Navigating the pitfalls of language standardisation: The imperfect binary of authenticity and anonymity in Creole-speaking Martinique

Abstract

Standardisation is often touted as the default means to improve attitudes towards minoritised languages and prevent/reverse their obsolescence. However, standardisation can ‘tamper’ with the indexicalities of minoritised languages, potentially alienating their speakers. Two aspects of standardisation stand out as particularly problematic: the shift from ‘ideologies of authenticity’ to ‘ideologies of anonymity’ (Woolard 2016), and the resulting introduction/intensification of prescriptivism (Eckert 1983). Although much literature focuses on the irreconcilable nature of these ideologies, I show that their discursive manifestations are neither clear-cut nor always incompatible. First, I analyse a TV debate on the standardisation of Martinican Creole (MC), in which the fault-line between authenticity and anonymity is blurred and partially overcome. Next, I draw on a Martinican activist's Instagram profile to show how various discursive strategies and a positive take on language variation can help promote MC as an ‘anonymous’ language without forgoing its ‘authenticity’ or openly stigmatising spontaneous practices. (Minoritised languages, Creoles, Martinique, maintenance, standardisation, ideologies of authenticity, anonymity, prescriptivism, purism, Abstand)*

The preserve of the rural elderly, or a language for modern life? Authenticity, anonymity and indexical ambiguity in Martinican Creole

“…13 We argue that this could be due to the idealization of the 'countryside' in contemporary representations of MC, both inside and outside the activist milieu. Rural environments are widely regarded as a bastion of 'authentic', less Frenchified MChence a repository of potential lexicon to expand the emerging standardized MC (Bernabé 1983;Ardoino 2023). The privileged position that rural MC occupies in activist language/discourse might explain why neither higher status-related attitudes nor exposure to activist MC undermine its ideological leverage over urban varieties.…”

“…Instead, we propose a tentative account, to be tested in future research. We believe that MC might elicit more purist reactions than French because, being less standardized and less mastered/spoken (Beck 2017), 8 it is also perceived as more threatened by language contact (Ardoino 2023;cf. Bernabé 1983).…”

“…In the Martinican context, the effects of (ongoing) standardization are even less clear. So far, the literature on purism has either foregrounded (Térosier, François-Haugrin & Duzerol 2022) or qualified (Ardoino 2023) the danger of MC standardization for Martinican speakers' linguistic security. Moreover, such studies only rely on public discourse and do not explore individuals' attitudes/perceptions and their causes, nor the wider indexical changes that might feed purist discourse.…”

“…Their endeavors also included corpus planning initiatives. Chief among those are the standardization efforts led by the GEREC-F research group (Groupe d'Études et de Recherches en Espaces Créolophones et Francophones), which included the development of a phonemic orthography and grammatical descriptions of MC (Schnepel 2009;Ardoino 2023). Previously stigmatized variants gained wider acceptance even among the middle class (Prudent 1980), not least because of their perceived authenticity and distance from French.…”