Bahamian Creole
Encyclopedia
Bahamian is an English-based creole language spoken by approximately 400,000 people in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands
.
Bahamian is spoken by both white and black Bahamians, although in slightly different forms. Bahamian also tends to be more prevalent in certain areas of the Bahamas. Islands that were settled earlier or that have a historically large Afro-Bahamian population have a greater concentration of individuals exhibiting creolized speech; the creole is most prevalent in urban areas. Individual speakers have command of lesser and greater creolized forms.
Bahamian also shares similar features with other Caribbean English-based creoles, such as those of Jamaica
, Barbados
, Trinidad
and the Virgin Islands
. There is also a very significant link between Bahamian and the Gullah language
of South Carolina
, as many Bahamians are descendants of slaves brought to the islands from the Gullah
region after the American revolution
.
In comparison to many of the English
-based creoles
of the Caribbean
region, limited research has been conducted on what is known as Bahamian Creole. This lack of research on Bahamian Creole is perhaps because for many years, Bahamians have assumed that this language is simply a variety of English. However, academic research shows that this is not the case. In fact, there is much socio-historical and linguistic
evidence to support the proposal that it is a creole language.
and north Eleuthera
.
Less educated speakers have merged /v/ and /w/ into a single phoneme, pronouncing words with [v] or [w] depending on context (the latter appearing in word-initial position and the former appearing elsewhere).
Outside of white acrolectal speech, speakers have no dental fricative
s and English cognate words are usually pronounced with [d] or [t] as in dis ('this') and tink ('think').
Other characteristics of Bahamian Creole in comparison to English include:
Possessive pronouns in Bahamian often differ from Standard English with:
and
For example, das ya book? means 'is that your book?'
In addition, the possessive pronouns differ from Standard English:
When describing actions done alone or by a single group, only..one is used, as in only me one sing ('I'm the only one who sang') and only Mary one gern Nassau ('Mary was the only one who went to Nassau')
1) I'm going to Freeport
:
2) I am going to cook
Similarly, verb "to do" has numerous variations depending on tense and context:
In the present tense, the verb "to be" is usually conjugated "is" regardless of the grammatical person
:
The negative form of "to be" usually takes the form "een"
I een gern ('I am not goin')
While context is often used to indicate tense (e.g. I drink plenny rum las night ('I drank a lot of rum last night'), the past tense can also be formed by combining "did", "done", "gone", or "been" with the verb:
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of two groups of tropical islands in the Caribbean, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre.The Turks and...
.
Bahamian is spoken by both white and black Bahamians, although in slightly different forms. Bahamian also tends to be more prevalent in certain areas of the Bahamas. Islands that were settled earlier or that have a historically large Afro-Bahamian population have a greater concentration of individuals exhibiting creolized speech; the creole is most prevalent in urban areas. Individual speakers have command of lesser and greater creolized forms.
Bahamian also shares similar features with other Caribbean English-based creoles, such as those of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
and the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
. There is also a very significant link between Bahamian and the Gullah language
Gullah language
Gullah is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people , an African American population living on the Sea Islands and the coastal region of the U.S...
of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, as many Bahamians are descendants of slaves brought to the islands from the Gullah
Gullah
The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands....
region after the American revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
In comparison to many of the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-based creoles
English-based creole languages
An English-based creole language is a creole language that was significantly influenced by the English language...
of the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
region, limited research has been conducted on what is known as Bahamian Creole. This lack of research on Bahamian Creole is perhaps because for many years, Bahamians have assumed that this language is simply a variety of English. However, academic research shows that this is not the case. In fact, there is much socio-historical and linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
evidence to support the proposal that it is a creole language.
Pronunciation
Though there is variation between black and white speakers, there is a tendency for speakers to drop /h/ or, in an attempt to correct stigmatized speech, to add it to vowel-initial words, so that harm and arm are pronounced the same. This merger occurs most often in the speech of AbacoAbaco Islands
The Abaco Islands lie in the northern Bahamas and comprise the main islands of Great Abaco and Little Abaco, together with the smaller Wood Cay, Elbow Cay, Lubbers Quarters Cay, Green Turtle Cay, Great Guana Cay, Castaway Cay, Man-o-War Cay, Stranger's Cay, Umbrella Cay, Walker's Cay, Little Grand...
and north Eleuthera
Eleuthera
Eleuthera is an island in The Bahamas, lying 50 miles east of Nassau. It is very long and thin—110 miles long and in places little more than a mile wide. According to the 2000 Census, the population of Eleuthera is approximately 8,000...
.
Less educated speakers have merged /v/ and /w/ into a single phoneme, pronouncing words with [v] or [w] depending on context (the latter appearing in word-initial position and the former appearing elsewhere).
Outside of white acrolectal speech, speakers have no dental fricative
Dental fricative
The dental fricative or interdental fricative is a fricative consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. There are two types, both written as th in English:*Voiced dental fricative *Voiceless dental fricative...
s and English cognate words are usually pronounced with [d] or [t] as in dis ('this') and tink ('think').
Other characteristics of Bahamian Creole in comparison to English include:
- Merger of the vowels of fair and fear into [ɛə]
- Free variation of the vowel between [ɪ] and [i].
- The vowel of first merges with that of fuss (into [ʌ]) in educated speech and with the vowel of foist (into [ʌɪ]) in less educated speech.
- Non-rhotic speechRhotic and non-rhotic accentsEnglish pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...
; /r/ is not pronounced unless it precedes a vowel. - Final clusters are often simplified, especially when they share voicing (e.g. gold > gol, but not milk > *mil).
- Pin–pen merger.
Grammar
Pronouns in Bahamian are generally the same as in Standard English. However, the second person plural can take one of three forms:- yinna,
- y'all or
- all a ya
Possessive pronouns in Bahamian often differ from Standard English with:
- your becoming or ya
- his or hers becoming he or she
and
- their becoming dey.
For example, das ya book? means 'is that your book?'
In addition, the possessive pronouns differ from Standard English:
| English | Bahamian |
|---|---|
| mine | mines |
| yours | yawnz (s.) or yawz (s.) |
| yinnas (pl.) | |
| his | he own |
| hers | she own |
| ours | ah own |
| theirs | dey own/des |
When describing actions done alone or by a single group, only..one is used, as in only me one sing ('I'm the only one who sang') and only Mary one gern Nassau ('Mary was the only one who went to Nassau')
Verbs
Verb usage in the Bahamian differs significantly from that of Standard English. There is also variation amongst speakers. For example, the word go:1) I'm going to Freeport
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of Grand Bahama of the North-west Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted 50,000 acres Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of...
:
- I goin ta Freeport
- I gern ta Freeport
- I gun go Freeport
- I gin go Nassau
- I ga George Town
2) I am going to cook
- I ga cook
- I goin cook
- I gern cook
- I gern go cook
Similarly, verb "to do" has numerous variations depending on tense and context:
- I does eat conch erry day ('I eat conch everyday') *Note Conch is pronounced conk.
- Wa you does do? ('what kind of work do you do?')
- "he gone dat way" (used while pointing in a direction,means that is where the person went).
In the present tense, the verb "to be" is usually conjugated "is" regardless of the grammatical person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
:
- I am – I is or "I's"
- You are – You is or "You's", pronounced "use"
- We are – We is or "We's", pronounced "weez"
- They are – Dey is or "Dey's"
The negative form of "to be" usually takes the form "een"
I een gern ('I am not goin')
While context is often used to indicate tense (e.g. I drink plenny rum las night ('I drank a lot of rum last night'), the past tense can also be formed by combining "did", "done", "gone", or "been" with the verb:
- She tell him already (She already told him)
- I dun (done) tell you
- He tell her she was fat ('he told her she was fat')
- Why you do dat? ('why did you do that?')
- I bin (been) EleutheraEleutheraEleuthera is an island in The Bahamas, lying 50 miles east of Nassau. It is very long and thin—110 miles long and in places little more than a mile wide. According to the 2000 Census, the population of Eleuthera is approximately 8,000...
last week ('I went to Eleuthera last week')
Lexicon
features over 5,500 words and phrases not found in Standard English, with the authors attempting to link them to other English-based creoles, like Gullah. Words may derive from English, as well as some African languages.Examples
- asue: a cooperative savings system traced to a YorubaYoruba peopleThe Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
custom of éèsú or èsúsú; similar schemes are common in other Caribbean countries, e.g. the susuSusu accountSusu collectors are one of the oldest financial groups in Africa. Based largely in Ghana they provide an informal means for Ghanaians to securely save and access their own money, and gain limited access to credit, a form of microfinance. Money looked after for an individual by a Susu collector is...
in BarbadosBarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
. - benny: sesame seed, grown locally and used in the popular treat benny cake found in various forms throughout the African Diaspora.
- Conchy Joe or Conky Joe: a white Bahamian.
- Fisherman don't smell he own basket: you never see your own faults.
- God spare life: similar to 'God willing'.
- Hog know where ta rub he skin: a bossy person who knows exactly who they can and cannot bully.
- jook, juck or juke: to stab or poke, possibly from the West African word of the same meaning. This word is found in many Caribbean creole languages
- Obeah: Witchcraft.
See also
- Caribbean EnglishCaribbean EnglishCaribbean English is a broad term for the dialects of the English language spoken in the Caribbean, most countries on the Caribbean coast of Central America, and Guyana. Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken in the region, but they are not the same. In the...
- GullahGullahThe Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands....
- Virgin Islands CreoleVirgin Islands CreoleVirgin Islands Creole, or Virgin Islands Creole English, is an English-based creole spoken in the Virgin Islands and the nearby SSS islands of Saba, Sint Eustatius and Saint Martin, where it has been known as Netherlands Antilles Creole English....
- Jamaican CreoleJamaican CreoleJamaican Patois, known locally as Patois or Jamaican, and called Jamaican Creole by linguists, is an English-lexified creole language with West African influences spoken primarily in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. It is not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of...
- Antiguan CreoleAntiguan CreoleLeeward Caribbean Creole English, also known by the names of the various islands on which it is spoken is an English-based creole language spoken in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, namely the countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat and Saint Kitts and Nevis.There are subtle differences...
- Saint Kitts CreoleSaint Kitts CreoleSaint Kitts Creole is a dialect of Leeward Caribbean Creole English spoken in Saint Kitts and Nevis by around 40,000 people. Saint Kitts Creole does not have the status of an official language....