Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:04:32.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

LES CRÉOLES: L'INDISPENSABLE SURVIE. Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux. Paris: Éditions Entente, 1999. Pp. 319. F 150, paper.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2002

J. Clancy Clements
Affiliation:
Indiana University

Abstract

This book, which appears in a series called Langues en Péril“languages in peril,” is an accessible and well-written panoramic view of the French-based creoles spoken in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. In her introductory remarks, author Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux addresses the confusions regarding the notions of language and dialect, presenting clearly and concisely how a linguistic system can be a language without being written or prestigious or belonging to any given geographical region. She touches on why some of the French-based creoles, such as Louisiana Creole French, may be endangered and extends the definition of an endangered language to include cases in which a creole can lose its “creoleness” through decreolization. This allows her also to discuss the question of diversity among French-based creoles, although, as she points out, this rich diversity is often overlooked for ideological or other reasons.

Type
Book Review
Copyright
2002 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)