Bequia English is the local dialect of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

spoken on

Bequia Bequia ( or ) is the second-largest island in the Grenadines at . It is part of the country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is approximately from the nation's capital, Kingstown, on the main island, Saint Vincent. Bequia means "island o ...

, an island in

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

. It belongs to the group of

Caribbean English Caribbean English (CE, CarE) is a set of dialects of the English language which are spoken in the Caribbean and Liberia, most countries on the Caribbean coast of Central America, and Guyana and Suriname on the coast of South America. Caribbe ...

varieties.Williams, Jeffrey P., and Caroline Myrick. "Bequia English". In
Further Studies in the Lesser-Known Varieties of English
'' edited by J. P. Williams & P. Trudgill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 128-42.

Phonology

Consonants

Word-initially /t/ and /d/ are dental. Word-final /t/ can be sometimes fully released and sometimes fully deleted, such as in but ʌand about �baʷ Word-medially /t/ can occur as either a stop or glottal stop, hence ''after'' is either ftəor fʔə Word-initially H is variably present. The fricatives are pronounced as dentals: 'think' ɪŋk 'there' ɛ Nasal backing is common after back vowels: "Hamilton" sounds like amɪltɔŋ /l/ is normally light in all positions, the /r/ is a retroflex �and rhoticity is variable. /str/ is pronounced as /ʃtr/: industry is �ndʌʃtri Final clusters may be devoiced (kids: ɪts and final stops in clusters can be deleted (respect: ispɛk. There is restricted metathesis: words like ''ask'', ''crisp'' and ''crispy'' are pronounced as �ks rɪps and rɪpsi but ''mask'' is pronounced as a:s /k/ and /g/ tend to be palatalized: Coast Guard ʲo:s gʲa:d

Vowels

The vowels in ''Kit'' and ''Dress'' are usually �and � and the vowel in ''Kit'' is sometimes lowered to �(''miracle'': ɛɹəkl. The vowel in ''Trap'' is either or � The ''Foot'' vowel is usually � but sometimes � and the ''Lot'' vowel is usually � but sometimes The vowel in Strut is normally � but at times �(cup: ɔp. The vowels in ''Fleece'' and in ''Goose'' tend to occur as :and : and the ''Face'' and ''Goat'' vowels tend to occur as :and : but they can occasionally be əand ə The ''Bath'' vowel tends to occur as : though �can also be heard. The ''Cloth'', ''Thought'' and ''Palm'' vowels tend to occur as The diphthong in ''Price'' is either ɪ �ɪor �ɪ the diphthong in ''Mouth'' is either ʊ �ʊor �ʊ The ''Choice'' diphthong is usually �ɪ but can be realized as ɪ Hence, choice can be heard as ʃaɪsand price can be heard as ɹɔɪs The ''Nurse'' vowel is � �r � the ''Near'' vowels is usually : but can be merged with the ''Square'' vowel : The ''Start'' vowel is either :or �: the ''Cure'' vowel is �: and the ''North'' and ''Force'' vowels are usually merged, though ''lord'' tends to sound like a:dPhilipp Meer. “Select phonetic and phonological features of Caribbean varieties of English: An overview.” In

'James A. Walker and Miriam Meyerhoff. “Pivots of the Caribbean? Low-back vowels in eastern Caribbean English.” In

'

Rhythm

According to Meer, Bequia English has limited vowel reduction and a high tendency toward syllable-timed stress pattern.

References

{{Saint Vincent and the Grenadines topics Dialects of English Languages of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Caribbean English