Dossier num. 16 – Linguistic situation in French Guiana
Autora: Mònica Barrieras [0]

1. French Guiana

This territory of 84,000 sq km is located in the north-east of South America, bordering Brazil and Suriname (the former Dutch Guiana); it has a population of about 160,000 inhabitants and its capital is Cayenne[1]. Administratively speaking, Guiana is since 1946 an overseas department (DOM, département d’outre-mer) of the French Republic, endowed with a Regional Council (Conseil Régional) and a General Council (Conseil Général). Its representation in the French parliamentary chambers is restricted to two MPs, one senator and one representative in the Economic and Social Council (Conseil économique et social). Thus, this American territory –geographically speaking– is from a legal point of view part of France and, therefore, it is also part of the European Union. The only official language in this territory is French; however, this is not the only language spoken there.

2. The languages of Guiana

The composition of the population in Guiana is due to the colonisation history of this territory. When the European powers started to explore this area in the 16th century, the inhabitants they encountered were, obviously, Amerindians. Nowadays, the Amerindian community is one of the minorities which make up the ethnic mosaic of this French department, as, like in most parts of America, the native population has been drastically reduced due to colonisation. In the 17th century, French settlers started to establish themselves there, and the importation of African slaves was initiated to carry out work in the plantations; the descendants of those slaves constitute the numerous Guianese Creole community. As for the community of French colonisers, contrary to what could be expected it has not had a significant historical continuity in Guiana. The metropolis faced some difficulties to populate the colony, because the Antilles seemed to be of much more interest; moreover, some failed experiences helped to create a sort of black legend about Guiana, presenting it as a harsh and hostile land, so that the presence of French settlers never took root. Thus, in Guiana there is not a “native” European community, unlike in other places such as Martinique, where a white elite is settled since the first days of colonisation. Finally, there are a number of languages spoken by collectives settled in Guiana in different historical moments, some of which, as we will see below, are liable to be given the status of regional languages.

On the occasion of the drafting of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the French State prepared an inventory of the languages to which its provisions could potentially apply. The Ministry of Culture and the General Delegation of the French Language (Délégation Générale à la Langue Française) gave Bernard Cerquiglini, director of the National Institute of the French Language (Institut National de la Langue Française), the duty of preparing this inventory, to which end several specialists from the different linguistic communities in the French State where consulted. This inventory includes up to 75 languages. Guiana seems to be the second territory with the highest language diversity, with 10 languages, after New Caledonia, where 28 languages are spoken. It must be reminded, however, that although the Charter was initially signed by France, it was not ratified, because the French Constitutional Council found the preamble to be unconstitutional. Let us now take a look at these ten languages which may be regarded as “regional”. It must be underlined that three of them come from other countries, but on account of the circumstances in which they are set in the territory they are also included in the inventory.

2.1. The Amerindian languages

The Amerindians are the original settlers of this territory, even though nowadays there are quite more numerous immigrant communities. In spite of this, there are still six Amerindian languages, which belong to three South American language families.

• Kali’na and Wayana, which are languages of the Carib family[2]. There are about 3,000 Kali’na in French Guiana, although not all of them speak the language. This community is also present in Venezuela, Guyana (the former English colony), Suriname and Brazil, with a total of about 20,000 or 25,000 people; however, now only about 10,000 speak the language. Wayana has about 800 speakers in Guiana, nearly 500 in Brazil and about 200 in Suriname.
• Arawak and Palikur, which belong to the Arawak family[3]. In Guiana, about 900 people, many of which are mestizos, consider themselves as Arawak, but the number of speakers is very low (maybe 10 or 20 people), although some degree of recuperation of the language is observed. In Suriname there are about 4,000 Arawak and in Guyana about 15,000, although only 10 % speak the language. Palikur has about 700 speakers in Guiana and about 900 in Brazil.
• Wayampi and Emerillon are part of the Tupi-Guarani family[4]. There are about 700 Wayampi in Guiana and about 500 in Brazil, all of them speakers of the language. Emerillon is the only Amerindian language spoken exclusively in French territory and it has about 400 speakers. There are quite a few Wayana-Emerillon bilingual people and some can speak both Emerillon and Wayampi.

2.2. The creole languages

The descendants of the African slaves brought to Guiana to work in the plantations speak Guianese Creole, a French-base creole language. Its number of speakers must be about 50,000, although this creole language is also used as a communication language or lingua franca in certain areas by other communities settled in the territory. This creole language is relatively close to the creoles of the French Antilles, so that their speakers can easily communicate with each other. Moreover, there is a variant of this language spoken in the Brazilian area of Amapa by Amerindians who were creolised in the 19th century, known as Kheyol or Caripuna.

Apart from this French-base creole, the inventory includes other creoles stemming from Suriname, although historically settled in this territory, i.e. the group consisting of the Aluku-Ndjuka-Paramaka variants and Saramaka. These creoles belong to a language group known as Businenge, a name derived from the Dutch word ‘bosneger’, ‘jungle black’, since the speakers of these creole languages are descendants of Maroon slaves who fled from the plantations and settled their own societies in the jungle[5]. All these languages have evolved, to a greater or lesser extent, from the Surinamese plantation creole: Sranan. Its base language is not Dutch, as might be expected, but English and, in some instance, also Portuguese. This can be explained because it was the English who settled down in this territory in the mid 17th century, before the Dutch came, although they did not stay there for many years, just about fifteen. As regards Portuguese, Saramaka has a considerable percentage of vocabulary coming from this language, about 35 %. The origin of this vocabulary lies in the presence of a numerous and influential community of Sephardim Jews, mostly Portuguese-speakers, who established themselves in Suriname when the Dutch lost control over it. According to the most widely accepted hypothesis, the English plantation creole, Proto-Sranan, might have partially relexified towards Portuguese in the area with the highest concentration of Jew-managed plantations; the process might have been interrupted with the escape of the slaves. The total number of Businenge population seems to be of about 117,000 people. Even though it is difficult to find concrete data in Guiana, because many people –especially the Saramaka– are in an irregular situation, in accordance with the most reliable sources there are about 37,000 Businenge (2,800 Paramaka, 5,900 Aluku, 14,000 Ndjuka and 14,500 Saramaka). On account of this estimation, they would be one of the most numerous communities in Guiana.

2.3. Hmong: an Asian language in Guiana

Finally, we find a quite exotic language for such latitudes: Hmong. It belongs to the Miao-Yao family, which contains several languages from Southeast Asia, and it is spoken by several million people in Laos, Thailand and southern China, apart from Guiana, where there are about 2,000 speakers. In spite of the fact that this little Asian community came quite recently –they arrived less than thirty years ago–, the special circumstances that caused their arrival place it among the other communities. In the first sixties, the Laos Hmong community was armed by the CIA to fight against the communists, who were trying to control the country; in 1975, when the communists took over, a big part of the Hmong fled to the refugee camps in Thailand. A certain number of Hmong managed to settle in the United States and Canada. At the request of the French Government, in 1977 a first group of 45 Hmong came to Guiana, who were given some lands in a quite isolated area so that they could grow farming products; in the following years other more numerous groups came[6]. Thus, Hmong is to be regarded as a regional language because it has territoriality features and it is not a national language anywhere else. Moreover, this community’s lack of knowledge of French and its strong cultural alterity bring about the same kind of difficulties in education as other communities such as the Amerindians or the Businenge, and they should be therefore treated in the same way.

These are, then, the ten languages included in the inventory made by the French Government, i.e. six Amerindian languages, three creole ones –two stemming from Suriname–, and Hmong. We provide below a summary chart:

Apart from the languages of this inventory, there are also a number of immigration languages, represented by bigger or smaller communities. Among the most widely spoken ones are Portuguese, from Brazil, with a community of up to 20,000 members; Chinese, spoken by some 7,000 people; French creoles from Guadeloupe and Martinique, with some 7,000 speakers, and Haiti Creole, of which some estimates say there are up to 30,000 speakers in Guiana; Spanish, represented by speakers from Peru, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, etc.; and Sranan.

3. Language policy

France’s traditional position towards the languages spoken in this state other than French –the only national and official language, as established by Section 2 of the Constitution: “The language of the Republic is French”– is very well-known. On the basis of this constitutional mandate, French is also the language of education, as explicitly determined by Section 1 of the Law no. 94-665 of 4 August 1994 on the French language: “The French language [...] shall be the language of instruction, work, exchanges and of the public services”. However, this law also takes into account the “regional languages” in Section 21, where it states: “The provisions of the present law shall apply without prejudice to the legislation and regulations regarding the regional languages in France and shall not be against their use.”

As regards the relevant legislation concerning the bulk of regional languages, the oldest one dates back to 1951 and is known as Deixonne Law (Law no. 51-46 of 11 January 1951 on the teaching of local languages and dialects), but it was derogated later on. It was a very restrictive law which only affected four languages: Breton, Basque, Catalan and Occitan. Nowadays, the main French legislation regulating regional languages is gathered in the Code of Education, which makes some timid reference to them: according to Section L312-10, “the teaching of regional languages and cultures [...] throughout schooling” is allowed, while Section L312-11 authorises the teachers “to make use of regional languages in primary schools and nursery schools (écoles maternelles) whenever they can benefit from it for their teaching, especially for the study of the French language”; Section L121-1 sets forth that schools, middle schools (collèges), secondary schools (lycées) and higher education centres are to provide an education which “may include the teaching, at all levels, of regional languages and cultures”; Section L121-3 states that “French is the language of education, exams, competitions, as well as theses and dissertations in the public and private education centres, leaving out justified exceptions for the needs of the teaching of regional or foreign languages and cultures”; finally, Section L123-6 states that “the public service of higher education [...] shall enforce the promotion and enrichment of the French language and of the regional languages and cultures.”[7] Therefore, in general terms, the other languages, the so-called “regional” languages, which lack a solid legal status, are fundamentally left out to the private sphere and, on account of the refusal to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the unitary conception of the State and the negative view of linguistic diversity keep on being predominant.

As regards the legislation which concerns the languages of Guiana in particular it is extremely scarce. The Law no. 2000-1207 of 13 December 2000, entitled Law of Overseas Orientation, only declares that “the regional languages used in the overseas departments are part of the Nation’s linguistic heritage” and that “they benefit from the reinforcement of the policies in favour of regional languages in order to facilitate their use” (Section 34). Furthermore, the General Code of Territorial Collectives establishes in a section devoted to the overseas regions that the Regional Council “shall determine [...] the complementary educational and cultural activities regarding the knowledge of the regional languages and cultures” (Section L4433-25) and that it shall define the actions to be undertaken in cultural matters, by preparing a “regional cultural programme, especially in the fields of regional languages and cultures, literature, plastic, musical and film arts” (Section L4433-27)[8].

Nonetheless, although the regional councils have the power to carry out complementary activities regarding regional languages in education as well as to implement a cultural programme, the resources available to the departments and regions are quite small and any action is still subject to the State’s laws and rules, as Alain Viaut expresses[9]. Apart from this, in the specific case of French Guiana, the powers liable to be conferred to the regional council entail some risks, due to the complex socio-cultural reality of this territory: the fact that the Guianese Creole community monopolises most positions of responsibility in the local administration could influence the way in which any action in the linguistic and cultural field is conceived, so that the less favoured languages and collectives, in social terms, may become excluded or marginalised. Moreover, it is also unclear which policies should be reinforced, as stated by the overseas orientation law of the year 2000.

The fact is that the legislation regarding the “regional” languages not only is scarce and limited, but, as regards Guiana, these provisions are not applied. If we focus on the education field, the language of teaching is exclusively French. There are only a few more or less isolated experiences, such as training programmes for bilingual teachers , often hindered by the lack of political will and resources, aiming to introduce other languages in primary school, but there still are Amerindian and creole languages which have never been present in school. It must be taken into account that the great majority of children do not have French as their first language —a good proportion starts school with a very reduced or even inexistent knowledge of this language—, so that they encounter many difficulties in their learning. Moreover, this situation is worsened by the lack of adaptation of teachers and study plans to the cultural reality of the students. An especially serious aspect, considering that the French Guiana is a French department, is the non-schooling of a significant number of children as well as the high school failure among certain collectives, especially among Amerindians and Businenges. As regards university studies, it should be highlighted that in general terms only French people from the Hexagon and the members of the Guianese Creole community have access to them.

4. The sociolinguistic situation

The sociolinguistic situation of Guiana is quite complex. The future of some languages, especially Amerindian ones, is quite delicate and no policies are being carried out to reverse this situation. French is the predominant language in the public sphere and in the media, while it is also the language of education. Apart from this, only Guianese Creole enjoys some social prestige: its written presence is quite significant —literary tradition dates back to the end of the 19th century and many studies on the language have been published—; it has a considerable presence in radio broadcastings and in some television programmes and its use in oral communication in the administration is quite substantial. All the same, the lexical nearness with French and the social status of this community involve that the official language be significantly used; this brings about a certain degree of decreolisation, i.e. a progressive approach to French, which is a reason for concern in some creole circles. Moreover, this language is used as a communication language for many people, because the Guianese Creole community is the most influential local group and, for the moment, the most numerous one. However, there are other languages which have this same role in certain areas. To the west of the country lives the bulk of Guiana’s Businenge population as well as many immigrants from Suriname belonging to several communities; the communication language is Sranan and a variety which is developing on the basis of the Businenge and Sranan languages, known as langue du fleuve —because its is basically used in the area of the Maroni River––. On the other side, to the east, in the area of Oyapock, there is great presence of population coming from Brazil and, therefore, Portuguese is one of the most used languages. As regards the Amerindian communities, there are different scenarios, because they adopt a different communication language depending on where they are. Moreover, in the areas located further south —the least populated and the most unreachable area—, especially among the Wayampi, there is a high number of monolingual individuals. The rest of communities, like Amerindians, speak their own language in intragroup relationships while they also adopt a communication language when necessary.

Even though cultural and linguistic diversity in French Guiana is quite remarkable, in reality this situation is not free from some degree of social tension. We could say that several communities coexist, although separately, and they are impermeable to each other. The Guianese Creole community, for its part, demands a wider autonomy degree for Guiana —or even, in some sectors, independence—, while it also develops an exclusivist discourse as regards Guianese identity.

Within this context, the lack of intervention from the French state poses a clear threat to the future of a series of languages which are recognised as part of its linguistic heritage, which also belong to our heritage as citizens of the European Union. Beyond this, however, some serious consequences arise in social terms, because the mere belonging to a certain linguistic community may be the cause of social exclusion.