San Andrés–Providencia Creole is an

English-based creole language 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 ...

spoken in the San Andrés and Providencia Department of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

by the native Raizals. It is very similar to Moskitian Creole and

Belizean Creole Belizean Creole (, ) is an English-based creole language spoken by the Belizean Creole people. It is closely related to Moskitian Creole, San Andrés-Providencia Creole, and Jamaican Patois. Belizean Creole is a contact language that developed ...

. Its vocabulary originates in English, its lexifier, but San Andrés–Providencia creole has its own phonetics and many expressions from Spanish and African languages, particularly

Kwa languages The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The Kwa family belongs to the Niger-Congo ...

(especially Twi and Ewe) and Igbo languages. The language is also known as "San Andrés Creole", "Bende" and "Islander Creole English". Its two main strands are San Andres Creole English (or ''Saintandrewan'') and Providence Creole English.

History

The population of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina uses three languages: Creole, English and Spanish.Arias, Carlos Augusto. "Agency in the Reconstruction of Language Identity: A Narrative Case Study from the Island of San Andrés." In ''Gist Education and Learning Research Journal''. No. 9 (July–December 2014). ISSN 1692-5777. pp. 103-123. (106) San Andrés–Providencia Creole is an official language in its territory of influence, according to the

Colombian Constitution of 1991 The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 (), is the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. It was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114 on Sunday, July 7, 1991, and is also known as the Constitution of Human Rights. It re ...

which guarantees the rights and protections of languages in the country.Morren, Ronald. 2010. "Trilingual education: On the Islands of San Andres, Providence, and Santa Catalina". In Bettina Migge, Isabelle Léglise and Angela Bartens (eds.), ''Creoles in Education: An appraisal of current programs and projects'', pp. 297–322. John Benjamins Publishing. Approximately 20,000–30,000 people speak San Andrés–Providencia Creole. San Andrés–Providencia Creole has been influenced by social and family ties with the

Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast, also known as Mosquitia, is a historical and Cultural area, geo-cultural region along the western shore of the Caribbean Sea in Central America, traditionally described as extending from Cabo Camarón, Cape Camarón to the C ...

, and has in turn influenced the Central American English Creoles from the early 19th century onward. It retains a number of African words and phrases in common with the Nicaraguan, Belizean, and Limón creoles, and with Jamaican Patwah. It is closest to Belize Kriol. While many scholars often suggest a common West African pidgin as the source of most Caribbean creole languages, San Andrés Creole, in particular, may partially derive from the Jamaican Patwah of the latter half of the 18th century. In contrast, Providence Islander Creole is less popular among the Native Islanders, who feel a stronger affinity for English. Between 1902 and 1926, a process of forced Hispanization deprecated use of English and Creole. In 1946 and 1956, English was banned in public and private schools (respectively). Large scale immigration from continental Colombia, where most people spoke Spanish, resulted in the creole people of San Andrés becoming marginalised. English remained in use for liturgical purposes in Baptist churches, but the coming of satellite television and growth of foreign tourism has revived the use of English on the islands. The standard English taught in schools is

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

and rarely San Andrés Creole. The presence of migrants from continental Colombia and the travel of young islanders to cities like

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...

Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Region of Colombia, Caribbean Coast Region, along the Caribbean Sea. Cartagena's past ...

and

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

for higher education has contributed to the presence of Spanish. However, the interest in preserving the Creole has become very important for locals and Colombians in general. According to Carlos Augusto Arias, "Creole plays a symbolic role in the cohesion and identity of raizals, as the vehicle and an important piece of the cultural heritage, as well as the phenomenology of group identity."

Phonology

Consonants

: // and // only occur in loanwords, e.g. ''nyam'' ‘to eat’, ''José'' (a Spanish first name). : When moving towards the acrolect, speakers depalatalize // and //: ''kyan'' ‘can’ > ''kan'', ''gyal'' ‘girl’ > ''gal''. : //, like in ''okiezhan'' ‘occasion’, only occurs in the acrolect

Vowels

: Short /a/, /i/, and /u/ contrast with long /aː/, /iː/, and /uː/. : The duration of the nasal vowels corresponds more to the duration of the long oral vowels than the short ones. For some contrasts, there are very few minimal pairs: /ĩ/ contrasts with /iː/ only in ''ihn'' ‘he/she/it’ vs. ''iin'' ‘in’ (this is the form when postposed, the San Andres Creole English preposition is ''iina''; Providence Creole English has ''in'' and ''ina''). Similarly, /ã/ vs. /aː/ as in ''faahn'' ‘from’ vs. ''faam'' ‘to pretend’. On the other hand, other contrasts occur very frequently, e.g. /a/ vs. /aː/ as in ''hat'' ‘hot’ vs. ''haat'' ‘heart’. In addition, San Andres Creole English possesses six minor vowel allophones: �, ʊ, ɛ, ɛː, ɔ, ɔː

Characteristics

# It marks the time. The auxiliar (~ben~men) marks a past simple. Future tense is marked with and . Progressive tense is marked by . # The auxiliars and before the sentence is a polite way to ask permission or asking something. # Other auxiliary words before the verb mark probability like , , , , and ; willingness with and ; and obligation with , and # There is no grammatical distinction for gender. # Plural is marked with after the noun.

Sample text

A comparison of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

: San Andrés Creole : ‘Fi wi Faada weh deh iina hevn, : mek wi kiip yo niem huoly. : Mek yo Kingdom kom, : ahn mek weh yuu waahn fi hapm, : hapm pan ort, jos laik how ih deh hapm iina hevn. : Pliiz gi wi di fuud weh wi niid evry die, : ahn fargiv wi sin dem, : jos laik wii fargiv evrybady weh du wi bad tingz tu. : Ahn kiip wi weh fahn temtieshan, : ahn fahn di Bad Wan weh waahn liid wi astrie. : English : Our Father in heaven, : hallowed be Your name. : Your kingdom come, : Your will be done, : on earth, as it is in heaven. : Give us this day our daily bread, : and forgive us our debts, : as we also have forgiven our debtors. : And lead us not into temptation, : but deliver us from evil.

References

External links

New Testament books translated into CreoleSan Andres Creole English
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Andres-Providencia Creole English-based pidgins and creoles Languages of Colombia Creoles of the Americas Languages of the African diaspora Spanish language in South America English language in the Americas