Trinidadian Creole is an English-Based

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

commonly spoken throughout the island of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. It is distinct from

Tobagonian Creole Tobagonian English Creole is an English-based creole language and the generally spoken language in Tobago. It is distinct from Trinidadian Creole and closer to other Lesser Antillean creoles. See also * Trinidadian English Trinidadian and ...

– particularly at the basilectal level – and from other Lesser Antillean English creoles. English is the country's official language (the national standard variety is

Trinidadian and Tobagonian English Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a dialect of English used in Trinidad and Tobago. TE co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely Trinidadian ...

), but the main spoken languages are Trinidadian English Creole and Tobagonian English Creole. Prior to English being designated as the official language, French Creole was more prominent throughout the island. English became the country's official language in 1823. Consequently, government and educational intuitions endorsement of the language change significantly influenced the progressive transition and phaseout of French Creole to English Creole. Both creoles contain elements from a variety of African languages (especially

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

). Trinidadian English Creole is also influenced by French, French Creole,

Trinidadian Hindustani Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects. These Hindustani dialects were the most spoken dialects by the Indians who came as i ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

, other

South Asian languages South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It is home to the third most spoken language in the world, Hindi–Urdu; and the sixth mo ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

(mainly

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

, with some

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

, and now

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

), and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. As of 2011, there were 1 million native speakers.

History

Like other

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

English-based creoles An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the '' lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the cr ...

, 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.

, a number of African languages (especially

(mainly

, with some

, and now

, and other

have also influenced the language.

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 Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...

, meaning that does not occur after vowels, except in recent

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

s or names from Spanish, Hindi/Bhojpuri, and Arabic. * In mesolectal forms, ''cut'', ''cot'', ''caught'', and ''curt'' are all pronounced with . * The

dental fricative The dental fricative or interdental fricative is a fricative consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. There are several types (those used in English being written as ''th''): *Voiced dental fricative - as in the English ...

s of English are replaced with dental/

alveolar stop In phonetics and phonology, an alveolar stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue in contact with the alveolar ridge located just behind the teeth (hence alveolar), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop cons ...

s. * 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/

* There is no clear connection between pitch and stress.

Vowels

Consonants

Usage

Both Trinidad and Tobago feature post-creole speech continuum, creole continua between more conservative Creole forms and forms much closer to

Trinidadian English Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a dialect of English used in Trinidad and Tobago. TE co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely Trinidadian ...

, with the former being more common in spontaneous speech and the latter in more formal speech. Because of the social values attributed to linguistic forms, the more common varieties (that is, more creolized forms) carry little prestige in certain contexts.

Example words and phrases

*: insolence.tobagowi.com
dictionary of terms for Trinidad and Tobago *''bad-john'': a bully or gangster. *bacchanal: any incident or time marked by drama, scandal, confusion or conflict *''chinksin'': miserly; distributing less than one could or should.WiWords.com
dictionary of the West Indies *'' calypso'': a musical or lyrical comment on something, particularly popular during Carnival. *''

dougla Dougla people (plural ''Douglas'') are Caribbean people who are of mixed African and Indian descent. The word ''Dougla'' (also Dugla or Dogla) is used throughout the Dutch and English-speaking Caribbean. Definition The word ''Dougla'' origin ...

'': a person having both Indian and African parentage. *''macco'': someone who gets into other people's business. *''maljo'': a sickness manifested upon newborn babies and young animals (like puppies) out of envy or ill wishes. *''pothound'': a mongrel dog of no specific breed or whose breed is unknown; mutt. *''tabanca'': heartbreak. *''ups kabat'': a type of game played with marbles, otherwise known as "marble pitch". *zaboca: avocado *dingolay: cheerful dance that involves fast paced movements *broughtupsy/brought-upsie: good manners, proper upbringing or home training

Notes

References

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