Re: 1690 pirate?

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Tue, 25 Sep 2001 23:44:22 -0400 (EDT), Sven Franklyn Weil <sven@gordsven.com> said:

> On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Garrett Wollman wrote:

>> Actually, it's a creole.  (From the French word meaning ``native''.)

> Don't they also call it "patois" (pa-twah)?

Patois is a different concept; technically, it's French for
``dialect''.  (A quick Google search found me /le patois de la vallee
de la bruche/, /le patois ardennais/, /le patois savoyard/, /le patois
de l'Ile d'Oleron/, and so on).  There is a connotation of spoken,
informal language, as distinct from formal written French.

Inexplicably, the term is also used for a Jamaican English-based
creole.

-GAWollman