Trinidadian Creole
Trinidadian English Creole | |
---|---|
Native to | Trinidad and Tobago |
Native speakers | 1,000,000 (2011)[1] |
English Creole
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | trf |
Glottolog | trin1276 |
Linguasphere | 52-ABB-au |
Trinidadian English Creole is an English-based
basilectal level[2] – and from other Lesser Antillean
English creoles.
English is the country's official language (the national standard variety is
Arabic.[4] As of 2011, there were 1 million native speakers.[citation needed
]
History
Like other Caribbean English-based creoles, Trinidadian English Creole has a primarily English-derived vocabulary. The island also has a creole with a largely French lexicon, which was in widespread use until the late nineteenth century, when it started to be gradually replaced, due to influence and pressure from the British.[5]
Hakka, and now Mandarin), Trinidadian Hindustani, Tamil, and other South Asian languages have also influenced the language.[6]
Phonological features
Although there is considerable variation, some generalizations can be made about the speech of Trinidad:
- Like a number of related creoles, Trinidadian English Creole is non-rhotic, meaning that /r/ does not occur after vowels, except in recent loanwords or names from Spanish, Hindi/Bhojpuri, and Arabic.[7]
- In mesolectal forms, cut, cot, caught, and curt are all pronounced with [ɒ].[8]
- The dental fricatives of English are replaced with dental/alveolar stops.[9]
- Trinidad English Creole is usually syllable-timed and not stress-timed; therefore it often has full vowels where Standard English has the reduced form /ə/. [1]
- There is no clear connection between pitch and stress.[10]
Vowels
front | central | back | |
---|---|---|---|
close | i ɪ | ʊ | u |
close-mid | e | ə | o |
open-mid | ɛ | ɜ ʌ | ɔ |
open | a ɑ | ɒ |
Consonants
bilabial | labio-dental | alveolar | post-alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
trill | r | |||||||
fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |||
voiced | dʒ | |||||||
approximant | w | j | ||||||
lateral | l |
Usage
Both Trinidad and Tobago
Example words and phrases
- back chat: insolence.[16]
- bad-john: a bully or gangster.[16][17][18]
- bacchanal: any incident or time marked by drama, scandal, confusion or conflict[19]
- chinksin: miserly; distributing less than one could or should.[20]
- calypso: a musical or lyrical comment on something, particularly popular during Carnival.[16]
- dougla: a person having both Indian and African parentage.[16]
- macco: someone who gets into other people's business.[16]
- maljo: a sickness manifested upon newborn babies and young animals (like puppies) out of envy or ill wishes.[20]
- pothound: a mongrel dog of no specific breed or whose breed is unknown; mutt.[20]
- tabanca: heartbreak.[16]
- ups kabat: a type of game played with marbles, otherwise known as "marble pitch".[21]
- zaboca: avocado [22]
- dingolay: cheerful dance that involves fast paced movements [23][24]
- broughtupsy/brought-upsie: good manners, proper upbringing or home training[25]
See also
- Trinidadian English
- Tobagonian Creole
Notes
- ^ Trinidadian English Creole at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
- ^ Youssef & James (2004:508, 514)
- ^ "APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Trinidad English Creole". apics-online.info. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ^ Jo-Anne Sharon Ferreira. (A Brief Overview of) The Sociolinguistic History of Trinidad & Tobago. University of the West Indies. unb.br
- ^ Youssef & James (2004:510–511)
- ^ "Trinidad English Creole".
- ^ Amastae (1979:191)
- ^ Youssef & James (2004:516)
- ^ Youssef & James (2004:517)
- ^ "APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Trinidad English Creole". apics-online.info. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ^ "APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Trinidad English Creole". apics-online.info. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ^ "APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Trinidad English Creole". apics-online.info. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ^ Minderhout (1977:168–169)
- ^ Winford (1985:352–353)
- ^ Winford (1985:353)
- ^ a b c d e f tobagowi.com dictionary of terms for Trinidad and Tobago
- ^ Kirt Morris, "Trini Phrase: Bad John", TriniInXisle.
- ^ "UK English Dictionary". Lexico.com. Dictionary.com/Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
- ^ "bacchanal at Wiwords.com". wiwords.com. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ^ a b c WiWords.com dictionary of the West Indies
- ^ Winer & Boos (1993:46)
- ^ "zaboca at Wiwords.com". wiwords.com. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
- ^ "Caribbean Dictionary". Wiwords. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
- ^ "dingolay - Wiktionary". en.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
- ^ "broughtupsy at Wiwords.com". wiwords.com. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
References
- Amastae, Jon (1979), "Dominican English Creole phonology: An initial sketch", Anthropological Linguistics, 21 (4): 182–204
- Minderhout, David J. (1977), "Language variation in Tobagonian English", Anthropological Linguistics, 19 (4): 167–179
- Winer, Lise; Boos, Hans E.A. (1993), "Right throughs, rings and taws: Marbles terminology in Trinidad and Tobago", Language in Society, 22 (1): 41–66,
- Winford, Donald (1985), "The concept of "diglossia" in Caribbean creole situations", Language in Society, 14 (3): 345–356,
- Youssef, Winford; James (2004), "The creoles of Trinidad and Tobago: Phonology" (PDF), in Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), Handbook of Varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5
Further reading
- Allsopp, Richard, & Jeannette Allsopp (French and Spanish Supplement), 2003, Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press.
- Allsopp, Richard, & Jeannette Allsopp 2010, New Register of Caribbean English Usage. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press.
- Solomon, Denis, 1993. The Speech of Trinidad: A Reference Grammar. Port-of-Spain: UWI School of Continuing Studies.
- James, Winford, 2002, "A Different, not an Incorrect, Way of Speaking, Pt 1"
- Winer, Lise, 2009, Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago: On Historical Principles. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- TriniInXisle Compilation of Trinidad Slangs from Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago from Winer, Lisa