Texaco is a book written by Patrick Chamoiseau. This book offers a historical and personal perspective of individuals living in Texaco, a village on the country side of Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. There are three narratives in this story, Ti-Cirique, Oiseau de Shem, and Marie Sophie Laborieux, but the main one is from Marie-Sophie, the daughter of a free slave. In Marie-Sophie narrative, she tells the story of her family history which begins from 1820s and ends in late 20th century. These memories of her history is from both her personal memory and the stories that her father once told her. As you read the novel, one can see that Texaco follows a non-linear plot line. Although Texaco has this complex story arrangement, one can
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Frequently, one usage is the literary or prestige dialect, and the other is a communal dialect spoken by the majority of the population (Britannica). Such a situation exists in many speech communities throughout the world, but in this case, mainly in the Caribbean. In Texaco, Chamoiseau spoke about this type of situation. In Martinique, there are two main languages that are spoken in a community, French and Creole. French is thought to be the language spoken by the intellectual and well-educated individuals while Creole is thought to be spoken more amongst the poor, uneducated individuals of Martinique. Creole is a combination of African languages, French and other language while French is the colonial language that is part of the fundamental linguistics of Martinique and also the state, since this was a language acquired from France during the time of colonialism. In Chamoiseau, Texaco, one can see how these two different languages intertwine and how they are spoken amongst the individual. One of the narrator of the story, Ti-Cirique, a dark-skinned Haitian thinker, tries to use the mulatto French which is more French than European French. Ti-Cirique has this negritude-influenced ideology about him and throughout the story one might assume that he loves France more than the Frenchmen themselves. And throughout his narration, one can see hear or read how he is always trying to correct …show more content…
In the context of two co-existing languages, Creole and French, one can speak of creolization of the French language in a context where a text that is considered as French because of its idiolect, spelling and syntax, but there exist many linguistic occurrences that will be identified as 'non- French' by a native speaker and belonging to Martinician Creole. For French based Creoles, however, the question arises of how to identify as Creole a word whose spelling has been “etymologically” reconstitute
Frequently, one usage is the literary or prestige dialect, and the other is a communal dialect spoken by the majority of the population (Britannica). Such a situation exists in many speech communities throughout the world, but in this case, mainly in the Caribbean. In Texaco, Chamoiseau spoke about this type of situation. In Martinique, there are two main languages that are spoken in a community, French and Creole. French is thought to be the language spoken by the intellectual and well-educated individuals while Creole is thought to be spoken more amongst the poor, uneducated individuals of Martinique. Creole is a combination of African languages, French and other language while French is the colonial language that is part of the fundamental linguistics of Martinique and also the state, since this was a language acquired from France during the time of colonialism. In Chamoiseau, Texaco, one can see how these two different languages intertwine and how they are spoken amongst the individual. One of the narrator of the story, Ti-Cirique, a dark-skinned Haitian thinker, tries to use the mulatto French which is more French than European French. Ti-Cirique has this negritude-influenced ideology about him and throughout the story one might assume that he loves France more than the Frenchmen themselves. And throughout his narration, one can see hear or read how he is always trying to correct …show more content…
In the context of two co-existing languages, Creole and French, one can speak of creolization of the French language in a context where a text that is considered as French because of its idiolect, spelling and syntax, but there exist many linguistic occurrences that will be identified as 'non- French' by a native speaker and belonging to Martinician Creole. For French based Creoles, however, the question arises of how to identify as Creole a word whose spelling has been “etymologically” reconstitute