Language and Identity: Limonese Creole and the Black Minority of Costa Rica

G iven the general connection between the development of national ism and l ingu istic u n iformity, the existence of mult i l i ngua l ism and eth n ic d ivers ity i n a cou ntry is a complex p roblem. limonese C reole is the language spoken by a Black m inority of approximately 30,000 people who have l ived i n predominantly white and Spanish-speaking Costa R ica for over 400 years. The l imon P rovince , where th is group res ides, is markedly d istinguishable from the rest in terms of its geogra phy, history, population, economy, language, and culture. This paper seeks to present the development of ethnic re lat ions and language in that area. H isto ry shows that e ither harmonious bi l ingualism or fiercely suppressing colonial ism usually prevails in a " Ianguagesin-contact s i tuat io n . " In th is c ase study, the h istor ical re l at ionship between eth n ic ity and language accounts for differences between societies, with such divergent consequences of contact as racial nationalism, cultural assimi lation and fusion, and possibly even language extinction.