A pidgin is a simplified language that is used for communication between people that don’t share a common language. In this paper I will be focusing on Nigerian pidgin and its history. Nigerian Pidgins major lexifier is English. In Nigeria, Nigerian pidgin has become a widely spoken language. Through Nigerian Pidgin people communicate for business, schools, markets, etc. and even to communicate on a daily. Approximately 75 million people speak it. Languages other than English that contribute in this pidgin language are primarily Benue-Kwa languages of the Niger-Congo family.

       Nigerian Pidgin has a interesting history behind it. It started out with the the Portuguese being the first group of Europeans that visited Nigeria. They were in an area now known as the Niger Delta.  And trade happened between them. The Portuguese established schools and churches, and by doing that they brought their language close to the language in Niger Delta. The Niger Delta was made up of a lot of small communities that didn’t have a common language to speak so they learned the Portuguese based pidgin. After the Portuguese left, the Dutch came in, after they left the French. While the French was there, the English came in. According to David Esizimetor in the article Naija (Nigerian Pidgin) he states, “With the introduction of English into the Nigerian environment, the existing Portuguese-based pidgin of the Niger Delta started evolving in the new direction of the language of the new politically dominant group, the English. In time English, the language of the English, supplanted Portuguese as the major lexifier of Naijá. By the 1900s, the now stable English-based Naijá started spreading across the emerging Nigerian nation” (Esizimetor).This quote shows how through the process of trade and different groups of people coming in led to a formation of a common language that was used through out the nation.

The origins of Nigerian Pidgin began with trade between the British and local people around the 17th century. According to Francesso Goglia in the article Nigerian Pidgin English, “The use of Nigerian Pidgin English is strictly linked to the urbanization process. In the past the use of Nigerian Pidgin English was linked to non-educated people and perceived by the educated ones with negative attitude. Nowadays the use of Nigerian Pidgin English is more widespread even among educated people and perceived as more Nigerian than English. Indeed, using Nigerian Pidgin English is increasingly popular among young people, many writers, politicians and musicians” (Goglia). When a language is first formed and is not “proper” it is often associated with people that are not educated. But once that same language becomes popular everyone starts using it, educated and the uneducated. And that becomes the way to communicate with each other. And by using Nigerian Pidgin English, people expressed their ethnic identity through Nigerian pidgin. In the article is also stated how people spoke Nigerian pidgin so much some people wanted it to be the national language. But it wasn’t developed well enough for it to become a national language. Goglia also mentions how Nigerians often referred to Nigerian Pidgin English as “broken english”.

     In Nigeria, Nigerian pidgin has more of an effect than english. Since the 1860s the use of this language has been expanding. The increasing of Social and geographical mobility have added to this expansion as well. According to Codedrock in the article The Nigerian Pidgin History and Origin, “Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa share similarities to the various English-based Creoles found in the Caribbean. It is especially obvious in Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies. Linguists posit that this is because most slaves taken to the New World were of West African descent. The pronunciation and accents often differ a great deal, mainly due to the extremely heterogeneous mix of African languages present in the West Indies, but if written on paper or spoken slowly, the creole languages of Caribbean are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of the West Africa” (Codidrock). Everyone that speaks nigerian pidgin add their own additional words in the different ethnic groups in Nigeria. An ethnic group called the Igbos add the word “Nna” in the beginning of some of their sentences. Another ethnic group called Yorubas added the words “se” and “abi” into their dialect of nigerian pidgin.

   When languages first start forming they don’t easily just spread like that. Nigerian pidgin didn’t have any official governmental recognition they also didn’t have a role in the education system. This pidgin had many disadvantages but despite all of these disadvantages, Nigerian Pidgin has become really popular. It is one the most used, powerful and growing language in Nigeria today. “For several generations, Nigerian Pidgin has been the first language, or one of the first languages, learned by millions of people in speech communities in and around the south-central Nigerian cities of Warri and Sapele, where European adventurers (including 15th and 16th-century Portuguese mercenaries serving under African commanders in the armies of Benin City) were integrated into local communities from the earliest years of contact. Nigerian Pidgin is also the first language, or one of the first languages, learned by tens of millions of people across southern Nigeria and in urban areas throughout the entire country. For those who do not learn Nigerian Pidgin as one of their first languages, it is learned informally as a second language in one or a number of venues for interethnic contact, such as marketplaces and workplaces, schools and universities, military and police barracks, etc” (apics). Currently in Nigeria an estimate of 5 million people speak Nigerian pidgin while over 75 million people use it as a second language in Nigeria and in other Nigerian diaspora communities in parts of the world. Even though English is Nigeria’s official language that is used for education, Nigerian pidgin is still widely used through out the nation for everyone to communicate with each other. Not only is Nigerian pidgin just for communication, but also used for other things such as public enlightenment campaigns, radio and television programs, commercial advertising, sitcoms, stand-up comedies, popular music, religious music and for conducting common everyday business transactions.

Work cited:

“Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online.” APiCS Online – Structure dataset 17: Nigerian Pidgin, apics-online.info/contributions/17.

Ezismentor, David. “Najia (Nigerian Pidgin). Language Varieties, https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/naija.html.

Mensah, Eyo Offiong. “GRAMMATICALIZATION IN NIGERIAN PIDGIN.” Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, Escuela de Idiomas, Universidad de Antioquia, www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0123-34322012000200004.

“Nigerian Pidgin English.” Language Contact Manchester, languagecontact.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/McrLC/casestudies/FG_NigerianPidgin.html.

“Nigerian Pidgin English.” Naija Tori, www.naijatori.com/nigerian-pidgin-english/.

“₦airaland Forum.” Nigerian Forum, www.nairaland.com/4131533/brokin-nigerian-pidgin-history-origin.

Nordquist, Richard. “Nigerian English.” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/what-is-nigerian-english-1691347.

The Origin of Pidgin, www.afrostylemag.com/ASM7/pidgin.html.

 

 

Francesca Adonis

Professor Garley

ENG 470

Bahamian Creole Profile

Last August when I arrived at the Nassau airport in Bahamas with sixteen of my family members for our annual family vacation I did not know what to expect linguistically. It is often assumed that any country where tourists heavily vacation that there will not be a language barrier for English speakers. Standard English is the official language of the Bahamas, however, Bahamian creole is spoken by approximately 250,000 people in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Bahamian creole is an English-lexified dialect variety also referred as Bahamian or Bahamianese. The non-standard dialect variety of Bahamian English is generally spoken in the Northeastern islands, whereas Bahamian English Creole is spoken in the Southeastern Islands. According to APiCS online, there are approximately 300,00 people who live in the Bahamas, with about two thirds of the Bahamian population living in the capital, Nassau. Eighty five percent of people who live in Bahamas are Blacks, twelve percent are whites and people who are Asians, Spanish and Portuguese origin make up three percent of the population. It is noted that during the 2000 census that there were 21,000 Haitians living in the Bahamas. (Hackert 2013) According to everyculture.com illegal economic refugees from Haiti account for 20 to 25 percent of the population.

A Brief History

            When Columbus and the Spanish arrived on the Bahamian Island of San Salvador, they were not keen on staying in the Bahamas because they knew the land lacked mineral wealth and the Bahamian soil would not contribute to their lifestyle. However, in 1648 the first colony was established on the northern island of Eleuthera by some British religious dissenters from Bermuda who brought slaves as part of the shipments. New Providence, which is now known as Nassau was first settled by Bermudians in 1666. It was unclear the language that the Blacks who arrived in Bahamas spoke because some were born in Bermuda and some were born in Africa. In 1671 when the first census was conducted, there were about a thousand people now living in the Bahamas and about 60% of those Bahamians were white. In the earlier period of colonization, Blacks in the Bahamas had access to the white settlers’ dialects because of the chaos that was occurring in the early 1700’s. The Black population in the Bahamas had increased significantly in the eighteenth century; In 1773, it was reported that 54% of the overall population was black and 64% of the people residing in New Providence were now blacks because of the rate at which slaves were being brought to the Bahamas. Due to the fact that slaves from the colonies were harder to control the slave masters preferred slaves from Africa; the slaves from the colonies were already familiar with working in plantations, and society so slave masters did not seek to acquire them as much. With the slaves from Africa, white varieties of English became less available to them so a creole formed. (Hackert 2013)

Bahamian creole that is spoken today was introduced by freed blacks and slaves of loyalist North Americans. There is evidence to suggest that Gullah-speaking areas and South Carolina, had an impact on the black loyalists who migrated to the Bahamas and brought the language with them. It was originally thought that African American Vernacular English was a contributor to the Bahamian creole that was spoken in the Bahamas but it is now regarded as a “diaspora variety of Gullah”. (Hackert 2013). According to the Bahamas Guide “ Bahamians have a lyrical, musical quality to their language which descends from their west African Roots” (Bahamas- Language, culture, Customs and Etiquette). One of the challenges that Michelle Bain addresses in her article is the language learning of standard English for many Bahamian students. Some students’ compositions exhibit “interference” from vernacular Bahamian English creole.  During their formal education, Bahamian students who speak nonstandard English continue to struggle and be misunderstood in school because of their language acquisition impeding their growth. (Bain 6)

According to Urban Bahamian Creole, the term Bahamian dialect carries a stigma attached to a socially lower than the “proper” form of English. linguists Edwards and Crowley classify Bahamian Creole English as a ‘mixture of negro dialect’ and correct English pronunciations. Crowley points out lexicon and syntax inconsistencies within the language. The creole features that he focuses on shows “the absence of a gender distinction in the pronominal system as well as the lack of ‘a special possessive form’, the existence of serial verbs, the employment of particular ‘verbs to indicate habitual or completed action’, the ‘use of present tense to express the past’, and the occurrence of ‘a continuing tense, such as ‘he going’ for he was going” (Hackert, 6). He links the “New World Negro English” which is the language spoken in the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the sea Islands with one another and with other numerous African languages. Grammatical morphemes, such as does, done and was are represented in literature in a way that emphasizes their differences between the standard and the creole. It is noted as such “doz”, “don” and “waz”. (Hackert 29)

According to the Nassau Paradise Island blog some commonly used terms and phrases that one might encounter in the Bahamas include “what da wybe is?” which means “what’s up” or “what’s going on”. A common reply to the above question that is said by Bahamians is “Een Nothin” which means “nothing much”. Some other phrases include “well mudda sick”, “tings” “jam up” and among other phrases. The locals consider their dialect unique and continuously embrace their local language. (Nassau Paradise Island) They believe that their creole is an important aspect of their identity and try to hold on to is as best as they can. Of course they are torn between the standard and the creole for economic advancement.

Conclusion: Lastly, one of the things that truly shocked me was the amount of Haitians people I encountered on my visit. Although I spoke some creole with the people who worked at the many restaurants we visited, there were still some words that was out of the ordinary for me; who is a fluent Haitian creole speaker. Although these people have said that they have migrated from Haiti, their accent did not indicate that. Bahamian creole continues to go through decreolization because obtaining standard English proficiency is seen as an asset for the economy and international relations.

WORKS CITED

Hackert, Stephanie. “Bahamian Creole”. In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013.

http://apics-online.info/surveys/12

Hackert, Stephanie. Urban Bahamian Creole: System and variation. John Benjamins Publishing, 1999. Print.

“Talk Like a Bahamian: Island Terms and Phrases”

https://www.nassauparadiseisland.com/talk-like-a-bahamian-island-terms-and-phrases
“The Bahamas-Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette”

https://www.commisceo-global.com/country-guides/the-bahamas-guide

Bain, Michelle. Language Education and Bahamian students’ compositions. College of the Bahamas Research Journal. 13 , 2005.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26552669_Language_Education_and_Bahamian_Students%27_Compositions

“Bahamas Islands”

http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bahama-Islands.html

Donnelly, Janet. “Basilectal Features of Bahamian Creole English” The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, vol. 9, 2008. Pg. 16-20.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sierra Leonean language of Krio is a creole. It has attained a widespread use throughout West Africa and functions as the primary mode of communication in Sierra Leone. The official language of Sierra Leone, however, is English. It is also “the primary, dominant language in education, government administration, law, written communication, and all other formal domains of life (Oyetade 2008).There is no official recognition of Krio in the country despite it being spoken by 95% of the country’s inhabitants. It is merely known as Krio to the people of Sierra Leone but there are several speculations as to why it is called that. Some say “that it was a modification of the word creole,” while other say that it stems from the Yoruba word “Kiriyo”  which means “to walk about and be satisfied” (Finney 2013). The Krio people of Sierra Leone were known for their tradition of travelling to the homes of family members after church services, a practice that continues to this day.

Krio, as it is today, originated in the late eighteenth century, “following the the decision of Chief Justice Mansfield in England in 1772 that  slavery was unknown to English law” (Fyle 2002). This lead to American and English slaves being freed and migrating to the western coast of Africa, which is now known as Sierra Leone. A large variety of African groups were merged together in this migration. It consisted of the freed slaves of England and also freed American slaves who fought alongside the British in the American War of Independence. There was also a contingent of freed slaves that rebelled against their oppressors in Jamaica and were able to make the journey to Sierra Leone. Many of these people were far removed from their African culture due to being born and raised in the western world. There was another large group of Africans introduced into this newly established Sierra Leonean colony. These were slaves “who had been captured at various places in West Africa and sold as slaves, but were recaptured by the British navy trying to give effect to British anti-slave trade laws on the West African Coast” (Fyle 2002). The descendants of these slaves, the Krio people are currently “the single largest ethnic group in the city at about 29 percent of the total population and 10 percent of Sierra Leone’s population in total” (New World Encyclopedia).

The Krio language arose from the need for these varieties of African people to communicate in order to survive in this newly formed society that they were expected to live freely in. The majority of these people could use English as a lingua franca. The freed slaves of America had learned the English of the rural south while most of the other slaves and recaptured learned the English that they were exposed to in the Caribbean and the various islands that they lived on, especially Jamaica. This is evident in the Krio language which has a distinct similarity to the English- Lexified Pidgins and Creoles of the Caribbean. The influence of African languages on Krio is also to be noted. Malcolm Finney writes “The Liberated Africans were comprised mainly of speakers of the substratal Kwa languages of Yoruba (the most prominent), Igbos, Akan, and Gbe” (Finney 2004) This Krio, however, is an offshoot of previous pidgins of the region and combined with the language of Portuguese settlers who passed through the region. These pidgins had been around in the region since the 1400’s. When mixed and integrated with English and influenced by the various grammar and syntax rules of the medley of African countries that were  coexisting in one nation.

Krio has become the lingua franca of Sierra Leone. Despite the official language being English, Krio is dominant in the nation. It is known to be spoken by “more than 4 million of the approximately 5.5 million residents of Sierra Leone in general” (Finney 2013). Krio is used throughout the nation and over time has become more and more legitimized in the country of Sierra Leone. A Krio to English dictionary was released in 1980 and the language was incorporated into the education curriculum of the country. Krio has become a language that is taught in schools due to its importance to the culture and its widespread use. Krio grammar has been affected over the years by the input of non-native Krio speakers who have been learning it in schools and imparting the grammar and syntax of their primary languages on the Krio language. This has resulted in many varieties of Krio among the residents of Sierra Leone. This also causes some discord in Krio communities because “non-Krio Sierra Leoneans claim it to be their language and ‘they pollute it,’” according to some Krio speakers (Pütz 1997).  Krio is typically the language of the people, but not the language of professionalism. That is where Standard English reigns supreme. Due to the development of the dictionary, however, the prominence of Krio is rising and invading the professional world. Most things are still governed by English but modern day speakers of Krio have access to more resources with their own tongue, as opposed to the supposedly refined tongue of Standard English. News seems to still only operate through the English language but one can find blogs on the internet that seem to write in Krio. Krio music exists and is quite popular in Sierra Leone, with the most popular artist being K-Man, a Sierra Leonean rapper and singer. He can be found on Spotify.

Some of the unique qualities of Krio that differentiate it from the English it derived from are common in other creoles.For example, there is no distinction between  genders in the nouns of Krio. Rather, they use entirely separate gender marker words such as “man” and “uman” or “boi” and “gyal” (Finney). A copy of the 1985 Peace Corps Sierra Leone Krio Language Manual reveals some of the basic tenets of the language that one needs to know to effectively communicate in the country. The manual gives insight on the true blending of languages and the sheer amount of borrowings that Krio has. It states that “by 1850, it was estimated that there were as many as 200 African languages spoken in Freetown”. These languages all donate words to what is Krio today. This helps to promote the intercultural exchange within the language and establish it as the perfect lingua franca for the area. Other aspects of the language that need to be understood are the various verbal markers that it necessitates. Besides gender markers, Krio has tense, aspect and mood markers to determine those aspects of a sentence. They are all preverbal. For example, if someone was to say “I do it,” it would be translated as “a du am.” Meanwhile, “I did it” looks like “a bin du am.” Rather than changing the verb, the word “bin” precedes the verb to denote past tense. Krio follows a standard SVO word order and maintains that order in questions, as well. One must also note that Krio is heavily influenced by European languages, such as French and Portuguese. This can be attributed to the trade that Sierra Leone participated in and the various settlers that passed through the region. The Metropolitan Museum of Art elaborates on the influence of the Portuguese in Africa saying, “From the time of their arrival on the shores of Sierra Leone in 1460, and until their gradual decline as leaders in world exploration in the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had an ambiguous relationship with their African trading partners” (Ross 2002). This relationship clearly influenced the language of the people via contact.  These influences extended mainly to words in Krio being derived from words in these other languages, not any form of morphological changes.

Works Cited

1. Oyetade, B. Akintunde. Sierra Leone: Krio and the Quest for National Integration.

In: Language and National Identity in Africa. Oxford University Press. 2008

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AfUTDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA122&dq=krio+sierra+leone&ots=Rcjb9EWuma&sig=DL65MKA0cR7vQuGU5AWr13QBBbQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

2) Finney, Malcolm Awadajin. Krio.

In: The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

http://apics-online.info/surveys/15

 

3) Fyle, C Magbaily. Official and unofficial attitudes and policy towards Krio as the main lingua

franca in Sierra Leone.

In: African Languages, Development and the State. Routledge. 2002.

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AyGIAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA44&dq=krio+sierra+leone&ots=TWltuT87uz&sig=hrEBchoplZmwYTV9ubIVvRqXpF4#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

4) Peace Corps-Sierra Leone. 1985 Peace Corps Sierra Leone Krio Language Manual. 1985

http://www.sierra-leone.org/manuals.html

 

5) Freetown. In: New World Encyclopedia

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Freetown#Demographics

 

6) Finney, Malcolm. Substratal Influence on the Morphosyntactic Properties of Krio.

In: Linguistic Discovery Vol. 2 Issue 2. Dartmouth College. 2004

https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/xmlpage/1/article/266?htmlOnce=yes

 

7) Pütz, Martin. Language choices: contact and and conflict?

In: Language Choices: Conditions, constraints, and consequences. John Benjamins

Publishing. 1997

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Tb1BAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=krio+language+use&ots=NwxY53HkPz&sig=Altc4DqvULnweAxIKgFeikuiKyk#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

8) Ross, Emma. The Portuguese in Africa

In: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2002

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/agex/hd_agex.htm

 

Jamaar Watson

Dr. Garley

English 470: Pidgins and Creoles

3/4/2018

 

“Nigerian Pidgins”

Nigeria boasts a population of 150 million people and is the most populated countries on the continent of Africa. Nigerian Pidgin has a speech community of over 75 million people. In its usage, the pidgin is spoken more than any other pidgin or creole in the world. Nigerian Pidgin for some, is the first language they learn in southern Nigeria and many urban communities. Nigerian Pidgin is also learned as a second language through venues for interethnic contact including marketplaces, workplaces, schools, and universities. The language has become a daily form of communication where proficiency in the pidgin is a necessity. According to Michaelis et al., Nigeria is “home to a highly mobile, vibrant enterprising, and intensely commercial-oriented population”. The people of Nigeria speak in 400 ancestral languages that belong three of four major language families in Africa. Nigerian Pidgin has English as its lexifier and has primary substrates in Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. Other contributing languages include, Benue-Kwa and other languages of the Niger-Congo family. This informal language of Nigeria is the Nigerian Pidgin, and Hausa is its standardized counterpart, as well as the official language of the nation.

Nigerian individuals speak nearly 400 ancestral languages. Nigerian pidgin has been the first or one of the first languages learned by millions of people in speech communities in south central Nigerian cities which include Warri and Sapele, which a number of 15^th and 16^th century Portuguese mercenaries serving under African commanders had interrelated themselves and heir language within Nigerian communities. It is said that West African children in their upbringing had gained command of one to two local languages in addition to pidginized and creolized market languages that were solely of African lexifiers and substrates. European arrival in West Africa marked a time period that would add European pidgins and creolized varieties of language to an already linguistically diverse nation.

However, the European language contact with local languages caused a counterbalance. The early European contact was that of individual European traders who integrated themselves into local societies through commercial trading, marriage and cultural involvement with their West African hosts. The ever-increasing contact with European individuals and African natives allowed for a multitude of language contacts. Michaelis et al. explain that the “ever increasing stream of merchants, adventures, pirates, whalers, sailors and soldiers” would give rise to a number of Afro-European contact languages which would develop and become customary within nations. A prime example of this would be Nigerian Pidgin. However, Michaelis et al. make it known “it is therefore impossible to attribute the emergence of Nigerian Pidgin and its closely related dialects of West African English-lexifier pidgin/creole (Sierra Leone Krio, Gambian Krio, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroon Pidgin English, and Pichi of Equatorial Guinea) to any one causal factor or language community.

In relation to the more standard languages of Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and Standard Nigerian English, Nigerian Pidgin is not legitimately recognized by the government. According to Michaelis et. al, it has “no sanctioned role in the education system, no overt prestige, few public advocates, no standard orthography or grammar, little in the way of written literature, and no more status in the consciousness of most Nigerian beyond that of “Broken English”. Despite being disenfranchised by standard political systems the pidgin has become a staple method of communication. The pidgin is “widely spoke, readily learned, practically useful, and the fastest growing language in Nigeria today”. There seems to be a disconnect between the standard language system and the acceptance of the pidgin in written forms. It is evident that Nigerian Pidgin holds a dominant language niche within the country. The pidgin is often times the first language Nigerian natives learn. For the academic world according to Charles C. Mann in his article “Attitudes Toward Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin in Urban, Southern Nigeria: The Generational Variable”, “the attitudes towards these language varieties especially, in terms of proposing more formal functions for them, have remained largely negative” (Mann, 349). Mann uses Ajzen Ihemre’s research to provide insight on how the pidgin is viewed like many other languages who have Anglo languages as the lexifier. According to Mann, Ihemere’s studies showed several notions and explains

 

“the younger generation are more proficient in ANP; 2) there was a positive correlation between level of formal education and ANP proficiency and preference, i.e., those who attended school were more proficient in ANP, and indicated a preference for it; 3) Ikwerre was the preferred language of use for the older generations, while ANP was indicated as the preferred language of the younger generation; 4) “the process of language shift is underway in Port Harcourt from Ikwerre dominant to NPE dominant bilingual language choice patterns and…it is led by younger speakers” (p. 202); 5) “the younger speakers of both sexes judged the guise positively on all ten traits” (p. 204) (i.e., ‘attended school’; ‘modern’; ambitious’; ‘hardworking’; ‘honest’; ‘friendly’; ‘beautiful’; ‘tall’; ‘generous’; ‘confident’), while all the respondents judged the Ikwerre guise to be: ‘honest’, ‘friendly’ and ‘generous’. His conclusion is that: “It would appear that in Port Harcourt a bilingual is viewed more favourably when he/she speaks NPE than when they speak Ikwerre. Members of this community, it would seem, rate speakers of NPE highly with regard to level of education attained, modernity and general sophistication” (Mann, 352).

 

It is understood that the speakers of the pidgin and others alike especially those of younger generations believed the language is acceptable and respectable unlike its physical place within the Nigerian society. Furthermore, Mann cites more research and goes on to support the notion that that Anglo Nigerian Pidgin in Nigeria should be established and recognized within the political system as a standard spoken language. Mann writes

“In a more recent, strictly questionnaire-based survey on members of the tertiary educational setting in Benin (experimental centre) and Ibadan (control centre), Igboanusi (2008) investigates attitudinal dispositions of his respondents toward the possibility of empowering ANP (i.e., giving it a recognized, formal status and higher functions, e.g., in education). His sample was made up of students (n=120) and lecturers (n=80) of the universities of Benin and Ibadan (N= 200), more or less equally stratified for sex (males: 55%; females: 45%). His principal findings, especially in relation to the possible use of ANP in an educational setting (in especial regard to the Niger Delta region where it is said to have native speakers) and giving it official status are the following: 1) 25.5% of the respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that ANP should be taught as a subject in schools; 2) 28% strongly disagreed or disagreed that ANP should not be spoken in the university campus – a possible extrapolation is that they could entertain the idea of it being used as a medium of instruction; 3) 28% believe the government should accord ANP official recognition.” (Mann, 352).

The attitudes toward Nigerian Pidgin because of its dominance and its upside has turned into one that is positive. The nation takes on the language as an oral necessity and means of everyday communication. In turn the language attitude justifies that the pidgin should have prestige and sanctioned roles within the society beyond being accepted as local forms of social communications.

Perhaps it may come to be an officially accepted language of prestige when the evolution of the language is fully understood. Author Eyo Offiong Mensah writes that the “evolution of historical morphosyntax of Nigerian Pidgin is the acquisition of grammatical functions by lexical items which hitherto belonged to a categorical class and performed a lexical function … a shift from lexical to grammatical” (Offiong, 169). Offiong idincates that words within Nigerian have haver changes in their usage as their forms and new forms have gained or adapted to new functions. Offiong discusses the grammaticalization of verbs in Nigerian Pidgins which function as tense markers, aspectual markers, and auxiliary elements. The focus that was peculiar was Offiong’s research of the word say. She discussed that there were a number of lexical verbs in NP that had underwent changes in use, form, meaning, and function in the historical development of NP. For example, the verb say according to Offiong “is a verb of communication and its focuses on the communication of the messaged of a subject rather than an illocutionary force” (Offiong, 172). Offiong provides an example of this.

“12(a)

Oga say e wan see you.

master say 3SG want see pro

Master says (that) he wants to see you

(b)

I say you be mumu.
1SG say 2SG COP fool
I am saying (that) you are a fool” (Offiong, 172)

Offiong’s observations provide the explanation that as a verb in Nigerina Pidgin, say retains its “expressive value”, and its “functional significance”. Say according to Offiong functions as the head of the predicate phrase in the matric clause (a clause containing a subordinate clause). Offiong goes on to say that say that say can evolve to be a complementizer instead of being used and a functional verb. Another feature of Nigerian Pidgin is its syntax and the number marking in nouns. Rose Oro Aziza discusses the number marking in nouns in Nigerian Pidgin. She states that the structural plural of a noun will be N+Dem, a key grammatical feature of plural markings. Dem is an indicator of plurality as it is an independent plural marker. It is evident that the pidgin does have a system of grammatical rules. According to Aziza Dem is a “third person plural pronoun” (Aziza, 12). An example of this is the statement “Di Drayva dem de kom” equivalent to “The drivers are coming”. What is noticeable is that the usage of Dem has pluralized driver and transformed it into drivers. Verbal observations also show the usage of Dem as a plural marking after the noun from native Pidgin speakers.

Nigerian Pidgin unquestionably should be a standard language within the country. It has gained a large number of speakers and an even greater reliance in the community. As a language it provides a means and commonality for Nigerian population. In addition to this the language has been a corner stone in the development of the country, as Nigerian Pidgin has existed and evolved alongside the socioeconomic growth of Nigeria.

 

Works Cited

 

Aziza, Rose Oro. “Aspects of the Syntax of Modern Nigerian Pidgin” Selected Proceedings of the 44^th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 2015, pp. 11-16.

Comrie, Bernard. “Pidgin and Creole Tense-Mood-Aspect Systems by John Victor Singler” Lanugage, Vol. 69, No. 2, 1993, pp. 389-393.

Lee, Damlek. “How to Speak Nigerian Pidgin English.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWe5jO7Ogwc

Mann, Charles. “Attitudes Toward Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin in Urban, Southern Nigeria” The Generational Variable”, 2009, pp. 349-364.

Offiong, Mensah “Grammaticalization in Nigerian Pidgin” The Medelllin – Colombiam, Vol. 17, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 167-179.

Michaelis, Susanne Maria et.al “Survey Chapter Nigerian Pidgin” The Atlas Of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online.

 

BattaBox, “Is Warri Pidgin English The Original Nigerian” Pidgin” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz_z0A2KwaM.

 

 

 

Melissa Leal
ENG 470
Professor Garley
February 15, 2018
Essay 1
Hawai’i Creole

Hawai’i Creole, also known as Hawai’i Creole English, is spoken on the islands of Hawaii, as well as Nevada and Florida (Velupillai). With English as its main lexifier, it has influences of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Hakka. According to Viveka Velupillai, about 600,000 – 700,000 people speak Hawai’i Creole. The language is considered a Creole because many people speak it natively, although it is not considered an official language of Hawaii. Like many other creoles it is not recognized due to its “low status” (Romaine 527). Because the language is not “standard English,” it is not accepted.
The language originally developed from Hawai’i Pidgin English. The pidgin language was formed around the late 1870’s. The first sugar plantation brought many “haoles” or white people to the island (Velupillai). According to Jocelyn Linnekin, diseases began to arise with the increasing number of newcomers causing the population to decrease by “at least 75 percent.” With little to no work force left, the whites brought people from Madeira, Azores, and Southern China to replace those who were affected by the diseases and work on the sugar plantation. “This led to a reorganization of the plantation structure, where the Portuguese took the roles as foremen, while the East Asians… made up the labour force” (Velupillai). The contact of these new languages formed Hawai’i Pidgin English which eventually gave birth to Hawai’i Creole. By 1930 Hawai’i Creole was fully developed (Roberts). The language was eventually spoken in places outside of the sugar plantation, such as schools and playgrounds amongst children, which according to Charlene Sato is where creolization took place. Velupillai goes on to state “Thus the first locally born generation created an interethnic communication tool that stabilized as the number of second generation locally born who learned Hawaiʻi Creole natively increased.” A new generation was using Hawai’i Creole, making it their native language.
As stated before, Hawai’i Creole is not recognized as an official language. Suzanne Romaine explains pidgins and creoles are not usually accepted because they are considered “corrupt and bastardized versions of some other (usually European) languages. Thomas Yokota interviewed several people (ages twenty to eighty) to see what their beliefs were about the creole language. “Interviewees, regardless of gender or age, shared beliefs with the educators who wrote in the Hawaii Education Review: they considered HC a “broken English,” not a language separate from Standard English with its own grammatical and pronunciation rules. Limited exposure to the scholarly literature about HC was evident throughout the interviews.” (Yokota 26). It is easier for people to disregard Hawai’i Creole as a language because it goes against the “standard norm.” Yokota also includes a couple of stories where people are shown to present a negative attitude about the language. One story was about a father striking his child because he pronounced the number three as “tree” even though he also spoke in the Hawai’i Creole language. There are many people who do not want to acknowledge the language including the teachers of Hawaii’s educational system.
The teachers of Hawaii’s educational system also disregard the language according to Yokota. “Since the time HC was first viewed as the “pidgin problem,” Hawai‘i’s teachers and educational leaders have sought ways to stop the “broken-English” language that predominates in the community from being spoken” (22). Unfortunately pidgins and Creoles are not seen as desirable languages. Attitudes like these clearly show that the language is not accepted or respected among their society. However, there are native speakers of Hawai’i Creole who are fighting back. Creation of awareness programs and academic debates in universities (Velupillai) have taken place in order to change the attitudes towards the language and inform others that there is nothing wrong with the language. “Hawai‘i Creole speakers have mixed feelings about the creole. Hawai‘i Creole has often been denigrated as a sub-standard form of English. But with the efforts of local linguists and writers, people are now beginning to realize that the creole is a language separate from, but similar in appearance to, English” (Hawaii.edu.) People are slowly but surely beginning to accept the Hawai’i Creole. Today the language is used in informal settings.
Hawai’i Creole is made up of nine vowels (some considered “pure vowels”), twenty-four consonants, and four diphthongs. (Velupillai). It also has SVO order like its lexifier. An example Velupillai presents is “DEM gaɪz go baɪ dɛm sam soɾaz,” meaning ‘Those guys go and buy themselves some soda.’ There are no gendered pronouns in the language, but according to Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel, gendered pronouns exist and can be used on inanimate objects. For example: “Da stoa hi open nain oklak” which translates to “The store, it opens at nine o’clock,” and “Da klaes shi nat daet izi” meaning “The class, it isn’t that easy.” One of the most “striking” differences between Hawai’i Creole English and Standard English is its intonation of yes or no questions. Intonation is the melody of how people speak. “In most varieties of American English, for example, the pattern is rising, ending at higher pitch or tone of voice. But in Hawai‘i Creole, the pattern is falling, dropping to lower pitch in the last syllable” (Hawaii.edu.)

Although the language is not officially recognized by the majority, it does not take away from the fact that it is a language. By definition, a language is a system of communicating which is exactly what Hawai’i Creole allows its speakers to do. From its roots as a pidgin language, inhabitants of the island have been communicating with each other as well as outsiders. Ironically the native speakers are among the people who do not accept it according to Yakota. I do not believe Hawai’i Creole is going anywhere. There are too many native speakers on the island who are passing it down to the next generation, even though they might not accept it themselves. Like many of the other Creole and Pidgin languages I have been exposed to, I was only able to understand a couple of the words I read but I did find the language interesting.

Works Cited
Hawai`i Creole English, www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/hce.html.

Linnekin, Jocelyn. Hawaiians. Encyclopedia of world cultures, Vol. 2, Oceania. 1991 95–97. Boston: GK Hall.
Roberts, Sarah J. Olla Podrida: Language mixing, pidgins and creolizations. Paper presented at the SPCL (Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics) Annual Meeting, New York, 1 September 1998.

Roberts, Sarah J. Nativization and the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. Language change and language contact in pidgins and creoles, 2000 257–300

Romaine, Suzanne. “Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Language.” Language in Society, vol. 23, no. 4, 1994, pp. 527–554. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4168555.

Sato, Charlene. Linguistic inequality in Hawaii: The post-creole dilemma. In Manes, Joan & Wolfson, Nessa (eds.) 1985

Sakoda, Kent & Siegel, Jeff. Pidgin Grammar. An introduction to the Creole Language of Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: Bess Press. 2003

Yokota, Thomas. The “Pidgin Problem”: Attitudes about Hawai‘i Creole.” Educational Perspectives

Viveka Velupillai. 2013. Hawai‘i Creole. Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

 

Ileana Leon

Professor Garley

English 470

March 1^st, 2018

Nicaraguan Creole English

Predominantly spoken by the inhabitants of the villages that run along the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, Nicaraguan Creole English (NCE) is known as the oldest English-lexifier creole in the Americas (Bartens 2013). Once settled by the English, the coast was named “mosquito coast” after the Miskito Indians that inhabited the land. Born of the communication between Caribbean Coast natives, English settlers and the Miskito Indians (descendants of Jamaican and African slaves mixed with indigenous people), NEC is known to natives as Miskito Creole.  It is influenced by its lexifier, English, the dominant language of the country, Spanish, and other Western Caribbean creoles such as Belizean creole. According to Gordon and Hale of the Centro de Investigacion y Documentacion de la Costa Atlantica, NCE was estimated to have been natively spoken by 35,000-50,000 people predominantly around the villages of Bluefields, the Corn Islands, Pearl Lagoon, Puerto Cabezas and other, more inland regions, like Managua (CIDCA 1987). Recent data collection taken by The Joshua Project Christian missionary supports that the number of native NCE speakers has decreased to around 20,000 people (The Joshua Project 2018). According to the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in 2009 there were reportedly 18,400 native NCE speakers throughout Nicaragua (Simons & Fenning 2017).

A Brief History

Bordering the Caribbean Sea, the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua was settled by English imperialists in the early 1600s. Upon settling on the land, the English encountered the Miskito people. The Miskito people were descendants of shipwrecked and runaway slaves who settled in Cape Gracia de Dios with its indigenous people. The Mosquito Zambos (mixed-race Afro-Indians) encountered and mixed with the English imperialists (Gabbart 20). As a result, trading between the British and Nicaragua began to blossom. Communication between the natives, the English settlers and the slaves from the English colonies of the Americas and the Caribbean developed into a pidgin, later resulting in NCE (Holm 1978). It was a mixture of English, Spanish, Miskito and the languages of the inhabiting slaves. Jamaica patois, Belizean creole, western African languages such as Kwa and the Spanish introduced and later enforced by the Mestizos, known to the Miskitos as Ladinos (mixed-raced Euro-Indians, predominantly Spanish speaking) all influenced the formation of NCE.  NCE served and still serves as both an L1 (first-language) and an L2 (second-language) (Bartens2013). In 1860 the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was signed by the English and the United States, granting Nicaragua neutrality of trade and immunity from colonization by either of the countries. As a result of the treaty, the Nicaraguan government annexed the coast. As time progressed, inhabitants of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua began migrating to the Caribbean coast and enforcing Hispanization, resulting in NCE being slightly changed by the Spanish language.

Current Social and Educational Status

Though the areas of Bluefields and the Corn Islands remain heavily populated by Nicaraguan Creoles, the usage of NCE has notably spread to predominantly Spanish-speaking regions of the country like the country’s capitol, Managua, located in the far eastern Atlantic region and Bonanza, a city in the Northern mountainous region. Creole peoples are known to live in small tight knit communities known as “barrios” throughout these regions. The most famous of these barrios still remain in Bluefields, Beholdin, Old Bank and Cotton Tree (Decker & Keener 1998). Though these barrios are predominantly Creole, the influence of the lexifier is present in the regions culture. NCE is spoken mostly by ethnic Creoles in small rural barrios. It is spoken as a second language by most Miskito peoples and Ladinos. (Bartens 2013). This is possibly due to the lack of education provided in NCE and the enforcing of Spanish and English education. According to Decker and Keener (1998) the education available to the people in these heavily creole barrios is in Spanish. Church ministries, including The Joshua Project that was previously cited, some schools in these regions offer bilingual courses in Spanish and English dependent on the students’ grade level. Decker and Keener’s survey was written in 1998 and in this survey, they claim that the universities and lower level schools were in the early stages of introducing bilingualism in an educational setting. Speaking with educational professionals and inhabitants of Bluefields and the Corn Islands, Decker and Keener make note of a need for more multilingual educational programs which would not only include NCE but also Miskito. Rising Voices, self-described as an “international organization that works with introducing, funding, teaching and training communities that speak indigenous or endangered languages to use digital media tools”, released an article in 2016 about multilingual education systems in Nicaragua (Rising.globalvoices.org). Titled “Strengthening the Miskitu and Mayangna Languages in Nicaragua Through Digital Media”, the article states that native speakers of NCE who preferred to speak creole over English were taking a digital media course in which they would learn to create their own publications on the internet. Such emergences of these programs are in hopes of preserving languages like NCE by digitizing them. Similar programs are in effect at universities in Bluefields such as the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. Though NCE is not the dominant language of Nicaragua, oral tradition has made it possible for newer generations to learn it as an L2 whilst still speaking the countries more dominant languages, English and Spanish.

 

Linguistic Features

The syntax of Nicaraguan Creole English follows that of the English language. Sentences are formed with a subject, verb, object (SVO) structure. NCE has two different order of frequency sentence structures. One is a verb, object, adverb structure and the other is adverb, verb, object. Bartens provides an example of the sentence” Mary often kisses John”. In the VOA structure the sentence is “Mary kis John evri minit” which translates to “Mary kisses John every minute”.  In the AVO structure, the sentence is “Mary aalitaim kis John” which translates to “Mary all(article)-time(definite) kiss John”. NCE also has features that show it is a simplistic language that has lost main components of its influencing languages. For example, NCE has no gender distinction in third person singular personal pronouns. The word him (ihm/i) is used as a gender-neutral term. There are also generic or bare singular noun phrases in subject functions of sentences. Coming from and going to places are expressed by means of the preposition in the sentence. There are also no passive verbal codings in NCE but there are passive constructions of sentences. An example of this is in the sentence “Iin awa deez, rom nou liigalaiz” meaning “In our days, consuming rum was not well seen”. These features help make NCE a unique creole.

Conclusion

Though Nicaraguan Creole English is not a dominant language in Nicaragua, it’s slow introduction to more formal institutions, such as universities and digital media, and it being traditionally an oral language will help preserve it as well as help it become a written language as well. In attempts to make this written NCE a reality, The Joshua Project is currently working on a bible translated into NCE, edited by the missionaries and Christian communities in regions such as Bluefields. Statistics provided in this paper on the population of native NCE speakers show evidence of their decreases, however, I predict that NCE will not undergo decreolization but will rather undergo a shift into becoming more of an L2 for natives of creole barrios. For now, the rich history behind the formulation of NCE and it’s ties to the culture of the regions in which it is spoken in leaves plenty of aspects of the language to be pursued in future academic research.

 

Works Cited

 

Angela Bartens. 2013. Nicaraguan Creole English.
In: Michaelis, Susanne Maria & Maurer, Philippe & Haspelmath, Martin & Huber, Magnus (eds.) The survey of pidgin and creole languages. Volume 1: English-based and Dutch-based languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Gabbert, Wolfgang, “In the Shadow of Empire – The Emergence of Afro-Creole Societies in Belize and Nicaragua,” Indiana 24 (2007): 49

 

Hale, Charles R., and Edmund T. Gordon. 1987. Costeno Demography: Historical and Contemporary Demography of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast: An Historical Overview. In CIDCA 1987.

 

Holm, John A. 1978. The Creole English of Nicaragua’s Miskito Coast: its sociolinguistic history and a comparative study of its lexicon and syntax. University of London. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.

 

Joshua Project, Frontier Ventures. (2018). Language: Nicaragua Creole English. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from https://joshuaproject.net/languages/bzk

 

Keener, Andy and Decker, Kendall D. 1998. A report on the English-lexifier creole of Nicaragua, also known as Mískito Coast Creole, with special reference to Bluefields and the Corn Islands. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2001-004.

Simons, Gary F and Charles D. Fenning (eds.). 2017. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 20^th edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International

 

Strengthening the Miskitu and Mayangna Languages in Nicaragua Through Digital Media

 

Sanjida Khatun

Professor Garley

English 470

1st March 2018

Bahamian Creole

Bahamian Creole is an English- based creole language because it is the mother tongue that was created by the mixture between two contact languages. It is spoken in Bahamas. The Dictionary of Bahamian English, Holm’s states “ Bahamian English forms a link between the Caribbean creoles, such as Jamaican English, and English spoken today”. These languages slowly evolved over the past three centuries from the contact of English with the African languages spoken by the slaves. The social conditions of slavery, and the culture behind it allowed the languages to connect. According to the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures, it is now spoken by 250,000 people in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and is the wealthiest of the Caribbean countries. Most of its wealth comes from tourism, and offshore banking. The Bahamas has become urbanized due to tourism and offshore banking. Although, the language is called Bahamian creole, in the Bahamas people call it the Bahamian dialect.

Hackert and Deuber states “ the creole spoken in the Bahamas today was imported at the end of the eighteenth century; it was brought by free blacks, and the slaves of loyalists North Americans” (2). Previously during the 17th century, European colonies wanted to acquire sugar, and this required large-scale agriculture. They brought in slaves from Africa and they were forced to work on these sugar plantations. The European colonists spoke English, and in order to communicate with the slaves who didn’t speak English, they spoke simplified English. The slaves were being brought from different regions of Africa, and didn’t speak the same language. This made them start speaking the simplified English in order to better understand each other. Hackert states “ the black proportion of the population gradually increased over the course of the 18th century.” The blacks had outnumbered the whites in the Bahamas.

The majority of the people in Bahamas speak a mesolectal form of Bahamian Creole. Mesolectal is the intermediate dialect or variety between the basilectal and acrolect. Hackert states “ basilectal speakers tend to be elderly Bahamians”. This is because the newer generations were mixing their languages of Bahamian Creole and Bahamian Standard English, while the old kept speaking it. Janet Donnelly in “ Basilectal Features of Bahamian Creole” says, “ the basilectal is quite distinct from the acrolect and contains most of the features that are attributed to many of the other English based creoles of the Caribbean and environs” (22). The Bahamian creole has been decreolized in the recent years due to the Bahamian population connecting with the outside world. Decreolization is the process of evolving from a creole into a standard language or a variety of standard language. Due to this decreolization, the Bahamian creole that was once spoken has changed into Bahamian Standard English. Therefore, Bahamian creole is spoken in informal or private settings, and Standard English is used in serious settings such as schools.

In the Bahamas, there are two forms of English languages, one is standard Bahamian English, and other is Bahamian dialect or creole. The Bahamian creole has been altered in schools. Donnelly states, “ its overall grammar is systematically different from that of Standard English and yet the two share the same features”(1). Due to the language varieties being different many teachers have problems helping their students. The teachers have either learned the Bahamian Standard English, or have spoken it. However, the students have difficulty reading and writing because they speak a different language. In regards to teachers, Donnelly says “ they must cope with interference problems arising from their students’ mother tongue while they are acquiring the school language”(1). Many have a hard time distinguishing from their mother tongue and school language.

The Bahamas has free press, and their newspapers are called The Nassau Guardian, Nassau Tribune, and The Bahama Journal. The Nassau Guardian newspaper is written in standard Bahamian English, The Bahama Journal uses British English, and the Tribune uses both. Raymond Oienberg says, “ if the Bahamas ever becomes keen on standardizing its own national variety of English, it appears likely that more creolized usages could never become the core of a codified national variant, as basilectal forms remain stigmatized among many educated speakers”(1). This stigmatization is due to the Bahamas being a post-colonial speech community. APICS website states that the basilectal form, “is often viewed as “bad” or “broken” English, associated with backwardness and a lack of education, and seen as an obstacle to the country’s modernization and integration into the global economy.

People in the Bahamas who speak the Bahamian dialect/creole are often ostracized for speaking broken English. Those that speak this are considered to have a lack of education, and are considered to be distancing the country from modernization and integration of the global economy. For example, a YouTube video titled Bahamian English Creole and Language Learning shows the spoken form of Bahamian creole. In it the speaker says in Bahamian, “hay it go”, which in English is “how it go”. The possessive pronouns in Bahamianese are different from English, for example your becomes ya. In a sentence, Bahamian speakers would say “ das ya book”, instead of “ is that your book”. Speaking Bahamian creole is looked down upon because it sounds broken, and not correct.

Hackert states, “ Nevertheless, most Bahamians are unwilling to abandon their dialect. They are seconded in this attitude by a growing number of increasingly vocal proponents of folk culture, who are pointing out that the creole is a vital aspect of the Bahamas’ heritage and national identity” (44). Speaking this creole is often looked down upon. However, there are still basilectal speakers who want to keep their heritage alive. This creole is connected to their history. A blog page called the Baha Life, Greene talks about speaking the Bahamian dialect/creole, she says “On the news when they interview people from unsavory neighborhoods and I hear them speak BD, it’s like “Dey een gat no broughtupsy ay?” Meaning that they sound as though they weren’t taught at home proper decorum for social interactions.” Bahamian creole especially the basilectal form is considered to be a low-class way of speaking. The person speaking it is considered to not have an education. Another blog called the Perfect Paradise, states “BD (Bahamian Dialect) has been banned from schools and there have been cases reported of speakers who have been denied employment for using it outside of work. Bahamian politicians will speak it on visits to the Out Islands, but will not use it otherwise. Members of the general public vehemently deny its status as a language and typically do not support its preservation.” Bahamian Dialect/creole will always be stigmatized, since the language has evolved to the language variety of Bahamian Standard English. This decreolization makes it harder for those who speak the Bahamian dialect.

In conclusion, the Bahamas is forgetting their Bahamian creole since they are constantly adapting to the global economy. The Bahamas is wealthy and attracts tourists therefore they speak English. Many are ridiculed if they speak the Bahamian dialect, and students struggle in school to learn the standard Bahamian language. This is similar to many who speak a mother tongue from their home country, and come to America. They have to learn standardized English and this becomes difficult. However, newer generations grow up speaking the mesolect and acrolect as oppose to the basilect. Due to the evident decreolization in Bahamas, the newer generations will most likely not speak Bahamian creole, and it will eventually evolve into Standard English that is used in the states.

 

Works Cited

Ashley. “Navigation.” Perfect PARADISE {the BAHAMAS fanlisting}, love.marginnotes.org/bahamas/people/language.php.

Hackert, Stephanie “Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online.” APiCS Online – Survey chapter: Bahamian Creole, apics-online.info/surveys/12.

Donnelly, Janet L. “Basilectal Features of Bahamian Creole English.” The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, vol. 9, 2008, p. 17., doi:10.15362/ijbs.v9i0.28.

Hackert, Stephanie, and Dagmar Deuber. “American influence on written Caribbean English.” Studies in Corpus Linguistics Grammatical Change in English      World Wide, 2015, pp. 389–410., doi:10.1075/scl.67.16hac.

Holm, John A. “Dictionary of Bahamian English.” UFDC Home – All Collection Groups,ufdcweb1.uflib.ufl.edu/IR00000128/00001/12j.

Greene, Neucasha. “Posts about Bahamianese on Baha Life.” Baha Life,thebahalife.com/category/bahamianese/.

Oenbring, Raymond Austin. “Corpus Linguistic Studies of Standard Bahamian English:

A Comparative Study of Newspaper Usage.” The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, vol. 16, 2010, p. 51., doi:10.15362/ijbs.v16i0.124.

5Language. “Bahamian English Creole and Language Learning.” YouTube, YouTube, 23Sept. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6KvvyIMqWw.