LEXICAL VARIATION IN WEST INDIES: DIATOPY AND GRAPHIC STANDARDIZATION IN THE CASE OF FRENCH-CARIBBEAN CREOLE LANGUAGES

Institutionalizing a language involves its orthographic crystallization and its subsequent standardization, an essential element for its inclusion in education field and its recognition as a linguistic and cultural expression vehicle. In some geographical areas, characterized by specific historical features, such as colonized territories, the development of linguistic systems such as Creole languages has been influenced by relevant factors including contact between different populations from different areas and so their communicative emergency. Consequently, these languages are introduced as systems in the process of standardization. In this regard, orthographic variation resulting from this evolutionary speed plays an important role in its treatment, as a result of their diatopic differences caused in turn by pronunciation changes and therefore, in lexicographic tools. This brief analysis aims to locate and present various types of orthographic variation regarding French Creole languages in the American-Caribbean area.