Trinidadian English

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trinidadian English or Trinidad and Tobago Standard English is a dialect of English used in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidadian English co-exists with other dialects of English, primarily Trinidadian Creole English in Trinidad and Tobagonian Creole English in Tobago. Although based on a standard of English English, Trinidadian English has many Americanisms including apartment, truck and trunk (of a car), although bonnet is more commonly used than hood (of a car). In addition, many words from the popular dialect have found their way into standard English, including such words as to lime (to hang out or to party), lagniappe (French origin), or dougla (Hindi origin).

Trinidadian English co-exists with Trinidadian Creole English (or English Creole). Most speakers will use Trinidadian or Tobagonian Creole in informal discourse but will switch to the standard dialect (with varying degrees of success) in formal settings. Speakers of the standard dialect will also switch to the creole dialect either for humour or to connect with "the common man".

Many terms from the Trinidadian dialect have been derived from common words, phrases or sentences and continue to evolve even today(mostly due to a lazy pronounciation of the word; slurring/slackened speech). Examples include:

• Ent - from ain't (americanised form of isn't).
  
• Doh - from don't.
  
• Wham? or Whappen? - from Wha' happen?; origin: What happened?.

The sound of Trinidadian English is often compared with that of South Wales.

[edit] References

• James, Winford, 2001, Trinidad and Tobago Standard English?.
• James, Winford, 2003, Doing our own thing with English I.
• James, Winford, 2003, Doing our own thing with English II.
• James, Winford, 2003, What kind of question is this?.
• James, Winford, 2003, What kind of question is this? Pt2.

[edit] External links

• Miguel Browne's Trini Talk
• Society for Caribbean Linguistics