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Personally I've found that Lucians speak Creole more often than Dominicans, but the Dominicans I've met speak better Creole.
Interesting. The Dominicans around me in St. Thomas always spoke Creole. The Lucians there and here in the States went back and forth between English and Creole more.
Interesting. The Dominicans around me in St. Thomas always spoke Creole. The Lucians there and here in the States went back and forth between English and Creole more.
That's more what I meant when I said Dominicans speak better creole. I generally hear Lucians speaking it more often but they mix in alot of English words.
That's more what I meant when I said Dominicans speak better creole. I generally hear Lucians speaking it more often but they mix in alot of English words.
The basic "requirement" to be Latin is to speak a Latin-based or Latin-derived language as a mother tongue. ..
Here is the deal. Haitians speak French or French creole. Where do they live when they migrate to NYC or Miami? With Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans?
No. They live with other non Hispanic black Caribbean migrants, who do not know and do not care to know French or French creole (that is with the exception of St Lucians, Dominicans, and a few Grenadians and Trinidadians).
Conclude from this what ever one wishes, and it isn't merely a function of race as we all know what large numbers of Dominican migrants look like.
Language alone doesn't define culture, or we will be calling Nigerians and Indians Anglo Saxons. That will seem ridiculous to most people. I don't even think that most regard African Americans as Anglo Saxons.
I think that Dominica, lying between two French creole islands, is more "isolated" from the Anglophone Caribbean than St Lucia. The latter, with its more modern economy, and considerably more developed tourist industry, also necessitates higher levels of English usage.
It is both linguistic and cultural. The French Caribbean may refer to their Latin roots as such - Latin but not Latino. The latter is more the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations.
Understand what you mean about hearing Latino references in the English and Dutch Caribbean and that's largely due to movement and linguistic changes/diversity. For example, there are some in Trinidad with recent Venezuelan background who may consider themselves Latinos. However, the nation already has Spanish heritage and some cultural aspects, but it is simply part of the mix. The nation has had as its primary language, Spanish, French-Creole and finally English.
Some islands have little to no Spanish or even French influence and would not want such a label at all...Barbados, for example.
I have a suspicion that there is a more deeply rooted Latin American influence in the culture of the average Trinidadian, than in the average Haitian.
I think that Dominica, lying between two French creole islands, is more "isolated" from the Anglophone Caribbean than St Lucia. The latter, with its more modern economy, and considerably more developed tourist industry, also necessitates higher levels of English usage.
Yes, that makes sense. Good point regarding the tourism.
I think that Dominica, lying between two French creole islands, is more "isolated" from the Anglophone Caribbean than St Lucia. The latter, with its more modern economy, and considerably more developed tourist industry, also necessitates higher levels of English usage.
You'd be surprised. Dominica actually had more English speakers and a higher literacy than St Lucia for awhile despite being less developed, mostly because they received an influx of settles from Montserrat, Antigua and St Kitts. But you're right in that D/ca is less developed and is more isolated from the rest of the Anglophone Caribbean.
As for Haitians being Latin American or not, like others have mentioned, Latin American merely means you speak a Romance language as your main language and is only loosely a cultural label. And no, language alone doesn't define culture, but for centuries Haiti has had more contact and cultural exchanges with Cuba and the Dominican Republic than with any of the Anglophone Caribbean countries. Even Jamaica didn't really register much in the minds of Haitians until VERY recently. You can't use the behaviour and settlement patterns of Haitians in the US as a yardstick for what Haitians are actually like as a whole.
Here is the deal. Haitians speak French or French creole. Where do they live when they migrate to NYC or Miami? With Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans?
No. They live with other non Hispanic black Caribbean migrants, who do not know and do not care to know French or French creole (that is with the exception of St Lucians, Dominicans, and a few Grenadians and Trinidadians).
Conclude from this what ever one wishes, and it isn't merely a function of race as we all know what large numbers of Dominican migrants look like.
Language alone doesn't define culture, or we will be calling Nigerians and Indians Anglo Saxons. That will seem ridiculous to most people. I don't even think that most regard African Americans as Anglo Saxons.
If you regard calling African Americans and Indians as Anglos, then isn't it just as ridiculous to call Amerindian and Black people from Latin America "Hispanic" or "Latino"? They aren't Spaniards or Roman/have ancestries in the Romance language speaking peoples.
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