My Point of View

Creole vs. Dialect

Ok this is another rant. I am so tired of hearing people say Creole is a dialect, NEWA FLASH: IT'S AN ACTUAL LANGUAGE PEOPLE! Like seriously, that shit vex me too bad (a lot). There is a difference between the two. A dialect is a language spoken in different vareties, i.e. American and British English. There are words in Britan that are different from America, but they mean the same thing. An example is when British people use the words like flat, patty, and lift while Americans use words like apartment, hamburger, and elevator. That is a dialect cause mit's the same language, but spoken differently within countries or regions/states within a country (these are known as sub-dialects).

Now as for the creole language, it is not considered a dialect. Creole is a Europeon-based language, meaning the language consist of mostly Europeon language. Creole tends to be labeled as unintelligable to the Europeon language. Like what English speaker know what "mi nah waa fee guh deh cuz mi nah like bukra dem so, nah guhlong" they don't know what that mean. Now a creole and pidgin speaker would know what that mean to a degree, but again, we all don't speak the same language. So it vex me when I see or hear people saying that creole is a dialect, now if allyuh was to say he is speaking his own diaclet of lets say Trinidadian Creole, then that will be different cause how I speak is different from how my grandfather speaks. Like a dialect, creole has its different versions in certain places like parihes, cities, towns, villages, and households. It also differs in age and social class.

Now social class has a large affect on the creole language. There is acrolect, mesolect, and basilect. I will use the phrase "I told him" (whish I got from the Guyanese Creole section on Wikipedia. The concept is the same for all creole languages)

Acrolect is the Standard English, meaning everything is articulated and proper. This is used by upperclass people: I told him

Mesolect is a largely used version in the Caribbean, and it varies among certain classes:middle class, lower class, lower-urban class, and lower rural class. The language varies in pronouciation and/or grammatical structure:

I tole him

I tole he

I tell him

I tell he

Ah (unstressed pronounciation of I) tole him

Ah tole he

Ah tell him

Ah tell he

Me tell im

Me tell ee (mean he, 'H' is not pronounced. Other usages are he, hi, hee, hii, i, e, and ii. This uasage comes from the French usage)

Basilect is another largely used version, however, this is restricted to certain countries. Countries that use basilect are Jamaica, Guyana, and Tobago to name a few (though these are the only places that I know that use basilect speech). This version is used by the rural class speaker where this would be considered illiterate. This is where Europeons considered this more as broken language. Also, this is where the language is more closer to their African roots, which is also why Tobago was put up there: Me tel am.

Please, please, please, I can't stress this enough. Allyuh must know the difference between a creole language and a dialect language, ok. It really can be annoying that people make these comparisons and they're wrong. If allyuh are going to do stuff like that, try to learn more about it, but don't feel bad cause I'm like that sometimes. I be saying things and don't know a lot about it, we all do that sometimes, so think of this as a learning moment.

Peace and blessings.