- So, while šaše “to look for” (Fr. chercher) is frequently abbreviated to aše, the latter form would never be confused with haše “to chop” (Fr. hacher); nor is either of these words ever homophonous with raše “to tear off/away/up” (Fr. arracher). Quite recently, some speakers have begun to replace legohin “handsaw” by the ‘hyper-form’ legožin.
- Phonetically, this is not surprising, (compare the Parisian's substitution of l for the apical trill when imitating the pronunciation of a “bitaco”). It is more remarkable that Creole appears not to have borrowed any French words from dialects having the “more provincial” r; particularly in view of the facility with which the modern Creole speaker reproduces the apical flap (or, when pressed, trill) of other than French loans containing it, and his only partial approximation—even when a French speaker and citizen—to the French uvular r. A possible exception is Raš “scabies”, which, however, might equally well have been borrowed from English or Italian; (there were a number of Italians among the early colonists).
- In parts of Dominica (and, I believe, of Martinique), there is a somewhat similar tendency to replace pre-vocalic ž by h. So, in certain localities, one bears such forms as: hade, hape, lahe, hete, hordi in place of more generally accepted: žade, žape, laž ã, žete, žordi, (Fr. jardin, japper, l'argent, jeter, aujourd'hui); this never happens to syllable-final ž. However, in view of the fact that generally accepted žantõ “cockchafer” (Fr. hanneton) is a “hyper-form”, there would appear to be some doubt as to which pronunciation is, from the Creole point of view, the more conservative.
- Choose new content alerts to be informed about new research of interest to you
- Easy remote access to your institution's subscriptions on any device, from any location
- Save your searches and schedule alerts to send you new results
- Export your search results into a .csv file to support your research