Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Instructor Insights; Lecture Videos; Podcasts; Presentation Assignments with Examples; Written Assignments
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Spring 2017
- Department: Linguistics and Philosophy
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How Caribbean Creole languages formed and what theories about them reveal, with Haitian Creole as the guide, plus essays, videos and teaching insights.
Linguists have often treated Creole languages as exceptions, and this discussion class asks what that view has to do with power. Using Haitian Creole as its main reference point, it examines how colonization and the slave trade produced new languages, tests popular theories of Creole genesis, then turns to literature, religion and music. Language here is never separate from power or identity.
What You Will Achieve
- Evaluate theories about how Creole languages form
- Critique claims that Creole languages are exceptional
- Analyze how language choices shape identity in a novel
- Write a linguistic autobiography tracing your own speech
Program Overview
Creole Formation
Testing the standard stories about origins.
- Whether pidgins exist, and whether Creoles come from them
- Variation in the history of Haitian Creole
- Creole formation as normal language change
- The role of language acquisition and social factors
Power and Identity
Language in post-colonial societies.
- Discourses of power and socio-economic hierarchies
- Authenticity in post-colonial communities
- A history of anti-Creole myths
Community and Technology
Where the questions lead today.
- Guest lecture on unmaking and remaking community
- Technology and new modes of storytelling
Course Completion
Job Outlook
These skills are relevant to linguistics research, language education, language policy and Caribbean or post-colonial studies.
Good for: Students of linguistics and anyone interested in language, race and colonial history who enjoy reading closely and arguing a position.
Keep in mind: Video covers only the final class and a guest lecture, so most sessions are not recorded. The heart of the class was discussion, which is hard to reproduce alone.
Bottom line: A personal, challenging look at how theories about language connect to power.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it taught in Haitian Creole?
The published materials are in English. The instructor interview videos come in both English and Creole versions, and the novel assigned uses Spanish and Kreyol phrases alongside English.
What are the essays about?
A linguistic autobiography, a close reading of translation in Danticat's The Farming of Bones, an essay on a prompt you bring yourself, and a revision of an earlier essay.
What video can I watch?
The final class session, on technology and new forms of storytelling, with student discussion and a presentation, plus two videos of a 2022 guest lecture by Jean Casimir.
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