1
00:00:05,305 --> 00:00:07,430
MICHEL DEGRAFF: So one good
thing about this course

2
00:00:07,430 --> 00:00:09,550
is that the students
who take it,

3
00:00:09,550 --> 00:00:12,510
they seem to already be
aware that there's something

4
00:00:12,510 --> 00:00:16,770
that they need to, I would say,
unlearn about Creole languages.

5
00:00:16,770 --> 00:00:19,740
So because you can see
that in the answers

6
00:00:19,740 --> 00:00:21,390
to the first
questionnaire I give,

7
00:00:21,390 --> 00:00:23,220
because I start the
course by asking them

8
00:00:23,220 --> 00:00:24,690
some basic questions
to know where

9
00:00:24,690 --> 00:00:29,070
they are in terms of what they
know about Creole languages.

10
00:00:29,070 --> 00:00:30,630
And I think most of
them, the answers

11
00:00:30,630 --> 00:00:32,640
reflect what they
would have learned

12
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:35,040
in the typical linguistic
textbooks, which

13
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:36,760
I've been myself critiquing.

14
00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,370
So the idea that Creole
languages are mixed languages,

15
00:00:41,370 --> 00:00:44,400
and that makes them
special languages,

16
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,210
exceptional
languages, or the idea

17
00:00:46,210 --> 00:00:48,850
that Creole languages are
somehow oversimplified,

18
00:00:48,850 --> 00:00:54,012
they are reduced languages
that are lesser than others.

19
00:00:54,012 --> 00:00:55,720
So that came up in
some of their answers.

20
00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:59,440
But at the same time, many of
them, from the very beginning,

21
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,700
they would share
very, I would say,

22
00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:04,349
fine answers in terms
of understanding

23
00:01:04,349 --> 00:01:07,500
that Creole languages emerged
in the context of very

24
00:01:07,500 --> 00:01:10,230
drastic power imbalance.

25
00:01:10,230 --> 00:01:12,810
And as such,
attitudes towards them

26
00:01:12,810 --> 00:01:14,490
reflect this power imbalance.

27
00:01:14,490 --> 00:01:16,280
And so they came
ready to critique

28
00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,190
what they had learned in the
linguistic textbooks, which

29
00:01:20,190 --> 00:01:23,570
to me was very heartening
to start the course with.

30
00:01:23,570 --> 00:01:29,530
So one way that we start by
unpacking these misconceptions

31
00:01:29,530 --> 00:01:32,910
is by comparing attitudes
towards languages

32
00:01:32,910 --> 00:01:36,210
with attitudes towards
race and ethnicity.

33
00:01:36,210 --> 00:01:38,940
And what they get
to see very quickly

34
00:01:38,940 --> 00:01:41,850
is that, in fact,
there is perhaps

35
00:01:41,850 --> 00:01:43,770
as much misconceptions
about language

36
00:01:43,770 --> 00:01:46,950
as there is about race.

37
00:01:46,950 --> 00:01:49,410
So they get to see very
early in the course

38
00:01:49,410 --> 00:01:53,655
that language can be
used as a proxy for race.

39
00:01:53,655 --> 00:01:57,090
Though now it's impolite to
say certain things about, say,

40
00:01:57,090 --> 00:02:00,510
black people or Asian
people, yet it's

41
00:02:00,510 --> 00:02:04,560
still polite to say pretty
negative things about language.

42
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:06,240
And then at that
point what we do,

43
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,780
we introduce some basic
linguistic analysis

44
00:02:09,780 --> 00:02:12,930
tools for them to be
able to see that in terms

45
00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:14,730
of linguistic
structure, there is

46
00:02:14,730 --> 00:02:19,120
nothing at all that's inferior
about Creole languages.

47
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,120
In fact, what we do from the
very beginning is to show that,

48
00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:24,010
structurally,
there are patterns,

49
00:02:24,010 --> 00:02:26,970
both in the syntax or
morphology of Creole languages,

50
00:02:26,970 --> 00:02:29,430
that are quite
similar to patterns

51
00:02:29,430 --> 00:02:32,730
in the syntax and history
of English or French,

52
00:02:32,730 --> 00:02:35,060
of Mandarin Chinese.

53
00:02:35,060 --> 00:02:38,010
And so they quickly get
a sense that empirically

54
00:02:38,010 --> 00:02:42,210
and theoretically, one cannot
argue that Creole languages are

55
00:02:42,210 --> 00:02:44,900
any way lesser than
non-Creole languages,

56
00:02:44,900 --> 00:02:49,080
the same way that there are no
biological measures that would

57
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,200
deem black people to be
inferior to white people.

58
00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,330
So they get very
quick to understand

59
00:02:54,330 --> 00:02:56,990
the power of this myth
that, often, they themselves

60
00:02:56,990 --> 00:02:59,190
have brought along
in terms of how

61
00:02:59,190 --> 00:03:01,920
they view different languages--
in some cases Creole languages,

62
00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:04,170
and in other cases just
even dialects of English,

63
00:03:04,170 --> 00:03:06,360
say, Southern English
or black English.

64
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,440
They are attitudes that
are very demeaning to us

65
00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,570
as varieties that have no basis
in science, that are rooted

66
00:03:12,570 --> 00:03:15,270
in hierarchies of power.

67
00:03:15,270 --> 00:03:17,589
And they get to see
that very quickly.