THE international conference on language rights and policy in the Creole-speaking Caribbean will take place in Jamaica on January 13 and 14.

Organised by the Jamaican Language Unit of the University of the West Indies, Mona, the conference brings together professional linguists and representatives of all language stakeholders, including governments, and is the end point of a process to create a Charter on Language Rights and Language Policy for the region.

“This charter will provide a truly regional process for resolving the language problems of the Creole-speaking Caribbean,” said a release from the university.

The governors general of St Lucia and Belize and the minister of justice of Trinidad and Tobago are among those who will attend the conference.

The aim of the conference is to arrive at an agreement on the final wording of the charter, with the proceedings including a review of the developments on language policy and practice in the region over the past 50 years.

The conference concludes a public session at which the charter will be presented and explained to the citizens of the Creole-speaking Caribbean for signing. Civil society groups around the region will be asked to sign on to the charter as a means of raising public consciousness about the language rights of Caribbean citizens.

“The importance of the conference is rooted in the fact that there are multiple languages spoken in the Caribbean and there is no Caribbean-wide consensus on how this region’s linguistic complexity should be handled,” the release said.

There are 35 Creole languages spoken in the Caribbean. Alongside these languages are spoken some 15 indigenous languages, four European languages and perhaps a dozen immigrant/heritage languages. Language debates and conflict abound within almost every country within the region.

The draft charter to be considered at the conference is the product of intense debate and discussion by a team of 30 international experts on Caribbean languages and their roles in education, the law and culture.

Pull quote:

‘The importance of the conference is rooted in the fact that there are multiple languages spoken in the Caribbean and there is no Caribbean-wide consensus on how this region’s linguistic complexity should be handled’