Poetry in Nicaraguan Creole English

Abstract

In the present study of poetry in Nicaraguan Creole English, in addition to Creole poetry, poetry by Nicaraguan Creoles in Standard English is also included. The differences between the two forms, and the importance of preference, are also considered. As in the case of Spanish in Nicaragua, English-language poetry produced on the Atlantic Coast is divided into two general forms, one academic in style, written in Standard English, and the other, a more populist poetry that has used Creole English. Although the continuum of Creole might suggest a tendency to move towards the standard mother tongue, this is a process that is in the hands or, rather, in the mouths of the speakers. Thus, the process of recriollization is also an aspect of the evolution of Creole languages, an aspect that considers the reestablishment of linguistic distinctions in response to possible linguistic “absorption” by the standard form. Recriollization becomes an expression of linguistic and cultural assertion.