User:ClimbingGal/Martinique

Languages
The official language of Martinique is French, which is spoken by most of the population. The department was integrated into France in 1946, and consequently became French. Most residents also speak Martinican Creole (Martinique Creole, Kréyol Mat'nik, Kreyòl), a form of Antillean Creole closely related to the varieties spoken in neighboring English-dominated islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica.

French and Creole are in a diglossic situation in Martinique, where French is used in official dialogue and Martinican Creole is used in casual or familial contexts. Creole was a spoken language with a developed "oraliture"; it wasn't until the mid 20th century that Martinican Creole began to be written. Since then, decreolization of the language has taken place via the adoption of Standard French features, mostly unconsciously, but some speakers have noticed that they do not speak Creole like their parents once did.

Being an overseas department of France, the island has European, French, Caribbean, Martinican, black and Creole markers of identity, all being influenced by foreign factors, social factors, cultural factors and, as a reportedly important marker, linguistic practices. Martinican and Creole identities are specifically asserted through encouragement of Creole and its use in literature, in a movement known as Créolité, that was started by Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant. Martinican Creole used to be a shameful language, and it wasn't until the 1970s that it has been revalorized through literature and increasing code switching. People now speak Martinican Creole more often and in more contexts.

In collaboration with GEREC (Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherches en Espace Créolophone) Raphaël Confiant created KAPES KREYOL (CAPES for Creole, Certificat d'aptitude au professorat de l'enseignement du second degré), which is an aptitude exam that allowed Creole teachers in secondary school. This debuted the 9th of February, 2001. Recently, the education authority, Académie de la Martinique, launched "Parcours Creole +" in 2019, a project trialling bilingual education of children in French and Martinican Creole. Rather than being a topic to be learned itself, Creole became a language that classes were taught in, such as arts, math, physical activity, etc.

Linguistic Features of Martinican Creole
One of the features of Martinican Creole is that is has General Locative Marking (GLM, also called General Locative Adposition, Goal/Source (in)difference and Motion-to=Motion-from). This means that source locations, final locations and static entity locations are expressed morphologically identical. Some West-African languages that are possibly contributors to Martinican Creole also present GLM. Martinican Creole locative marking exists in in 3 morphological types, including:


 * 1) spatial prepositions as free morphemes;
 * 2) * These include "an" (in), "adan" (inside), "douvan" (in front), "anba" (under) and "anlè" (on).
 * 3) spatial morphemes "a-", "an(n)-", and "o(z)-" bound to the noun on their right;
 * 4) * Only bare lexemes that depict certain locations will take on these particles
 * 5) phonologically null locative markers
 * 6) * In ambiguous sentences, these are added to polysyllabic city names

Literature
Raphaël Confiant was a poetry, prose and non-fiction writer who supports Creole and tries to bring both French and Creole (Martinican and Guadeloupean) together in his work. He is specifically known for his contribution to the Créolité movement.