Creole

Creole languages are languages which arise from a merging of other languages. They develop from pidgins, simplified mixtures of languages that appear when groups speaking different languages come into sustained contact. If a pidgin becomes more stable and children begin learning it as their primary language, it becomes a creole, a bona fide new language. Most Creoles are based on one European language and have admixture of several non-European ones. Mutual intelligibility can range from imfeasible to challenging but doable for native speakers. Code-switching (i.e. switching between different forms of language) is common, especially if both the Creole and the Metropole version of the language are official locally.

Languages

Creole languages include:

• Antillean Creole phrasebook|Antillean Creole (Patois) — spoken on many islands in the Caribbean
• Bajan phrasebook|Bajan — spoken in Barbados
• Belizean Kriol phrasebook|Belizean Kriol — spoken in Belize
• Bislama phrasebook|Bislama — spoken in Vanuatu
• Cape Verdean Creole phrasebook|Cape Verdean Creole — spoken in Cape Verde
• Guinea-Bissau Creole phrasebook|Guinea-Bissau Creole — spoken in Guinea-Bissau
• Guyanese Creole phrasebook|Guyanese Creole — spoken in Guyana
• Haitian Creole phrasebook|Haitian Creole (Patwah) — spoken in Haiti, French based
• Jamaican patois phrasebook|Jamaican Creole — spoken in Jamaica, English based
• Louisiana Creole phrasebook|Louisiana Creole — spoken in Louisiana, United States
• Mauritian Creole phrasebook|Mauritian Creole — spoken in Mauritius
• Norfuk/Pitkern phrasebook|Norfuk/Pitkern — spoken in Norfolk Island and the Pitcairn Islands
• Seychellois Creole phrasebook|Seychellois Creole — spoken in the Seychelles
• Sranan phrasebook|Sranan — spoken in Suriname
• Tok Pisin phrasebook|Tok Pisin — spoken in Papua New Guinea
• Torres Strait Creole phrasebook|Torres Strait Creole (Brokan) — spoken in the Torres Strait Islands

Other uses

Creole may also refer to a cuisine or to various groups of people. The Spanish word Criollo which has similar routes can refer to anything or anybody native to the Americas but not of indigenous descent in its broadest sense but refers to the white native born elite in colonial South America which ultimately overthrew the colonial government and dominated politics throughout the 19th century and sometimes to this day.