Additional information
by Marguerite-Joan Joseph (Author)
Whereas Iola (Honor ) Joseph 1913-2006] was a fluent speaker of Creole French, she used the language only among her own siblings and mother (a widow) in the rural, ancestral, Honor home, and not at all in the urban 'hurly-burly' of the Joseph family effort for economic survival. Consequently, The Author, the youngest daughter born to Iola in St. George's, and in her 40th year of life, learned very little of the Creole French. The Author, nostalgic for the loss of the language, subsequently learned the language more fully, and established as a memorial to Iola, her mother, a philanthropic entity Iola Initiative Industries, in 2007. The Grenada Creole Society formed in 2009 to research and promote the Patois (as the Creole French is called in Grenada) is a department of Iola Initiative Industries. In this publication by Iola Initiative Industries, The Author delivers an analysis of the decline of the Lesser Antillean Creole French in Grenada compared to St Lucia and Dominica. This decline is seen as surprising and paradoxical since these two nearby island members of the Windward Islands grouping, have socio-political histories that are very similar to that of Grenada. While tracing the origin, use and decline in use of the Patois of Grenada, the book introduces and explains the concept of a direct influence of The Walloon Language on the Grenadian variety of Creole French in such a manner as to produce certain of its previously undocumented, unique and colourful characteristics. This book would be of interest to Grenadian and other Caribbean people interested in their culture and history, to those with an interest in Caribbean Languages or Caribbean Studies, or in the links between the histories of Europe, Africa and the Caribbean countries.
