Jan. 18, 2003 – Like all languages, the English Creole spoken in the U.S. Virgin Islands is changing with the times, linguist Elroy Sprauve said this week at a Friends of the V.I. National Park seminar.
"Words die and words come in," the retired teacher told the dozen people gathered Wednesday at Nazareth Lutheran Church.
The influx of immigrants from the Eastern Caribbean, expanded contact with the outside world and the rise of the Rastafari movement all are contributing to changes in the language, he said.
Sprauve cited numerous words on the edge of extinction. For example, the term macrón is seldom heard today, he said; it's a noun meaning someone disabled by pain. Also fading from use is swai, which means to walk up and down aimlessly.
Janet Burton, an oral historian who works for the Friends of the Park, said that younger people prefer the word "slinger" instead of swai.
Sprauve also unraveled some idiosyncrasies of English Creole for his audience. For one thing, he pointed out, rather than adding an "s" to make a word plural as is done in standard English, speakers of English Creole append the word dem to a singular noun. Thus, "the boy dem" refers to multiple male children.
Various forms of the verb "to be" are implied, not used, in English Creole, he said. Speakers say "he tired" instead of "he is tired."
And sentences referring to past events are constructed differently than in standard English. Listeners get their clues that the speaker is discussing the past in other ways.. "He dead last night," Sprauve said as an example.
Also, he said, English Creole speakers run the words in a sentence together, and this causes the most difficulty for listeners whose ears are not attuned to the linguistic patterns.
Sprauve also spoke about how a strong religious belief that God is in control makes its way into English Creole when the speaker is discussing the future. "Tomorrow, please God, I'm going to Coral Bay," Sprauve gave as an example.
Longtime St. John resident Doris Jadan, an Alabama native, mentioned that she found that so in her home state as well.
Virgin Islanders' traditional strong respect for the elderly also finds its way into the language. "It's not acceptable to address any older person by the first name," Sprauve noted. Instead, he said, speakers may preface the person's first name with title words such as Tan, Tan-tan, Tantie, Nenni, Pepé, or Friend. Sprauve said this carries over even to older siblings and that he always referred to his older sibling as Brother.
If someone tells you some morning that they haven't had their "tea" yet, don't think they haven't gotten around to a cup of pekoe blend or even a bush brew. Sprauve explained that they mean they haven't had their breakfast. And "tea" could mean coffee or chocolate, as well.
In a far-reaching discussion, Sprauve talked about the origins and evolutions of language in the Virgin Islands. He said that planters and their slaves needed a way to communicate, which is how Dutch Creole developed. People spoke that language until the late 1700s and early 1800s, when English Creole began to develop.
As for Dutch Creole, the last person known to speak the language, St. John resident Alice Stevens, died in 1987.
"Here in our lifetime, we saw a language die," Sprauve said.
Danish, the native language of the island's colonizers, was used only by the government, since most of the planters hailed from elsewhere, many from Britain.
Sprauve was emphatic that speakers of English Creole need to learn standard English as well, so that they can communicate with the wider world. He recalled that when he was teaching at Julius E. Sprauve School, a famous football player from the States came to visit one day. Children who never spoke standard English suddenly found the words so they could make the star athlete understand them, he said.
Within his memory, children who spoke English Creole often were ridiculed for not using standard English. And even today, Sprauve said, when such people attend public meetings, they may not speak out for that reason.
However, he believe that attitude, like English Creole, is changing. "The average person is more receptive to different dialects," he said.
The Friends of the Park is offering seminars on St. John on a wide variety of topics through April. For a complete listing, see "Friends of the Park 2003 seminars schedule". Call 779-4940 for more information.
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