Editing Guadeloupe (section)

=== Language ===
Guadeloupe's official language is [[French language|French]], which is spoken by nearly all of the population.<ref name="britannica.com" /><ref name=factbook /> Most residents also speak [[Antillean Creole|Guadeloupean Creole]], a [[French-based creole language]].

Guadeloupean Creole emerged as a result of the need for all ethnic groups (French, African and Amerindian) to be able to understand each other.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Créole |url=http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/amsudant/creole.htm |access-date=8 July 2021 |website=axl.cefan.ulaval.ca |archive-date=14 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614095117/http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/amsudant/creole.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> This language is therefore the result of a mixture created in the 17th century in response to a communicative emergency. At the time of the colony's foundation, a majority of the French population did not speak the standard French language but local dialects and languages, such as [[Breton language|Breton]] and [[Norman language|Norman]], while the Africans came from a variety of West and Central African ethnic groups and lacked a common language themselves. The Creole language emerged as a lingua franca and ultimately became the native language of much of the population.

Moreover, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, in the Saintes [[archipelago]], due to their settlement history (Breton, Norman and Poitevin settlers), have their own Creoles which differ from Guadeloupean Creole by their French pronunciations, their particular expressions, their syntax and their sonorities. Although it is not transcribed, these islanders call their Creole "patois" or "language of St. Martin" and actively ensure its transmission and perpetuation by their descendants in vernacular form.
[[File:Guadeloupe creole 2010-03-30.JPG|thumb|Warning sign written in Guadeloupe Creole]]
A Guadeloupean [[béké]] first wrote Creole at the end of the 17th century, transcribing it using [[French orthography]].

As Guadeloupe is a French department, French is the [[official language]]. However, Guadeloupean French (in contact with Creole) has certain linguistic characteristics that differ from those of standard metropolitan French. Recently, a very detailed study of the phonetic aspect of Guadeloupean French has been undertaken (this would be the first study to deal with both the acoustic and the phonological and perceptual aspects of Guadeloupean French in particular and West Indian French in general). It is also concerned with the reading varieties of Guadeloupean French ([[Post-creole continuum#Stratification|acrolect]], [[Post-creole continuum#Stratification|mesolect]] and [[Post-creole continuum#Stratification|basilect]]).

In recent decades there has been a revival of Creole, which has stimulated the appearance of books of short stories and poetry published in Creole and French over the last ten years. In this context, Hector Poullet is a pioneer of Creole-mediated dictation. Creole is also a very colourful language and very philosophical in its expressions and phrases, which, translated literally into French, can be confusing. The representatives of the older generations are not always fluent in French, but in Guadeloupean Creole.

Today, the question as to whether French and Creole are stable in Guadeloupe, i.e. whether both languages are practiced widely and competently throughout society, remains a subject of active research.<ref>Manahan, Kathe. Diglossia Reconsidered: Language Choice and Code-Switching in Guadeloupean Voluntary Organizations, Kathe Manahan Texas Linguistic Forum. 47: 251–261, Austin, TX. 2004</ref>