Dr. Crevaux’s Wayana-Carib Pidgin of the Guyanas: a grammatical sketch
In this paper, we look at the notes gathered by the French medical doctor and explorer Jules Crevaux on the language he calls “Roucouyenne” and which is today known as Wayana or Oayana, a Cariban language spoken by between 500 and 900 people in Suriname French Guiana, and Brazil. We give some background information about Jules Crevaux and his notes on the Wayana Pidgin (which he believed to be Wayana proper). Then we give some information about Wayana Pidgin and Pidgin Carib in general, we compare some select properties with equivalents in the Wayana language. We identify some points of continuation between Crevaux and other sources of Carib Pidgin. Finally we provide some information about pidgin users and include some comments that other authors had on Crevaux’s materials, and we provide a grammatical sketch of his version of Carib Pidgin.1