The Decline of British English

There is a Bajan creole, Steve.

"Bajan is the Caribbean creole with grammar that most resembles Standard English. There is academic debate on whether its creole features are due to an earlier pidgin state or to some other reason, such as contact with neighboring English-based creole languages. ...Due to emigration to the Province of Carolina, Bajan has influenced American English and the Gullah language spoken in the Carolinas..."

From that great source of philological knowledge, Wikipedia. It's all here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajan_Creole

J.

PS - Saw this window-sticker on a guy's car recently: "Am I wuk fu' dis?" Sounds Bajan to me... :smile:

 

Barbados could have been fortunate to have only one colonial power plus the African slaves. In St. Vincent for example, there were the native Caribs with they own language, then the Spanish for a little bit, the French for a while, then the English. Combined that with the African slaves and the Indentured Indian labourers. Thus the Creole in St. Vincent is fairly complex.

 

Sic too bad! :smile: (Vincentian for "awesome" -- I hope!)

J.

 

Not at all impossible if Cocoy is English-based and Kweyol French-based, originally. Is that the case? I have a neighbour who is from Dominica, a very pleasant lady by the way, I don't think she'll mind if I ask her a bit more about this.

 

"Sa ka fet?" - What's up? I think that would be understood just fine in Haiti, Trinidad, Dominica and a few other places with nice weather. Interesting instruction page on Trinidad French creole here, if anyone's interested.

Klas Kwéyòl: What is "sa ka fet"? I notice it's a Canadian site. Lots of Caribbean language resources here, for sure. Many speakers.

J.

 

We have some very picturesque forms of English in Canada, too - particularly in Newfoundland. "The Rock," as it's known, also has its own French dialect, which was actively discouraged (mainly in the schools) by the Newfoundland Government back in the 50s.

Examples:

"Stay where you're to till I comes where you're at." Stay put till I get there.
"E's some crooked." He's grouchy.
"Tits up in the rhubarb." - Falling over drunk.

More here: Newfinese 101: Words and Phrases You
And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_English

J.

 

You may find some similarities with New Foundland English and the Caribbean. New Foundland greatly influence the language and cuisine in the Caribbean through trade. After the U.S revolution ships bypass the u.s east coast between British colonies in North America and the Caribbean.

 

Maybe it's partly (or even mainly) due to the strong Irish influence on Newfoundland speech, Steve. From the Wiki I cited earlier:

"Many Newfoundland dialects are similar to the West Country dialects of the West Country in England, particularly the city of Bristol and counties Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset, while others resemble dialects of Ireland's southeast, particularly Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and Cork. Still others blend elements of both and there is also a Scottish influence on the dialects - while the Scottish came in smaller numbers than the English and Irish, they had a large influence on Newfoundland society. One estimate claims 80 to 85 percent of Newfoundland's English heritage came from the southwest of the country."

(Emphasis mine - J.)

J.

PS - I live near a rather pleasant town (Galt /Cambridge) where over 10,000 former Newfoundlanders live. When I go there, it sounds a wee bit like a convention of pirates from the movies. :smile: Nice, friendly people.

 

I am not sure how much my DNA is indicative of the Caribbean. Anyway, I recently did my DNA analysis and only 2 percents could have been traced to the U.K. and Ireland which was a surprise, because we were always told that our great grandfather was Scottish. 25% were traced back to mainland Europe. I was surprised how much Scandinavian, and polish, and other Eastern European DNA showed up. The biggest surprise was having European Jewish DNA quite possible from the Baltic area according to Ancestry. I think there could have been more influence on the Caribbean patios from other countries than was written in our history texts. There is a historical significant Syrian and Lebanese influences in many of the Islands. Lost but not least is significant influence of Chinese and German influences in Jamaica and some other islands.

 

Your great grandfather may well have been of Irish descent even if he came from Scotland. After the great famine, many people from Ireland emigrated to Scotland and by 1851, over 7% of the population of Scotland were born in Ireland. In Glasgow, there's fierce rivalry between two football teams: Celtic, whose fans originally were mainly Catholics and proud of their Irish ancestry, and Glasgow Rangers, whose fans were Scottish and Protestant. Today, religion and ancestry isn't as important as it used to be, but the rivalry between the clubs still exists.