Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

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 ...

used in

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 ...

. TE co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely

Trinidadian Creole Trinidadian Creole is an English-Based creole language commonly spoken throughout the island of Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago. It is distinct from Tobagonian Creole – particularly at the basilectal level – and from other Lesser Antillean ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

Tobago Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trini ...

. Trinidadian English was initially based on a standard of

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

, including having a

non-rhotic accent 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 ...

. In the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, TE now uses many Americanisms, including ''apartment'' and ''trunk'' (of a car). It is understandable by speakers of international

standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...

, although it uses a number of terms that are unique to it (perhaps coming from

), such as "to lime," meaning "to hang out." Speech in Trinidad (and, to some degree, in Tobago) may vary by location and circumstance and is often remarked for its "sing-song" (i.e., a rising and falling

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

) intonation. While this may be true, it is not fully clear what prosodic aspects results in this lay reaction from listeners, but it is suggested that both phonological and phonetic characteristics of Trinidadian English and Trinidadian Creole may play a role. Phonologically, Trinidadian English is said to have a high frequency of intonation such as phrase final rises in declarative utterances. Phonetically, the degree of pitch variation may also contribute to this "sing song" perception of the language variety.

References

* Mendes, John (1986). ''Cote ce Cote la: Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary''.

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of th ...

. *Solomon, Denis. The Speech of Trinidad: A Reference Grammar (). Port-of-Spain: UWI School of Continuing Studies, 1993. * James, Winford, 2001
Trinidad and Tobago Standard English?
* James, Winford, 2003

* James, Winford, 2003
Doing our own thing with English II
* James, Winford, 2004

* James, Winford, 2004

External links

by Keisha T. Lindsay and Justine Bolusi

by the Society for Caribbean Linguistics
Wiwords
A cross-referencing dictionary of West Indian words with a large number of Trinidadian terms

1997.
Phonological Hypercorrection in the Process of Decreolization--the Case of Trinidadian English
Languages of Trinidad and Tobago North American English {{Trinidad-stub