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.

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.

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 meant a local or regional way of speaking that might sound rough or not very polished. This idea might have come from an old word meaning "to treat roughly," which is related to the word for "paw."

Examples

In France and other places where French is spoken, the word patois has been used since 1643 to describe ways of speaking French that are not standard. It has also been used for other local languages like Picard, Occitan, and Franco-Provençal. Over time, the word patois has sometimes been seen as a way to describe these languages as old-fashioned or simple, which can be upsetting to people who use them. But in France and Switzerland today, patois is often celebrated as a special part of local culture.

The way people speak in Jamaica is also called patois or patwa. Jamaican Patois includes words from many different languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Amerindian, English, and several African languages. Some islands have their own special ways of speaking that mix French, Spanish, and other languages. For example, in the Caribbean, a way of speaking called Antillean Creole is used, which includes words and rules 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, especially those with roots in France and the Piedmont region of Italy, have also used patois.

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 to work with cacao.

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