English-based creole languages

An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language derived from the English language – i.e. for which English is the lexifier. Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The main categories of English-based creoles are Eastern (West African), Asian, Atlantic (The Americas), and Pacific.

Origin

It is disputed to what extent the various English-based creoles of the world share a common origin. The monogenesis hypothesis (Hancock 1969, Gilman 1978) posits that a single language, commonly called proto–Pidgin English, spoken along the West African coast in the early sixteenth century, was ancestral to most or all of the Atlantic creoles (the English creoles of both West Africa and the Americas).

List

Asian

• Bislish: An English-based mesolect creole spoken in the Philippines.
• Manglish: An English-based creole spoken in Malaysia.
• Singlish: A language spoken in Singapore that includes elements of various Chinese varieties, Malay, and a host of others that are spoken on the island nation. Today, it is spoken by most Singaporeans.
• Taglish: An English-based mesolect creole spoken in the Philippines.

Atlantic

Western (Western Caribbean Creole English)

• Jamaican Patois, sometimes called Jamaican Creole, is an English-based creole language spoken in Jamaica, distinct from Jamaican Standard English, a dialect of English. It derives from a history of contact among many different types of speakers with many ethnic, linguistic, and social backgrounds. Jamaican Patois is the dominant language in Jamaica.
  • Rastafarian Vocabulary (Iyaric)
• Many other creoles derive from Jamaican Creole, which was introduced to Central America and other islands with the migration of plantation workers. Jamaican Creole is related to dialects very similar to each other such as Bocas del Toro Creole, Limonese Creole, Colón Creole, Rio Abajo Creole, and San Andrés–Providencia Creole, which the Ethnologue Web site considers to be variants of Jamaican Patois.^[1]
• Jamaican Maroon Spirit Possession Language
• Belizean Creole or Belize Kriol: Most speakers live in Belize City, but nearly everyone else in Belize is either a first- or second-language speaker of Creole. It is the lingua franca in much of the country. Reported to be very close to Mískito Coast, and Islander (San Andrés) creoles. Historically an extension of Mískito Coast Creole. Dahufra was a creole used in the 16th to 18th centuries. Jamaican Patois is different in orthography and grammar. It is used by foresters, agriculturalists, fishermen, industrial, construction, and commerce workers, as well as government officials and teachers in everyday life .
• Cayman Creole: spoken in the Cayman Islands
• Miskito Coastal Creole in Nicaragua
  • Rama Cay Creole
• Bay Islands Creole spoken in the Bay Islands Department off the coast of Honduras

Eastern

A Ndyuka letter written in the Afaka syllabary

Northern

• Afro-Seminole Creole
• Bahamian Creole: is the vernacular language of the Bahamas
• Turks and Caicos Creole is an English-based creole, widely spoken throughout in the Turks and Caicos Islands, with each island having a different variation.
• Gullah: Gullah is an English-based creole spoken in the Sea Islands and the adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida.
• Samaná English is spoken by about 8,000 people in the Samaná Peninsula, Dominican Republic, a mostly Spanish-speaking country. The speakers of Samaná English are the descendants of American former slaves who settled there in 1824. It is reported that there was a settlement of African slaves here in the early 1500s. The language is variously described a creole language, a dialect of English, or a linguistic entity fitting neither category. Samaná English is related to that of the Bahamian Creole language.^[2]

Southern

• Virgin Islands Creole: Spoken in the Virgin Islands and ex–Netherlands Antilles.
  • Crucian: Spoken on Saint Croix.
  • Saint Martin Creole English: Spoken in Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Martin.
• Leeward Islands Creole: Spoken on the Commonwealth islands between Guadeloupe and the Virgin Islands.
  • Anguillan Creole: Spoken in Anguilla, many similarities to British Virgin Islands and Saint Martin varieties of Virgin Islands Creole.
  • Antiguan Creole: Spoken in Antigua and Barbuda
  • Montserrat Creole: Spoken in Montserrat
  • Saint Kitts Creole: Spoken in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
• Bajan
• Vincentian Creole
• Grenadian Creole
• Guyanese Creole: Spoken throughout Guyana. The creole varies across the regions within the country.
• Tobagonian Creole: Spoken in Tobago.
• Trinidadian Creole: Spoken in Trinidad.

Suriname

• Sranan Tongo: the vernacular language of the majority of Suriname.
• Saramaccaans, or Saamáka: A divergent creole of the maroons, with heavy Portuguese influence.
• The Suriname & French Guiana maroons are tribes of escaped African slaves that fled to the interior and live alongside the native Amerindians. Each tribe has its own Creole dialect:
  • Aluku
  • Ndyuka
  • Paramaccan
  • Kwinti
  • Matawai

Eastern

• Krio: Is the vernacular language of Sierra Leone. It is mutually intelligible and bears resemblance with Nigerian Pidgin and Cameroon pidgin too. Spoken by the Aku people in the Gambia, who are descendants of Sierra Leone Creole people. It is mutually intelligible with Jamaican Patois.
• Nigerian Pidgin: While rudimentally spoken all over Nigeria, English is the accepted language of transaction and communication. The Nigerian Pidgin dates back to the colonial era, where locals were hired to work with the British colonials and ended up developing it to the Creole language it is today.
• Cameroonian Pidgin English, Kamtok, or Cameroonian Creole: is a linguistic entity of Cameroon. It is also known as Kamtok. Two varieties are Limbe-Krio and Grafi. Cameroonian Pidgin English is an English-based creole language. About 5% of Cameroonians are native speakers of the language.
• Kreyol: is spoken in Liberia, and has English and French as superstrate languages, with several West African languages as substrate.
• Fernando Poo Creole: Initially spoken in Fernando Po, Spanish Guinea(modernly known as Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea) by Krio Fernandinos who descended from Sierra Leone Krio people and was used for trade communications.
• Pichinglis: This dialect was initially spoken by, and introduced to Fernando Po, Spanish Guinea by Igbo and Ibibio immigrants from Nigeria. The language became prominent among other inhabitants, and was used as a trade language. It's likely that Pichinglis and Fernando Poo Creole merged to form the English-based Creole dialects spoken on Bioko Island today.

Pacific

• Australian Kriol: Also known as Roper River Creole, has become the major non-English language among Aboriginal Australians with over 10,000 first language speakers.
• Related English-based creoles Bislama, spoken in Vanuatu; Pijin, in the Solomon Islands; Torres Strait Creole, spoken by Torres Straits Islanders, neighbouring Papuans (formerly as far as Port Moresby) and Cape York Peninsular in Australia. Tok Pisin, spoken throughout Papua New Guinea, has English as its superstrate language and various Papuan languages providing grammatical and lexical input.
• Hawaiian Creole (or 'Pidgin'): Hawaiian Pidgin began as a pidgin used in the early European colonization of the Hawaiian Islands. English served as the superstrate language, with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, and Hawaiian elements incorporated. Children started using it as a lingua franca, and by the 1920s it had creolized and become a language of Hawaii, as it still is today.
• Bonin English: A creole of the Bonin Islands with strong Japanese influence.
• Pitkern, spoken by the inhabitants of the Pitcairn Islands and Pitcairnese migrants to Norfolk Island, formed from an 18th-century dialect of English with 5% of its vocabulary taken from the Tahitian language.
• Ngatikese Creole: Also called Ngatik Men's creole, is a creole spoken by the inhabitants of Sapwuahfik (formerly Ngatik) atoll of Pohnpei. It developed as a result of the 1837 Ngatik Massacre during which the island's male population was wiped out by the crew of Australian captain C.H. Hart and Pohnpeian warriors. Some of the Europeans and Pohnpeians settled and repopulated the island, taking the local women as wives. The island formed a new culture and language, a mixture of English and the Sapwuahfik dialect of Ponapean.

See also

• World Englishes

References