike French. +IndefiniteDefiniteSingularan wòchwòch-laPluralwòchsé wòch-la
Articles
The indefinite article is an, on, yan or yon
An mabwiya A house lizard On bétjin A barracuda Yan zé An egg Yon fèy A leaf
The definite article may take the form -a, -la, -an, or -lan depending on the sounds of the final syllable of the noun it qualifies. It comes after the noun.latè a the earth
tab la the table
mouton an the sheep
nonm lan the man + Definite ArticlesOral vowelNasal vowelVowel ending-a-anConsonant ending-la-lan
Verbs +Verb TensesParticleNegativeTenseCreoleEnglishCreoleEnglishøpaPreterite/ Present PerfectI viniHe came He has comeI pa viniHe didn't come He hasn't comekapa ka pa'aPresent ProgressiveMwen ka palé Ng'a paléI am speakingMwen pa ka palé M'a ka paléI wasn't speakingkaypa kayImmediate FutureMwen kay alé Ng'ay aléI'm going to goMwen pa kay alé M'a kay aléI am not goingtépa téPast/ Past PerfectNou té diWe said We had saidNou pa té diWe didn't say We hadn't saidté kapa té kaProgressive PastZòt té ka manjéY'all were eatingZòt pa té ka manjéY'all were not eatingté kaypa té kayConditionalMwen té kay pranI would takeMwen pa té kay aléI would not gosoti'have just'Mwen sòti rivéI've just arrivedMwen pa sòti riveI have not just gone outté soti'had just'Albè té sòti sòtiAlbert had just gone outAlbè té sòti sòtiAlbert had not just gone gone outjap'òkò pò´ò
(pa ankò)'already'Sé timanmay-la ja fèThe children already didSé timanmay-la p'òkò fè Sé timanmay-la pò'ò fèThe children have not already done The children had not yet done Verbs in Creole are invariable and are not conjugated. Instead tense and mood are expressed using various particles placed before the verb.
ø the absence of a particle indicates the simple past: pwèt-la bwè kafé the priest drank coffee
It also indicates the present perfect, this difference inferred through context: pwèt-la bwè kafé the priest has drunk coffee
There is a group of verbs, mostly modals and verbs of emotion which do not follow this rule and instead express the present tense when used on their own. These verbs are:
ni 'to have' sa 'to be able to' pé 'to be able to' vlé 'to want' konnèt 'to know' sav 'to know' enmen 'to love' kontan 'to like' hayi 'to hate' simyé 'to prefer' kwè 'to believe' dwé 'to owe' wigwété 'to regret'
Mak ni an pil lahan 'Mark has a lot of money' Kilès kay ou simyé? Which house do you prefer? Ou vlé witounen denmen 'You want to return tomorrow'
ka This particle expresses the simple present, present continuous as well as habitual present
Tibway-la ka wè kabwit-la The by sees the goat
Fanm-lan ka déjnen The woman is having breakfast
Lapli ka tonbé an chay an livènaj It rains a lot during the rainy season
Serial Verbs
A feature which Saint Lucian French Creole shares with other West Atlantic Creole languages is the ability to string verbs together.
A main verb may be combined with a select group of verbs of motion (namely alé 'to go' vini 'to come' kouwi 'to run' pòté 'to carry' mennen 'to lead' voyé 'to send')
I kouwi alé lékòl He went to school running.
Irregular verbs
There are only three irregular verbs in Creole alé (to go), gadé (to look, watch) and the copula sé.
Alé has a second form ay. There is no change in meaning and the two forms are interchangeable.
Alé also forms a contraction with the verb particle ka; ka alé kalé ka ay kay.