Spanish and Creole: Exploring Aspects of Minority and Minoritised Languages in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago
Spanish and Creole: Exploring Aspects of Minority and Minoritised Languages in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago

Summary/Abstract: As the two largest countries in the Anglophone Caribbean, the sole official language of both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago is English. This status, however, does not accommodate the historical and contemporary multilingualism common to both countries. Mindful of the islands’ colonial past, as well as their geographical proximity to Latin America, the government of Trinidad & Tobago has designated Spanish as the country’s official foreign language, and there have been calls for the same move to be made in Jamaica. Even though Spanish is very much a minority language in both nations in terms of the number of speakers, this move has associated implications for the education sectors. In addition, it has been argued that this mandate also denigrates autochthonous Creole languages, which are spoken widely in both countries but generally have no formal place in education or public life. Accordingly, this preliminary literature-based study examines relevant Jamaican and Trinidad & Tobago policies through the lens of the language policy model originally developed by Bernard Spolsky in 2004, which foregrounds the four interlinked concepts of national ideology, the role of English, a country’s sociolinguistic structure, and minority language rights. Particular attention will be focused on current initiatives regarding the latter, as well as seeking to examine how governmental emphasis on Spanish – given the existence of these local Creole languages – is viewed within the Jamaican and Trinidad & Tobago contexts.

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