The tayo, also known as the patois of St. Louis, is a linguistic phenomenon. This language came into existence between 1860s and 1920s, when the Catholic Mission (La Mission, photo above) of St. Louis was being implemented. At the time, groups of native Melanesians, predominantly from three areas of Caledonia, were resettled to work for the missionaries and ultimately remained in the territory – constituting the present village of St. Louis. Given that the missionaries spoke French and that members of each resettled group spoke a different language (nowadays it is still estimated that some 27-28 various languages are used in the territory), at first a sort of patois was formed, with predominantly Franco-
Caldoche (
Caldoche – originally, the French colon of New Caledonia) vocabulary and phonology, and Melanesian syntax and semantics. The patois was then retained by the generations to follow and ultimately took the form of a language per se. It is nowadays classified as the only French-based Creole language in the South Pacific.
Until present days the tayo is relatively unknown. A purely oral language, it is only spoken by a small community of approximately 1,500-2,000 people. While in the West Indies, on a number of occasions I mentioned my project to later study tayo in New Caledonia. Not once did I meet a person familiar with this
patois. Even the inhabitants of St. Louis tend to describe their language as a lower, or an improper, version of French. Due to a constant contact with the latter one, the tayo has gradually lost a great part of its Melanesian linguistic roots and contains more and more French vocabulary.
Linguistic documentation regarding the tayo is very much limited. As far as I know, the last and at the same time the most detailed research on the language of St. Louis was conducted almost twenty years ago, by the German Professor Sabine Ehrhart. Before then the tayo was only mentioned in generalized linguistic classifications and briefly described by Chris Corne. In the 1990s Karin Speedy from New-Zealand hypothesized that the formation of the tayo was originally influenced by the migration from another French colony at the time, Réunion in the Indian Ocean, but the origins of the patois remain disputable.
Given that there has been at least one generation shift since the time when Professor Ehrhart conducted her research in St. Louis, during my stay in the village I will try to compare the language spoken by the elderly to its more recent version spoken by the youth. I expect some difficulties because, unlike the other Creole languages I have looked at, the use of the
patois is restricted only to convivial situations. The tayo is hardly ever employed in presence of the “outsiders.” Except for a few local songs there has not been any major production (TV/radio) in the language. Moreover, it will seemingly be impossible to appear incognito (by no means do I look Kanak :-) in order to listen to some informal speech.
The tayo, also known as the patois of St. Louis, is a linguistic phenomenon. This language came into existence between 1860s and 1920s, when the Catholic Mission (La Mission, photo above) of St. Louis was being implemented. At the time, groups of native Melanesians, predominantly from three areas of Caledonia, were resettled to work for the missionaries and ultimately remained in the territory – constituting the present village of St. Louis. Given that the missionaries spoke French and that members of each resettled group spoke a different language (nowadays it is still estimated that some 27-28 various languages are used in the territory), at first a sort of patois was formed, with predominantly Franco-Caldoche (Caldoche – originally, the French colon of New Caledonia) vocabulary and phonology, and Melanesian syntax and semantics. The patois was then retained by the generations to follow and ultimately took the form of a language per se. It is nowadays classified as the only French-based Creole language in the South Pacific.
Until present days the tayo is relatively unknown. A purely oral language, it is only spoken by a small community of approximately 1,500-2,000 people. While in the West Indies, on a number of occasions I mentioned my project to later study tayo in New Caledonia. Not once did I meet a person familiar with this patois. Even the inhabitants of St. Louis tend to describe their language as a lower, or an improper, version of French. Due to a constant contact with the latter one, the tayo has gradually lost a great part of its Melanesian linguistic roots and contains more and more French vocabulary.
Linguistic documentation regarding the tayo is very much limited. As far as I know, the last and at the same time the most detailed research on the language of St. Louis was conducted almost twenty years ago, by the German Professor Sabine Ehrhart. Before then the tayo was only mentioned in generalized linguistic classifications and briefly described by Chris Corne. In the 1990s Karin Speedy from New-Zealand hypothesized that the formation of the tayo was originally influenced by the migration from another French colony at the time, Réunion in the Indian Ocean, but the origins of the patois remain disputable.
Given that there has been at least one generation shift since the time when Professor Ehrhart conducted her research in St. Louis, during my stay in the village I will try to compare the language spoken by the elderly to its more recent version spoken by the youth. I expect some difficulties because, unlike the other Creole languages I have looked at, the use of the patois is restricted only to convivial situations. The tayo is hardly ever employed in presence of the “outsiders.” Except for a few local songs there has not been any major production (TV/radio) in the language. Moreover, it will seemingly be impossible to appear incognito (by no means do I look Kanak :-) in order to listen to some informal speech.
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