Saint Kitts Creole
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Saint Kitts Creole is a linguistic variety spoken in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts Creole is no language of its own, but similar to other varieties of Caribbean creole such as Virgin Islands Creole. The number of speakers of Saint Kitts Creole is under 100,000. Saint Kitts Creole does not have the status of an official language.
Saint Kitts creole has much the same history of other English Caribbean creoles. Its origin quite frankly lies in 17th century West African slaves, who when brought to the islands to work on sugar plantations, were forced to quickly learn British Englishes, with which their forced labour brought them in contact. This English was mixed with some West African words and in some cases West African language structure. The French, which occupied the island only from 1625 to 1713, had extremely little impact on the pidgin spoken today, except in very few cases of language structure, unlike in other former French islands, such as Dominica, Saint Lucia and Grenada, which speak a French-based rather than an English-based creole. Popular West Indian idioms also flourish.
The St. Kitts creole today is spoken on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis (although Nevisians refer to the language as 'Nevisian' or 'Nevis creole'), mainly in rural areas, and is spoken especially heavily in Capesterre, Christ Church Nicola Town, Cayon and Nevis.
Saint Kitts pronunciation is similar to the pronunciation on neighbouring islands, namely Antigua and Montserrat, but with slight differences that mainly only residents of the Leeward Islands can differentiate.
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[edit] Vocabulary
Some words in Saint Kitts creole are listed below. Some are unique, but some are commonly used in /originated from neighbouring islands.
- Ageed - yuck, expression of disgust
- Agood - serves you right
- Ahwee - us (St. Kitts)
- Ahyou - you all
- Antiman - homosexual
- Arbee - us (Nevis)
- Awmiwukya - expression of shock
- Awyuluuck / Ah you look ah wuk - expression of shock
- Bark - throw hard / talk loudly
- Bahzahdee - crazy
- Bine - constipated
- Bout - i disagree
- Bowat - boat
- Breed - to impregnate
- Broughtupsy - manners
- Bud - penis
- Buss - to end a relationship with (social level) e.g. "Richard, me an' u buss!" - Richard, you and I are no longer friends.
- Bus' kite - whore
- Buss' off - to leave, e.g. "I bussin' off" - I'm leaving.
- Buut up - to crash, meet by accident
- Cartoon - carton
- Chupit - stupid
- Dere - to be involved in a relationship with (intimate)
- Don' feel nuh way - don't worry
- Done - to end a relationship with (intimate)
- Donkey years - a lot of years/ a long time
- Draggers - sandals / flip flops
- Duux - to have quick sex with (usually used amongst youth)
- Eh eh - mark of surprise
- Fast - inquisitive
- Fuh true? - seriously?
- Garrot - Antiguan
- Gehl - girl (Capesterre)
- Guu lang - go, go down
- Gyul - girl (disrespectful)
- Heg - annoy
- How you mean - of course
- Jeps - inquisitive
- Jessup/Jessdung - move over
- Juuk - poke / shake
- Kin - skin
- Kineena - skin in (Nevis)
- Kitti - young Kittitian female
- Kyaan - can't
- M'ain kno - I don't know
- Moomoo - stupid
- Nuh gree - to have a bad relationship with, e.g. "me an' me neighbour nuh gree" - my neighbour and I have a bad relationship.
- Nyam - to eat
- Parna - buddy, chum, friend
- Pinduh - peanut
- Shittings - diarrhoea
- Tall - not at all
- Tarpolion - mispronunciation of the word 'tarpaulin'
- Tek een - to get sick
- Tief - to steal
- Tohkey Killa - buck, stallion
- Toutmonansam - tout le monde ensemble, everyone
- Wha you say - what's up
- Wuk up - to gyrate, esp. when referring to soca music
- Ya - here
- Yet - to eat
- Yu dun' kno - of course
[edit] Pronunciation
Saint Kitts Creole is pronounced similarly to the creoles of neighbouring islands, namely Antigua and Montserrat. Usually only long time residents in the islands can mark the slight differences. One unique aspect of the pronunciation of Kittitian dialect is the tendency to not pronounce the letter 'v'. In some cases, the 'v' is pronounced like a 'w'.
examples:
- moo - move
- wex - vex
- womit - vomit
In rural areas and in Nevis, the "ou" sound is usually pronounced "oa". e.g. hoase - house.
[edit] Other
In Saint Kitts creole, words are rarely correctly pluralized. The word is usually followed by the word 'dem' to indicate the pluralization. e.g. de gyul dem - "the girls." Note that if the word is not pluralized with an 's', e.g. children the plural of the word is the proper pluralized form, but still followed by 'dem', e.g. "children dem."
Questions ending in "is it" have the "is it" replaced with "y be y be (ee bee ee bee)" e.g. who is it? - who y be y be?, what is it? - wha y be y be?
Words used to emphasise adjectives, e.g. "very" and "extremely" are rarely used. Instead of using "very" the adjective in question is repeated. e.g: "de gyul look bad bad" - the girl looks very ugly. To replace "extremely" the word "so tail" is used. "So tail" is placed at the end of the adjective. e.g: "de gyul look bad so tail" - the girl looks extremely ugly. The use of "so tail" is thus seen as the ultimate expression of emphasis.
A unique aspect of Saint Kitts Creole is to end random sentences in the speech with the words "burdee", "poopa" or "daady buh". The general meanings for these endings are quite varied, but they generally tend to be used to further emphasise the preceding sentence. e.g.: "Tall poopa" - not at all(extreme). "Hush buhdee" - hush buddy (used whenextremely annoyed).
[edit] Examples in full use
An example of a full sentence in Saint Kitts creole would be:
"Arbee a guu lang a pascha who look pinduh dung by de hoase." - We are going down to the field by the house to pick peanuts.
"Is dat dey de pikni dem does wash dem kineena." - There is where the children bathe (their skin -redundant).
[edit] Conclusion
Although, as seen in the examples above, Saint Kitts creole in some instances can fully distort the English language, such instances are not common. Today's use of the pidgit involves a greater mixture of proper English, due to access to foreign media. Only residents in rural areas and Nevis tend to still be strong users. Many residents in Basseterre would find themselves almost as perplexed as a foreigner if speaking to a rural person who is a strong user.
Popular Jamaican culture and music have also played a role, as Jamaican idioms are being used more and more in the raw Saint Kitts creole, as well as throughout the region.
