The legitimacy of Guyanese Creole

May 29, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

With reference to the television programme which was done by final year students from the Language and Society II, Berbice Campus which was aired on the 23rd of April 2019 in Georgetown, and on the 14th of May, 2019 on NCN, we are here to advocate for Guyanese Creole to be implemented in the school’s curriculum.
Guyanese Creole is our mother tongue and is used to express feelings and is essential for every day’s communication. It is a valid language just like any other languages.
Occasionally teachers tend to shun students when they speak Guyanese Creole in the classrooms, especially in the English class. They have a tendency of insisting that the students should speak “properly” which is to speak the Standard English. As such, we as teachers lower students’ self-confidence when we insist that they should speak properly. These children may never make an attempt again to express how they feel or even to answer a question in class. This can be one of the contributing factors towards the high rate of school drop-outs simply because the children cannot speak Standard English.
There are numerous ideas discussed in the Television programme to promote the legitimacy of Guyanese Creole as a language. To begin, we need to get away from the notion that Guyanese Creole is not a language. Although it borrows words from English and other languages, it is still regarded as a bona fide language.
All languages borrow lexical items and/or concepts from other languages without becoming any less of a language. For example, from English, French borrows “weekend” and Spanish borrows the concept of “perros calientes”, literally dogs hot for “hot dogs”. Similarly English has borrowed a vast number of words from other languages, such as souvenir (French), dope (Dutch), piano (Italian), yogurt (Turkish) and so forth.
Additionally, the linguistic systems of English are quite distinct from those in Guyanese Creole, again establishing that Guyanese Creole is not a ‘broken’ or ‘substandard’ dialect of English – for example, English requires a bound inflectional morpheme [s] to express pluralization, which can be realized as /s/ as in ‘cats’, /z/ as in ‘dogs’, /iz/ as in ‘boxes’, and many other irregular forms; however to express plurality Guyanese Creole employs a free morpheme [dem] as in ‘di daag dem’ (the dogs), or in some instances, plurality is implied via context and not via an overt marker, as in ‘tuu daag’(two dogs).
In addition, Guyanese Creole can be considered a language since it has a unique and colourful vocabulary. For example, the English word ‘frog’ is translated in Guyanese Creole to be ‘krapo’ especially by the older folks. Likewise, the Guyanese Creole word ‘pikni’ is used to refer to ‘child/children.’ These lexical variations should be appreciated and accepted.
It should be noted also, as demonstrated in the spellings of the words in Guyanese Creole above, that this language has its unique orthography, distinct from the English system. Guyanese Creole employs a phonemic writing system, where one sound is represented by one symbol.
To illustrate, where English has the symbol [c] in words like “cent” or “crib”, the Guyanese Creole writing system would use /s/ and /k/ respectively. Similarly, where the sound /i/ is represented with different symbols in English, as demonstrated in words like igloo, eat, village, badly, and so forth, in Guyanese Creole, all similar sounds are written using the same symbol. Again, the vowel [a] in English, has different sounds in words such as ‘all’, ‘ape’, ‘apple’; which would be represented in the Creole Writing System as separate symbols.
Moreover, the several varieties of Guyanese Creole are mutually intelligible to almost all Guyanese, especially the ones residing in Guyana. Therefore, we can safely say that this language creates comradery among Guyanese and is a mark of culture and identity.
Further, despite English being Guyana’s official language, Guyanese Creole is used daily to communicate in our homes, offices and even in schools and places of worship. In most cases, English is only used when it is absolutely necessary. This solidifies the fact that Creolese is indeed a language in its own right, and it is not inferior to English or any other language. However, many people remain ignorant of this linguistic fact.
For example: When a child is asked about his or her native language the response is almost always English. Also, when filling in spoken language in the child’s cumulative card at school most teachers used English as the learners’ spoken language. Most importantly, if Guyanese Creole is not accepted as a language, inclusive education cannot be realized completely.
Many students do not understand instructions when given in English and have to be instructed using their mother tongue, Guyanese Creole. Moreover, numerous studies, supported by several UNESCO’s conventions and declarations have proved the values of mother-tongue education for general cognitive development. Being educated in your mother-tongue is a basic human right, which should be free from any discrimination or marginalization; thereby allowing students to feel a sense of belonging, while creating a motivating learning environment where students can participate and express themselves freely.
The Guyanese Creole language should not be defined by the perception that people have of it but it should be defined by the same factors that classify other languages as languages. As such, Guyanese Creole should not be condemned by the negative perception that it has been assigned, but it should be recognized for its effective use in communication among many other factors which makes it a language.
Furthermore, we should have more awareness programs so that all Guyanese can become aware that Guyanese Creole is a language and efforts should be made for teaching its linguistic systems in schools from the Nursery to the Tertiary levels. We must educate the nation as a whole that Guyanese Creole is unique, it is our heritage and tradition. It is who we are as a nation and we should not be ashamed of it, rather we should all embrace it and let it take its rightful place at the top along with English.
After all, full bilingualism (being literate in both English and Guyanese Creole) is always superior to monolingualism. We should therefore not ridicule, marginalize or discriminate against others who speak Guyanese Creole. Let us feel free to express ourselves in speech and writing using our mother tongue no matter where we are.
As teachers, with the mantle to educate the nation, we challenge you to be proud to speak up, speak Guyanese Creole everywhere!
Teacher/Students of ENG3204 (Language and Society II), 2018/19
University of Guyana, Berbice Campus

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