Guyanese Creole

Guyanese Creole
Spoken in	Guyana Overseas communities: Guyanese British Guyanese Canadians Guyanese Americans
Native speakers	700,000  (no date)
Language family	English Creole Atlantic Eastern Southern Guyanese Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gyn
Linguasphere	52-ABB-av
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Guyanese Creole (Creolese by its speakers: or simply Guyanese) is an English-based creole language spoken by people in Guyana.

Guyanese is an English lexified language with influences from Dutch, West African Languages, Arawakan and Carib languages, and to a lesser extent Indian languages. It is related to Paramaccan and Aluku.

There are many sub-dialects of Guyanese Creole based on geographical location, urban/ rural divide and race of the speakers. For example, along the Rupununi River where the population is largely Amerindian, a distinct form of Guyanese Creole exists. The Georgetown (capital city) urban area has a distinct accent while within a forty-five minutes drive away from this area the dialect/accent changes again, especially if following the coast where rural villages are located.

As with other Caribbean languages, words and phrases are very elastic, and new ones can be made up, changed or evolve within a short time period. They can also be used within a very small group, until picked up by a larger community.

Different ethnic groups of the country are also known to alter or include words from their own backgrounds.

A socially stratified creole speech continuum also exists between Guyanese English and English. A phrase like "I told him" may be pronounced in various parts of the continuum:

Utterance	Represents the speech of
[ai tɔuld hɪm]	acrolect speech of upper-class speakers
[ai toːld hɪm]	mesolect varieties of speech of middle-class speakers
[ai toːl ɪm]	mesolect varieties of lower-middle and urban class speakers
[ai tɛl ɪm]
[a tɛl ɪm]
[ai tɛl ɪ]
[a tɛl i]
[mi tɛl i]	rural working class
[mi tɛl am]	basilect speech of illiterate rural laborers.

Contents 1 English Taught in Guyanese Schools 2 Grammar 3 Example words and phrases 4 References 5 Bibliography

English Taught in Guyanese Schools

English taught in the schools of Guyana is based on British English.

Guyanese people speak English/Guyanese Creole while learning the English system of writing and reading in schools. It is a slightly different system of communication from the standard forms.

Grammar

It is common in Guyanese Creole to repeat adjectives for emphasis (as if saying, very or extremely). For example, "Dis wata de col col" translates into "This water is very cold". "Come now now" translates into "come right now"

Example words and phrases

• a go do it - Literally: "I go do it" - 'I will do it'^[1]
• dem a waan sting yu waan bil - Literally: "Them a want sting you one bill" - 'they usually want to take money from you'^[2]
• evri de mi a ron a raisfil - Literally: "Every day me a run a ricefield" - 'Every day I hurry to the ricefield'^[3]
• i bin get gon - Literally: "I been get gun" - 'he had the gun'^[4]
• i wuda tek awi lil taim but awi bin go kom out seef - Literally: "I would've take 'a'-we l'il [as in "little"] time but 'a'-we been go come out safe" - 'it would have taken us a little time but we would have come out all right'^[5]
• mi a wok abak - Literally: "me a work 'a'-back" - 'I'm working further inland'^[6]
• suurin - a form of courtship^[7]

References

Bibliography

• Bickerton, Derek (1973), "The nature of a creole continuum", Language 49 (3): 640–669 
• Edwards, Walter (1989), "Suurin, koocharin, and grannin in Guyana: Masked intentions and communication theory", American Speech 64 (3): 225–232 
• Escure, Geneviève (1999), "The pragmaticization of past in creoles", American Speech 74 (2): 165–202 
• Gibson, Kean (1986), "The ordering of auxiliary notions in Guyanese Creole", Language (3): 571–586 
• Gibson, Kean (1988), "The habitual category in Guyanese and Jamaican creoles", American Speech 63 (3): 195–202 

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