| Saint-Barthélemy French | |
|---|---|
| Patois Saint-Barth | |
| Native to | The Caribbean:St. Barts (France) &St. Thomas (US) |
Native speakers | (500–700 cited 1997)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | fr-BL |
Saint-Barthélemy French orSt. Barts patois (French:patois Saint-Barth,pronounced[patwasɛ̃baʁt]) is the dialect ofFrench spoken on the French-controlled Caribbean island ofSaint-Barthélemy and by a small emigrant community onSaint Thomas in theUS Virgin Islands.
The dialect co-exists on St. Barts alongsideAntillean Creole andStandard French. Despite this linguistic diversity on so small an island, fluency across the varieties of French is generally uncommon. Presently the language is spoken by 500–700 people (mostly old people).[1]
A small population of St. Barth's fishermen settled in St. Thomas (over 200 km away) in the 19th century.[4] The enclave of fewer than 1000 people has maintained its language despite great pressure from the surrounding community. However, in recent years, emigration to the United States has increased the rate ofattrition to English.