DEI Collab: Creole Languages and Discrimination

Creole languages are widely known as languages formed naturally from the synthesis of multiple languages over a short period of time. While many consider the definition of creole languages through a linguistic perspective, linguist Michel DeGraff considers it through a political one. In “Against Creole Exceptionalism,” he defines ‘creole’ as a label that “points to certain speech varieties that developed between Europeans and Africans during the colonization of the so-called New World” (DeGraff 391). It is clear that DeGraff views creoles in relation to the historical context by which they were formed rather than their linguistic specificities. Examining creole languages under DeGraff’s perspective, it becomes evident that creole languages are the epicenter of a racially charged and turbulent history, whose lasting effects are still visible today.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, race theory was perpetuated by certain linguists who believed that many Africans spoke creoles because they weren’t “advanced” or “intelligent” enough to learn their colonizers’ language, whether that be English, French, Portuguese, etc. Nineteenth century creolistics labeled creole-speaking Africans as different in body, mind, and character, which linguists then attributed to the “destruction, corruption, and decay” of colonizer languages in subsequent creoles. They thus believed creoles were simple, lacking sophisticated features found in other languages, and that they were a natural result of speakers’ primitiveness or instinctiveness (Kramer 104). These incorrect labels and assumptions contribute greatly to the dehumanization of people of African descent, and some governments still weaponize these misconceptions to further certain political agendas.

In Haiti, for example, almost the entire population of 11 million speaks Haitian Creole, whereas only 2-5% of the population are estimated to be fluent in French. However:

“French is the language of an educational system where thousands of children are sent every year into assured failure; of the courts, where countless poor peasants are routinely deprived of their lands and/or sent to rot in jail for reasons which they do not understand; and of all sorts of government business, from the powerless deliberations of the national legislature to the predatory acts of the notaries public” (Fontaine 31).

Thus, monolingual Haitian Creole speakers are politically disenfranchised, economically disadvantaged, socially subdued, and culturally marginalized.

In South Africa, it is quite the opposite - mandatory use of Afrikaans (a Dutch creole) as the language of instruction in higher education has historically been used to exclude Black students who don’t speak the language. In fact, it was only as recently as 2019 that the University of Pretoria dropped Afrikaans as its official language in favor of English, which is more widely spoken (“Afrikaans Scrapped…” 1). Thus, we see how institutions have abused creoles in one way or another in order to uphold systemic racism and oppression.

What role do linguists play here? What are the ethical duties of modern linguists? In order to answer this question, we must look to Labov’s Principles of Error Correction and Debt Incurred. The Principle of Error Correction states that “A scientist who becomes aware of a widespread idea or social practice with important consequences that is invalidated by his [sic] own data is obligated to bring this error to the attention of the widest possible audience.” In other words, linguists have an ethical obligation to use their research to fight misconceptions that perpetuate exploitation of certain peoples around the world. The Principle of Debt Incurred states that “An investigator who has obtained linguistic data from members of a speech community has an obligation to use the knowledge based on that data for the benefit of the community.” Linguists further have an ethical obligation to use their research to the benefit of the communities they study (Labov 179).

These two maxims can be fulfilled in a number of ways, whether that be through linguists using modern-day research and statistics to fight against the claim that creoles are “simple”, or through linguists using the research they have gained through studying a certain community to encourage more study of a language and prevent language extinction. In fighting against the claim that creole languages are “primitive,” linguists can help combat racial stereotypes and unjust government policies.

References:

“Afrikaans Scrapped at South Africa's University of Pretoria.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Jan. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47001468.

DeGraff, M. (2003). Against creole exceptionalism. Language, 79(2), 391-410.

DeGraff, M. (2005). Linguists' most dangerous myth: The fallacy of Creole Exceptionalism. Language in society, 533-591.

DeGraff, M. (2020). Toward racial justice in linguistics: The case of Creole studies (Response to Charity Hudley et al.). Language, 96(4), e292-e306.

Fontaine, P. (1981). Language, Society, and Development: Dialectic of French and Creole Use in Haiti. Latin American Perspectives, 8(1), 28-46.

Kramer, P. (2013). Creole exceptionalism in a historical perspective – from 19th century reflection to a self-conscious discipline. Language Sciences, 38, 99-109.

Labov, W. (1982). Objectivity and commitment in linguistic science: The case of the Black English trial in Ann Arbor. Language in society, 165-201.