Melissa Leal

ENG 470

Professor Garley

Draft 2

March 17, 2018

                           Creole Literature and Orthography

    Many authors have been criticized for choosing to write their works of literature in a Creole language. This is mainly because it goes against the standardized language set in place – English – by those in power.  Examples of works of literature that are written in or include dialogue using an English-lexified Creole include “Do Angels Wear Brassieres” by Olive Senior and “Joebell in America” by Earl Lovelace. Both short stories illustrate that the use of Creole by the characters in the text reinforce and symbolize the low social status and illegitimacy of the language.

    In Olive Senior’s “Do Angels Wear Brassieres” there are many instances in the text where characters, as well as the narrator, move across the creole dialect continuum. This means that they use different “lects” when speaking (acrolect, mesolect, basilect). According to the Oxford dictionary, an acrolect is “the most prestigious dialect or variety of a particular language.” Acrolects are closest to the lexifier, in this case – English. A mesolect is “an intermediate variety of a dialect or variety of a particular language.” Lastly a basilect is the least prestigious version of the language but it is often considered more authentic. An example of a character speaking across the continuum is Beccka in Senior’s “Do Angels Wear Brassieres.”

    Becka uses an acrolect form when she is talking to the Archdeacon who is from England. She asks him “What did Adam and Eve do when they were driven out of the garden” (7). This would be considered indistinguishable from standard English. However, earlier on in the short story Beccka tells Cherry ‘No. Not praying for nobody that tek weh mi best glassy eye marble” (1).  Oliver uses non standard orthography to show Beccka speaking in the basilectal level. The phonology of the words take away is /teɪk/ /əˈweɪ/. Oliver spells the words tek weh changing the phonology, meaning the sound or how a word is pronounced. This makes the phonology /tɛk wɛ:/ The word me is also spelled differently – me, mi – although this does not mark a difference in pronunciation, just a difference in grammar. Senior chooses to have Beccka speak across the continuum to show that the creole language is not accepted as a legitimate language amongst people outside of their culture. The only character who has a direct conversation with with someone of another culture is Beccka who is able to switch to “standard” English. She may not always use an acrolect of the language with the Archdeacon, but for the most part she speaks using a prestigious form. Neither Cherry, Miss Katie, or Auntie Mary have conversations with the Archdeacon. They are only seen speaking in their Creole language. By doing this Senior creates a contrast between Beccka and the older women.

    Beccka is able to speak a standardized form of English while the narrator, Cherry, Miss Katie, and Auntie Mary, use a basilectal form of English to communicate. For example in the beginning of the short story Cherry asks Beccka to pray for Auntie Mary. The narrator states: “Beccka vex that anybody could interrupt her private conversation with God so, say loud loud” (1). Three things are shown in this sentence – zero copula, no inflections, and reduplication. Zero Copula is shown when Senior writes “Becca vex” instead of Becca is vex.  An inflection changes the ending of a word to indicate a change in the tense. Although the word vex is spelled correctly, it is not used in the correct tense. In standard English it would be “Becca is vexed…” And lastly the narrator uses reduplication by repeating loud twice to emphasize how exactly Beccka reacted. These elements tend to be characteristics of creole languages, more specifically those who speak on the basilectal level.

    In “Joebell and America,” Earl Lovelace also shows that the legitimacy of a creole language do not matter when it comes into contact with the “standard” English language. The author sets up the short story by using some of the same elements Senior did. For example, throughout the short story, Lovelace uses non standard orthography as well to give a voice to the main character Jobell, but not always through him. The narrator speaks in the same mesolectal dialect as Joebell: “The fellar who fixing up the passport business for him tell him straight… he could get arrest at the Trinidad airport, so the pardner advise that the best thing to do is for Joebell to try to get in through Puerto Rico… where the immigration don’t be so fussy.” The word fellar has a different spelling and pronunciation in standard English. It is the word fellow with the following pronunciation: /fɛloʊ/ versus /fɛlər/. Joebell also says fellar throughout the text. Lovelace is able to give him a voice by also having the narrator speak like him. Narrators usually speak in standard English. By having someone in power speak using a creole to tell the story, Lovelace is showing his audience that it is okay to use the language.

     In Lovelace’s short story, there is a bit of variation throughout the text. The narrator begins by saying “The fellar who fixing…” He does not say “The fellar who is…” This is known as copula deletion or zero copula. The connecting verb is seen towards the end of the sentence: “so the pardner advise that the best thing to do is…” Variations show fluidity throughout the continuum. More specifically – the mesolect and the acrolect levels.

    In the second part of the short story, Joebell gets in contact with two American Immigration officers. To test his “Americanness,” they require him to say the alphabet.  As he is finishing it he says “Zed” instead of the letter Z. This is because this is how the majority of the English speaking world says, it with the exception of the United States of America. Not only is Lovelace showing a different orthography but he is also showing a different phonology. Because it differed from how the Americans say the letter, one shouts “‘Bastard!’ the squirrel eyes cry out. ‘Got you!’” Lovelace shows how the Americans were looking for Joebell to slip up and show who what he truly is – un American. This part of the short story is indicating cultures outside of their own – those in power – will feel the creole language is illegitimate.

Both Olive Senior and Earl Lovelace use their characters to show their audiences how the Creole languages will be criticized for illegitimacy. They also show how characters must switch their dialect to a language that is more accepted when speaking to outsiders. Overall the short stories also indicate that even though the creole languages are not accepted, both will still be used.

Works Cited

Lovelace, Earl. “Earl Lovelace’s Joebell and America.” Caribbean Beat Magazine, 23 Feb. 2018, www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-10/earl-lovelaces-joebell-and-ameica#axzz59yqMyMLy.

http://www.oed.com

Senior, Olive. “Do Angels Wear Brassieres?” Kunapipi, 8(2), 1986.  Available at:http://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol8/iss2/3

Melissa Leal
ENG 470
Professor Garley
February 15, 2018
Essay 1
Hawai’i Creole

Hawai’i Creole, also known as Hawai’i Creole English, is spoken on the islands of Hawaii, as well as Nevada and Florida (Velupillai). With English as its main lexifier, it has influences of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Hakka. According to Viveka Velupillai, about 600,000 – 700,000 people speak Hawai’i Creole. The language is considered a Creole because many people speak it natively, although it is not considered an official language of Hawaii. Like many other creoles it is not recognized due to its “low status” (Romaine 527). Because the language is not “standard English,” it is not accepted.
The language originally developed from Hawai’i Pidgin English. The pidgin language was formed around the late 1870’s. The first sugar plantation brought many “haoles” or white people to the island (Velupillai). According to Jocelyn Linnekin, diseases began to arise with the increasing number of newcomers causing the population to decrease by “at least 75 percent.” With little to no work force left, the whites brought people from Madeira, Azores, and Southern China to replace those who were affected by the diseases and work on the sugar plantation. “This led to a reorganization of the plantation structure, where the Portuguese took the roles as foremen, while the East Asians… made up the labour force” (Velupillai). The contact of these new languages formed Hawai’i Pidgin English which eventually gave birth to Hawai’i Creole. By 1930 Hawai’i Creole was fully developed (Roberts). The language was eventually spoken in places outside of the sugar plantation, such as schools and playgrounds amongst children, which according to Charlene Sato is where creolization took place. Velupillai goes on to state “Thus the first locally born generation created an interethnic communication tool that stabilized as the number of second generation locally born who learned Hawaiʻi Creole natively increased.” A new generation was using Hawai’i Creole, making it their native language.
As stated before, Hawai’i Creole is not recognized as an official language. Suzanne Romaine explains pidgins and creoles are not usually accepted because they are considered “corrupt and bastardized versions of some other (usually European) languages. Thomas Yokota interviewed several people (ages twenty to eighty) to see what their beliefs were about the creole language. “Interviewees, regardless of gender or age, shared beliefs with the educators who wrote in the Hawaii Education Review: they considered HC a “broken English,” not a language separate from Standard English with its own grammatical and pronunciation rules. Limited exposure to the scholarly literature about HC was evident throughout the interviews.” (Yokota 26). It is easier for people to disregard Hawai’i Creole as a language because it goes against the “standard norm.” Yokota also includes a couple of stories where people are shown to present a negative attitude about the language. One story was about a father striking his child because he pronounced the number three as “tree” even though he also spoke in the Hawai’i Creole language. There are many people who do not want to acknowledge the language including the teachers of Hawaii’s educational system.
The teachers of Hawaii’s educational system also disregard the language according to Yokota. “Since the time HC was first viewed as the “pidgin problem,” Hawai‘i’s teachers and educational leaders have sought ways to stop the “broken-English” language that predominates in the community from being spoken” (22). Unfortunately pidgins and Creoles are not seen as desirable languages. Attitudes like these clearly show that the language is not accepted or respected among their society. However, there are native speakers of Hawai’i Creole who are fighting back. Creation of awareness programs and academic debates in universities (Velupillai) have taken place in order to change the attitudes towards the language and inform others that there is nothing wrong with the language. “Hawai‘i Creole speakers have mixed feelings about the creole. Hawai‘i Creole has often been denigrated as a sub-standard form of English. But with the efforts of local linguists and writers, people are now beginning to realize that the creole is a language separate from, but similar in appearance to, English” (Hawaii.edu.) People are slowly but surely beginning to accept the Hawai’i Creole. Today the language is used in informal settings.
Hawai’i Creole is made up of nine vowels (some considered “pure vowels”), twenty-four consonants, and four diphthongs. (Velupillai). It also has SVO order like its lexifier. An example Velupillai presents is “DEM gaɪz go baɪ dɛm sam soɾaz,” meaning ‘Those guys go and buy themselves some soda.’ There are no gendered pronouns in the language, but according to Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel, gendered pronouns exist and can be used on inanimate objects. For example: “Da stoa hi open nain oklak” which translates to “The store, it opens at nine o’clock,” and “Da klaes shi nat daet izi” meaning “The class, it isn’t that easy.” One of the most “striking” differences between Hawai’i Creole English and Standard English is its intonation of yes or no questions. Intonation is the melody of how people speak. “In most varieties of American English, for example, the pattern is rising, ending at higher pitch or tone of voice. But in Hawai‘i Creole, the pattern is falling, dropping to lower pitch in the last syllable” (Hawaii.edu.)

Although the language is not officially recognized by the majority, it does not take away from the fact that it is a language. By definition, a language is a system of communicating which is exactly what Hawai’i Creole allows its speakers to do. From its roots as a pidgin language, inhabitants of the island have been communicating with each other as well as outsiders. Ironically the native speakers are among the people who do not accept it according to Yakota. I do not believe Hawai’i Creole is going anywhere. There are too many native speakers on the island who are passing it down to the next generation, even though they might not accept it themselves. Like many of the other Creole and Pidgin languages I have been exposed to, I was only able to understand a couple of the words I read but I did find the language interesting.

Works Cited
Hawai`i Creole English, www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/hce.html.

Linnekin, Jocelyn. Hawaiians. Encyclopedia of world cultures, Vol. 2, Oceania. 1991 95–97. Boston: GK Hall.
Roberts, Sarah J. Olla Podrida: Language mixing, pidgins and creolizations. Paper presented at the SPCL (Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics) Annual Meeting, New York, 1 September 1998.

Roberts, Sarah J. Nativization and the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. Language change and language contact in pidgins and creoles, 2000 257–300

Romaine, Suzanne. “Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Language.” Language in Society, vol. 23, no. 4, 1994, pp. 527–554. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4168555.

Sato, Charlene. Linguistic inequality in Hawaii: The post-creole dilemma. In Manes, Joan & Wolfson, Nessa (eds.) 1985

Sakoda, Kent & Siegel, Jeff. Pidgin Grammar. An introduction to the Creole Language of Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: Bess Press. 2003

Yokota, Thomas. The “Pidgin Problem”: Attitudes about Hawai‘i Creole.” Educational Perspectives

Viveka Velupillai. 2013. Hawai‘i Creole. Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.