Saint-Barthélemy French or St. Barts patois (french: patois Saint-Barth, italic) is the dialect of
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
spoken in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, on the French-controlled island of
Saint-Barthélemy and by a small emigrant community on
Saint Thomas in the
US Virgin Islands.
Saint Barts
The dialect co-exists on St. Barts alongside
Antillean Creole and
Standard French. 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