Only French among European colonial languages in the Caribbean yielded compromise Creoles

Evidence

Attempts have been made to understand why, during European expansion in the Caribbean, only French gave rise to compromise languages-the francophone Creoles-that get away from it and at the same time remain dangerously close. Other languages that spread into these regions permitted only pidgins or sub- versive practices inscribed within the language itself or distinctive features that only emphasized regional cultural characteristics, without, apparently, calling into question the organic unicity of each of these vehiculaI’ languages. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 611

Categorization

• XREF: Contrast case for Spivak strategic essentialism — French Creoles as a compromise language that escapes yet stays close to the vehicular tongue, the linguistic analogue of an ironic essentialism that does not fully detach. — connects to: French colonial policy aimed to assimilate colonial peoples into French identity — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2195; Creole emerged only in French colonies, not British or Spanish ones — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 504; Creole emerged because French had not yet achieved normative unity at conquest — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 508

Broader Connections

• French colonial policy aimed to assimilate colonial peoples into French identity #complicates (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2195