Dear Editor,
I was fascinated and intrigued by Alim Hosein’s letter claiming that Creolese is a language and not a dialect. I am not sufficiently qualified to say which it is, but it’s definitely not a “patois”. Patois is a derogatory term, and calling a language/dialect patois is like calling St Lucian creole “broken French”.
Anyway, there is no such thing as “standard” Creolese. Guyanese English is, instead, a continuum, extending from the acrolect (standard English with a Guyanese accent) at one end to the basilect (broadest Creolese) at the other. Speakers of the basilect should have no difficulty in understanding standard English, and vice versa.
On the other hand, Surinamese Sranan or Taki-taki is definitely a language and not a dialect, as it is not mutually intelligible with any variety of English.
Yours faithfully,
Adam Frankowski
