Virgin Islands Creole

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Virgin Islands Creole
Spoken in: U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands diaspora
Total speakers: >100,000
Language family: Creole language
 English Creole
  Atlantic
   Eastern
    Southern
     Virgin Islands Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: none
ISO 639-3: vic

 

Virgin Islands Creole is an English-based creole spoken in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

Virgin Islands Creole is not to be confused with Negerhollands, a Dutch-based creole that was once spoken in the Danish West Indies, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Contents

[edit] History

In the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands Creole came about when slaves in the Danish West Indies, who were unable to communicate with each other due to being taken from different regions of West Africa with different languages, created an English-based dialect with a West African-based sentence structure in order to communicate. This English-based creole formed throughout the 18th and 19th century on St. Croix, as the Dutch-based Negerhollands (which was widely spoken on St. Thomas and St. John at the time) was dying out. British occupation of the Danish West Indies from 1801 to 1802 and 1807 to 1815, as well as the preference for English as a trade and business language in the busy port of Charlotte Amalie, helped establish Virgin Islands Creole over Negerhollands. By the end of the 19th century, Virgin Islands Creole completely replaced Negerhollands (now a dead language) as the native dialect of the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands. There was a small but continued use of Negerhollands well into the 20th century.

Virgin Islands Creole simultaneously developed in the present-day British Virgin Islands as well. With both territories sharing a common "Virgin Islands culture", similar history based on colonial domination and slavery, and even common bloodlines in some cases, it was inevitable that the creole would be spoken (although with slight variations) in both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

In one form or the other, Virgin Islands Creole still exists today as the native dialect of the Virgin Islands. It is similar to other Anglophone Caribbean dialects in countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Barbados, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

[edit] Language Use

Virgin Islands Creole does not have the status of an official language. It is strictly an informal form of communication and is a constantly changing dialect filled with various slang terms and idioms. The language of government, education and the media is American English in the U.S. Virgin Islands and British English in the British Virgin Islands. In the Virgin Islands, a post-creole speech continuum exists, in which there are two extremes - standard English (known as the acrolect) and the creole in its most raw form (known as the basilect). Due to the constant contact between standard English and Virgin Islands Creole in local society, there are many in-between speech varieties as well (known as mesolects). Most native Virgin Islanders can easily maneuver this continuum depending on their mood, subject matter, or who they are speaking to.

The majority of Virgin Islanders speak Virgin Islands Creole. However, due to immigration from the rest of the Caribbean and the continental United States, there are some Virgin Islands residents who are not fluent in speaking the dialect. Most non-native longtime residents can understand Virgin Islands Creole when it is spoken to them.

In the Virgin Islands, the term "Virgin Islands Creole" is rarely used. It is strictly a formal name for the dialect and is not used in an everyday colloquial sense. Instead, Virgin Islanders tend to refer to the dialect by their native island (i.e. "Crucian dialect", "Thomian dialect", "Tortolian dialect", etc...).

Virgin Islands Creole exists in different forms that vary by generation. There are many terms, idioms and proverbs that are only known to older Virgin Islanders, while there are also many new terms known only to young Virgin Islanders. Many traditional Virgin Islands Creole words have survived from older generations and are still in usage by young Virgin Islanders. Like other Anglophone Caribbean dialects, Virgin Islands Creole continues to undergo various changes, especially due to media and popular culture, as well as cultural contact with other Caribbean islands.

Many Virgin Islanders who migrate to the United States often return home with American-influenced speech patterns (colloquially known as "yanking") that then influence local speech. African-American and Jamaican idioms are also common influential sources in recent years, due to the permeation of rap, reggae and dancehall music into the Virgin Islands youth culture.

As with other Caribbean creoles, proverbs have historically been prevalent in Virgin Islands Creole. However, in 2004, a linguistic study group in cooperation with the University of Puerto Rico’s Rio Piedras campus found that many old proverbs in the Crucian (St. Croix) variant of Virgin Islands Creole, common among older generations, have faded away among many young Crucians.[1]

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, there has been an underlying negative pressure on Virgin Islanders to eliminate their dialect due to Americanization since the United States acquired the islands from Denmark in 1917. However, Virgin Islands Creole continues to survive through the younger generations that continue to speak it.

As with other Caribbean creoles, Virgin Islands Creole is generally unwritten. However, local authors often write in the creole, and young Virgin Islanders tend to write in it when communicating among each other over the Internet. Because no standard spelling system exists in Virgin Islands Creole, those who attempt to write it use English orthography.

Unlike a standard language that can be learned, most Virgin Islanders feel that Virgin Islands Creole cannot be learned, but only acquired through having spent one's formative years in the Virgin Islands. Virgin Islands non-native residents who attempt to speak the dialect, even out of respect, are often met with disapproval.

[edit] Grammatical Structure

Like other Caribbean creoles, there is a simpler set of pronouns than in English, and conjugations occur less often. For example, the English phrase "I gave it to her" would translate to "I give it to she." Another common pattern found in Virgin Islands Creole is the absence of the letter "s" in the plural, possessive and third person present tense.[2]

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Differences with English

The pronunciation differs from Standard English in various ways. Virgin Islands accents are similar to those of other Caribbean islands, especially those in the Leeward Islands, but are also unique in many ways.

In Virgin Islands Creole, dental fricatives (the "-th" sound) are often omitted from speech, and replaced by dental stops (the "-t" sound).

The vowel pronunciation of Virgin Islands Creole differs from Standard English. For example, the suffix "er" in English — either /ə/ or /ɚ/ in Standard English — is pronounced /æ/ (for example: computer is pronounced [kompuːtæ], and never is pronounced [nevæ]). Not all words ending in "er" are pronounced in this way.

[edit] Differences in pronunciation by island

There are many variations between the local speech on each of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. For example, the pronunciation of the standard English phrase "come here" would be "come ya" on St. Croix, and "come heh" on St. Thomas, St. John and the British Virgin Islands. It is commonplace for such differences to be pointed out in jest when Virgin Islanders of different islands congregate.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links