Saint-Barthélemy French or St. Barts patois (french: patois Saint-Barth, italic) is the dialect of
French spoken in the
Caribbean, on the French-controlled island of
Saint-Barthélemy and by a small emigrant community on
Saint Thomas in the
US Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
.
Saint Barts
The dialect co-exists on St. Barts alongside
Antillean Creole
Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages.
Antillean Creo ...
and
Standard French
Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...
. Despite this linguistic diversity on so small an island, fluency across the varieties of French is generally uncommon. Presently the language is spoken by 500–700 people (mostly old people).
[Valdman. (1997: 247).]
Saint Thomas
A small population of St. Barth’s fishermen settled in St. Thomas (over 200 km away) in the 19th century.
[Dillard. (1975: 18).] The enclave of fewer than 1000 people has maintained its language despite great pressure from the surrounding community. However, in recent years, emigration to the United States has increased the rate of
attrition
Attrition may refer to
*Attrition warfare, the military strategy of wearing down the enemy by continual losses in personnel and material
**War of Attrition, fought between Egypt and Israel from 1968 to 1970
**War of attrition (game), a model of agg ...
to English.
References
Citations
Bibliography
*CALVET, Louis-Jean and Robert CHAUDENSON. ''Saint-Barthélemy: une énigme linguistique.'' Paris, CIRELFA, Agence de la Francophonie, 1998.
*DILLARD, Joey Lee
Perspectives on Black English.1975.
*VALDMAN, Albert
French and Creole in Louisiana.1997.
*WITTMANN, Henri
Grammaire comparée des variétés coloniales du français populaire de Paris du 17e siècle et origines du français québécois.''Le français des Amériques'', ed. Robert Fournier & Henri Wittmann, 281-334. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières. 1995.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Barthelemy French
French language in France
Saint Barthélemy culture
French language in the Americas