Monthly Archives: October 2016

Recently I received a new publication by Philipp Krämer (Freie Universität Berlin):

‘Combien de néerlandais? Histoire linguistique et histoire de la linguistique dans les Îles Vierges Danoises’,  in: Histoire Épistémology Langage 38/1 (2016), p. 103-120. It is digitally available at: Combien de Néerlandais?

Krämer’s English abstract and keywords are the following:

“Abstract

For centuries, the Dutch-based Creole language of the Danish Virgin Islands was documented not by the Dutch but mainly by German missionaries and Danish colonialists. This article sheds light on the role of the Dutch language in this complex colonial universe. Historical sources from the 18th and 19th century will show which sociolinguistic role Dutch played in the society of the islands and which (meta-)linguistic knowledge of Dutch the authors of these sources (C.G.A. Oldendorp, J.M. Magens, and E. Pontoppidan) had. Some reflections on the discursive and epistemological foundations of the sources and the significance they attribute to the Dutch language will conclude the article in order to show that the linguistic compexities of this archipelago are diferent from most other Creole-speaking areas.

Keywords

Colonialism, Christian mission, Creole languages, cariole (“Negerhollands”), Dutch, universalism, racialism, Danish Virgin Islands”