Patois

What is Patois?

Patois is a word used to describe speech or language that is seen as nonstandard or informal. It can refer to many different kinds of languages, like pidgins, creoles, dialects, or vernaculars. However, it usually does not mean jargon or slang.

How Patois is Used

The word patois is used in special ways in different places. For example, in France, it often talks about language used by people in rural areas who have less education. This is different from the main language spoken in cities and used in books and formal places, which is called Standard French.

Patois and Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is a subject that looks at how these different kinds of languages relate to each other and to the main culture. In France, it also looks at how language policies affect these language varieties.

Etymology

The word patois comes from Old French. In Old French, it described a local way of speaking that might sound simple or not very fancy. This idea may have come from an old word meaning "to treat roughly," linked to the word for "paw."

Examples

In France and other places where French is spoken, the word patois describes ways of speaking French that are not standard. It has also been used for other local languages like Picard, Occitan, and Franco-Provençal. Today, patois is often seen as a special part of local culture.

The way people speak in Jamaica is called patois or patwa. Jamaican Patois includes words from many languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Amerindian, English, and African languages. Some islands have their own special ways of speaking that mix French, Spanish, and other languages. For example, in the Caribbean, Antillean Creole is used, which includes words from African and Carib languages.

Other examples of patois include Trasianka, Sheng, and Tsotsitaal. In Spain, a dialect spoken in Benás is called patués. In Uruguay, some people have used patois, especially those with roots in France and the Piedmont region of Italy.

Synonyms

People from Dominican, Grenadian, St. Lucian, Trinidadian, and Venezuelan areas call their language patois. In the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela, it is called Patuá. This name has been used since the 1700s by French people from Corsica and Caribbean people from places like Martinique, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, and others who moved there.

There is also a Macanese Patois, also called Patuá, which was spoken by the Macanese community in the old Portuguese colony of Macau.