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Reflections on creole genesis in New Caledonia

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03740463.2014.897817

1949-0763

Karin Speedy,

Australian Indigenous Culture and History

AbstractTayo, the Pacific's only documented French-based creole, is the community language of Saint-Louis, a village on the outskirts of Nouméa. Tayo has a short, yet very complex, history. Initially represented as a purely endogenous Melanesian creation by Corne and Ehrhart in their various publications throughout the 1990s, this view was challenged firstly on linguistic grounds by Chaudenson (1994) who saw similarities between Tayo and Réunionnais. Speedy's (2007a, 2007b, 2008, 2009, 2012) socio-historical studies demonstrated an extensive and hitherto unknown contact history between Saint-Louis and immigrants from Reunion which led to the conclusion that Réunionnais was one of the input languages into the emerging local creole. However, these are but two of the Tayo stories. This paper discusses different scenarios for the development of Tayo, including the parts the Marists, the mission school-educated girls and local pidgins had to play in its evolution, and considers the role of inside and outside influences as well as universals in the stories of its genesis.Keywords:: creolesTayoNew CaledoniaMarist missionsNew Caledonian pidginscreolisation Notes 1 Every creole has its own story. This and all subsequent translations are my own. 2 There is no English equivalent of the French réduction so I will use the French terminology in this article. See Speedy (Citation2013) for a description of conditions at the Saint-Louis réduction. 3 My translation of a letter from Father Rougeyron to his niece dated 2 July 1867. Copie de la correspondance du Père Rougeyron Nouvelle-Calédonie à sa famille 1843–1900, MSS 525/9. I consulted Father Rougeyron's correspondence at the Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer in Paris in 2008. 4 Cf. Robert Chaudenson's homestead society and plantation society model. According to Chaudenson, slaves in the sugar colonies were, in the homestead phase, targeting versions of the coloniser's language. As slave numbers increased and the economy moved from small-scale farming to large plantations, their access to the language of the masters decreased significantly and therefore their approximations of this language moved structurally further away from the European varieties (Chaudenson Citation1992, Citation2003). Kihm (Citation1995) also describes Tayo as a plantation creole. 5 See Speedy (Citation2007a, Citation2007b, Citation2008, Citation2009, Citation2012; Delathière Citation2009) for details on the New Caledonian sugar industry (c. 1865–1900) in which immigrants from Reunion Island played a leading role. 6 In her most recent book, Ehrhart (Citation2012) has modified her position slightly in light of the socio-historical research on the Réunionnais population in Speedy (Citation2007a, Citation2007b, Citation2008). 7 From 1863, a total of 615 "Malabars" or coolies arrived in New Caledonia to work in the sugar industry (see Speedy Citation2007a and Citation2009 for details). Of these, approximately half were either born in Reunion or hailed from one of the French comptoirs in India. The other half, most of whom arrived from 1869, were British subjects. However, all of the coolies were recruited in Reunion after having had at least one (often more) period of indenture and thus all would have had some command of a variety of the créole des Bas, the creole spoken in the coastal, lowland, sugar-growing areas of Reunion. This command would have varied from L1 to L2 to the competence of an unguided second language learner, depending on the origin and/or length of time spent in Reunion. In addition to these arrivals, my archival research (nineteenth-century registers of births, deaths and marriages, ships lists, newspapers and other archival or printed sources) uncovered 256 surnames of free Reunionese migrants who arrived in New Caledonia in the 1860s and 1870s (Speedy Citation2007a, Citation2012). This list is incomplete as I only consulted the État Civil (births, deaths and marriages) from southern New Caledonia (in the vicinity of Saint-Louis). Moreover, due to their state of disrepair, many of the registers from Nouméa were unavailable for viewing. In addition, registers of the État Civil did not commence in Païta, Dumbéa and Mont-d'Or until 1870, 1875 and 1879 respectively. As many of the Réunionese arrived in family groups – parents, children, brothers, sisters etc. – and many of these families were very large, a conservative estimate of actual numbers would be at least 2000 arrivals over the 15- to 20-year period. To put this figure into perspective, the free population of New Caledonia numbered 1331 in 1869 (CAOM, FM SG NCL/172) and 2752 in 1877 (Gascher Citation1975). Most of the Reunionese migrants were creolophone Petits Blancs and Affranchis. The Grands Blancs, who were very much the minority, would have been bilingual in Reunion French and creole (see Speedy Citation2007b for a creole text written by one of the Grands Blancs in New Caledonia). While not all of the arrivals stayed in New Caledonia after the collapse of the sugar industry, my research shows that many, particularly the Petits Blancs and Affranchis, did put down roots in the Pacific (Speedy Citation2007a, Citation2012). 8 Much archival work was carried out in the CAOM in Aix-en-Provence and in the Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer in Paris. I consulted the Reunionese freed slave lists (Patronymes attribués aux anciens esclaves affranchis 1832–1848) published online by the CitationCercle généalogique de Bourbon and additional genealogical information was supplied by Mrs Pearl Montrose, descendant of one of the African/Malagasy/Creole sugar workers in New Caledonia. 9 Interestingly, in both Reunion and New Caledonia, people were classified by their social status rather than the colour of their skin. Essentially, in Reunion, distinction was made between free and servile groups while in New Caledonia, it was between free, convict and indigenous groups (for details see Speedy Citation2012).10 For details on the phenomenon of the "non-dit" in the New Caledonian context, a reticence on the part of society to talk about what was seen as a shameful past, see Barbançon Citation1992.11 See Speedy (Citation2007a, 167–183) for details.12 Letter from Father Rougeyron, 13 October 1872. Copie de la correspondance du Père Rougeyron Nouvelle-Calédonie à sa famille 1843–1900, MSS 525/9.13 In Speedy (Citation2007a, 183–191, Citation2007b), I compared linguistic traits present in two texts published in New Caledonia representing the Reunion Creole that was spoken in the nineteenth century in the colony with Tayo. There were a number of phonological, lexical and grammatical similarities. While some of these are also present in other French-based creoles and may be attributed to universals in creolisation (lexical items, zero copula, optional indefinite articles, invariable adjectives, agglutination, etc.), others, such as the possible reanalysis of the Reunion Creole copula "le" (written "l'est" in the old texts) as the dependent pronoun in Tayo when used for thematisation (cf. Speedy Citation2007a, 184–185) and the use of "na" and "napa" as presenters introducing adverbs (Speedy Citation2007b, 222) strongly suggest influence from Reunion Creole. Tayo also shares some lexical items with Reunion Creole which are absent from New Caledonian French, including akos ke/akoz k "parce que" (because), siskakan/ziskakan "jusqu'à ce que" (until), sufer/sufer "souffrir" (suffer), ser/ser "sœur" (sister) as opposed to laser/laser "religieuse" (nun) (Corne Citation2000a, 73). However, no extensive comparative work between the two creoles has been done. Whether future research will uncover more convergence or not is irrelevant to my argument as I do not advocate that Reunion Creole was the source of Tayo or the impetus for its evolution. I see it as just one among many other input languages in a very complex linguistic ecology.14 See Speedy (Citation2007a, 29–31) for a discussion on these points.15 See Siegel, Sandeman, and Corne (Citation2000) and Sandeman (Citation2011) for a discussion of substrate influence in Tayo, and Meyerhoff (Citation2008, 340) who notes convergence between one of the possessive structures in Drubea and Reunion Creole.16 Malagasy, an important substrate language in Reunion Creole, and the Melanesian substrate languages in Tayo are all Austronesian languages. But it would require a lot more comparative research demonstrating many shared non-universal structures before we could hypothesise substratal convergence between Malagasy and the Melanesian languages as an explanation for Reunion Creole influence on Tayo. This may not, however, prove very productive. With regards to comparative studies of Mauritian Creole and Tok Pisin (that also have shared Austronesian substrates) Anthony Grant and Diana Guillemin (Citation2012, 90) question whether similarities in these substrates are significant and come to the conclusion that they are not.17 It should also be noted here that while Tayo shares a number of features with other creoles, Corne's work has shown that it also exhibits some quite specifically Melanesian features, particularly in the TAM system, the pronominal system, relativisation, the imperative, etc.18 A society running at two speeds or a society in which different groups had more or less contact with the language of power. Like in a homestead situation, the Saint-Louis girls had much closer contact with the "masters" (the Marists) whereas the adults and boys had more of a plantation-like experience with less exposure to the French of the Marists.19 Indeed the concept of a tribe in New Caledonia (and elsewhere) is a colonial construct. Traditional Kanak society was built around the clan (cf. Bensa and Leblic Citation2000).20 In 1856, the Marists made a first attempt to set up a mission at Saint-Louis but it was abandoned due to hostilities from local Kanaks (Dauphiné Citation1995, 27).21 The French-based pidgin came about after French annexation and subsequent contact between Kanaks and French administrators and colonists. According to Hollyman (Citation1964, 58), it developed from the beach-la-mar or English-based pidgin spoken in New Caledonia from the 1840s and was spoken throughout the nineteenth century. It contained French, English, Polynesian and Melanesian elements.22 Prior to European contact, small groups of Polynesians had at various times arrived and settled in parts of the east coast of New Caledonia and Uvea (where a Polynesian language, Faga Uvea, is still spoken today). Polynesian languages were thus spoken in New Caledonia and some lexical items entered local Melanesian languages. Initial contact with European explorers was facilitated by the presence of Polynesian languages and speakers, who sometimes acted as interpreters. Indeed, in Balade, Polynesian became the lingua franca for communication between European explorers, missionaries and traders (Hollyman Citation1959, Citation2000a). The Europeans used pidginised Polynesian (or Maritime Polynesian Pidgin) as reported by Drechsel (Citation2007).23 Letter from Father Rougeyron to Jean-Claude Colin, New Caledonia, 1 October 1845. Quoted in Essertel (Citation2008, 97).24 In addition to providing military aid, converts at La Conception (and later Saint-Louis) were also employed on public works (Dauphiné Citation1995, 50).25 All of the examples were uttered by Kanaks (although recorded by Europeans) except for (5) which is attributed to the settler and sugar planter Ferdinand Joubert. While visiting the Joubert concession of Koé, Joubert explained to Jules Garnier that his Kanak workers did not understand French well so he used this "lingua franca" (or pidgin) to communicate with them. Garnier mentions other words of pidgin/English origin used to designate items at the farm including "le cooka" (cook), "fena" (fence) and "paddock" (field or paddock) (Garnier Citation1991, 29–44).26 In the Loyalty Islands and some northern Kanak languages, the term "puaka" is used to designate the pig and comes from Polynesian. Pidgin "Poaka", from English "porker" appears to be the source of "poka" or "poca" as used in Kanak languages in the north and far south of New Caledonia (Hollyman Citation1959, 383). This term, according to Hollyman (Citation1959, 383) "represents original beach-la-mar usage" and it is also present in NCF.27 Tayo also allows N+ [de+inanimate N]pp and N+[à+ material N]pp (cf. Kihm Citation1995).28 See Rivierre (Citation1980, 152–156), Kihm (Citation1995) and Moyse-Faurie (Citation1995, 52–53) for examples in these three languages respectively.Additional informationNotes on contributorsKarin SpeedyKarin Speedy is Head of French and Francophone Studies at Macquarie University. Historian, linguist and literary specialist, she focuses much of her research on the Pacific where she works on contact languages, especially Tayo, and historical, cultural and linguistic links between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.