Creole continua

A. Many creoles actually consist of a series of dialects, with one furthest from the European language and others shading ever closer, such that the “creole” is actually a series of shells expanding outward from a nucleus, as in the classic model of atoms.

B. For example, it can appear that there are so many ways to say I gave him in Guyanese creole that there appears to be no structure in the language. But actually, the versions can be aligned to show an increasing likeness to English:

Guyanese Creole: I gave him

mi bin gii am

mi bin gii ii

mi bin gi i

mi di gii ii

mi di gi hii

a di gii ii

a did gi ii

a did giv ii

a did giv hii

a giv ii

a giv im

a giv him

a geev ii

a geev him

I gave him

The most “creole” sentence has mi for I and uses the bin particle for past instead of the -ed suffix. As we get closer to Standard English, did is used instead of bin, which reflects a common way of expressing the past in regional British dialects of the past, and a for I differs from the standard only in pronunciation. Finally, we get to a sentence that is the standard one in a different accent.

C. This kind of continuum is especially common in English creoles of the Caribbean, such as Jamaican patois, and is also true of Louisiana Creole and Cape Verdean. This often encourages speakers to view the creole as just a version of the European language (and, sadly, a “bad” one).