Belas Infiéis (Oct 2016)
FROM “CRIOULO” TO “CRIOLLO”: TRANSLATING THE LANGUAGE OF SLAVES IN PORTUGUESE AMERICA TO THE LANGUAGE OF SLAVES IN HISPANIC AMERICA IN THE XIX CENTURY
Abstract
Based on the concepts of community, identity and language of Le Page & Taubouret-Keller and the research on the African-American languages by John M. Lipski, this article discusses what the proper tools to translate the lines of captives characters in Brazilian literature of the XIX century to Spanish. Lipski comes to the conclusion that the African-Spanish ‘Creole’ did not exist as stable language in the territories of the Spanish-American colonies. But on the Cuban abolitionist literature brings examples that show the evolution of the language of the African slaves of that time, that can be used as a starting point for the translation of the Africanized language from Portuguese to Spanish.