Bajan Creole

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Bajan is an English-based creole language^[1] spoken on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Bajan, like many other English-based Caribbean creole languages, consists of a West African substrate and an English superstrate. Bajan is similar but distinguishable from the creoles of neighbouring Caribbean islands, as many of the other Caribbean creoles are theorized to have Hiberno-English or Scottish English as their superstrate variety, for example Jamaican Patois^{[citation needed]}.

Language

Bajan is the Caribbean creole with the closest grammar to Standard English.^[2] There is academic debate on whether its creole features are due to an earlier pidgin state or to some other reason, such as contact with neighboring English-based creole languages.^[3] In one historical model, Bajan arose when captive West Africans were forcibly transported to the island, enslaved and forced to speak English, though learned imperfectly. Bajan later became a means of communicating without always being understood by the slave holders.

Due to emigration to the Province of Carolina, Bajan has influenced American English^[4][5] and the Gullah language spoken in the Carolinas.^[6][7] Regionally, Bajan has ties to Belizean and Guyanese Creoles.^{[citation needed]}

Unlike Jamaica, Guyana or Trinidad, Barbados was the destination of few African-born slaves after 1800.^[8] Thus, African blacks became "Bajanized" relatively early on in the island's history. This tended to make them less resistant to local culture, with its Anglicised language, religion and customs.^[8][9]

Today, Bajan is a more popular regional term for nationals of Barbados, in addition to the official name, Barbadian. In general, the people of Barbados speak standard British English on TV and radio, in courthouses, in government, and in day to day business, while Bajan is reserved for less formal situations, in music, or in social commentary. Standard English is a secondary native tongue of most Barbadians, and is usually used when talking formally^{[citation needed]}. Barbadians may opt to speak Bajan amongst themselves or when in a very relaxed setting^{[citation needed]}. Bajan is a primarily spoken language with no standardised written form. Due to the lack of standardisation, spelling may vary widely from person to person. There is much dialectal variation throughout the island. Barbadians practicing Rastafari on the island also tend to speak more with a Jamaican accent than full Bajan. Bajan words and sentences presented below are largely spelled as they are pronounced.

Features

As in most English-based Caribbean creoles, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have merged with other consonants (in this case, /t/ and /d/, respectively).^[10] Unlike most other Caribbean creoles^{[citation needed]}, Bajan is rhotic^{[citation needed]}. Bajan has a strong tendency to realize word-final /t/ as a glottal stop [ʔ]. Thus the Bajan pronunciation of start, [stɑːɹʔ], contrasts sharply with the pronunciation of other Caribbean speakers^{[citation needed]}, [staːt] or [stɑːt] or [staːɹt]^{[citation needed]}.

The word for you (plural) is wuna, similar to Jamaican unnu / unna or Bahamian yinna. Unlike Standard English, Bajan tends towards using a zero copula.

Questions are usually pronounced as a statement with a raised intonation; usually on the last word; to indicate that it is a question e.g. Wunna win de cricket? means "Did you (pl.) win the cricket match?"; dah you own? means "Is that yours?"

Habitual actions are usually indicated by the word does and done, for example I does guh church punna Sunduh means "I go to church on Sundays", or I done guh church pon Sunduh "I went to church on Sunday". It is quite common for this to be shortened to I's guh church pun Sunduh.^{[citation needed]}

Verbs in Bajan are not conjugated for tense, which is inferred from time words e.g. I eat all de food yestuhday = "I ate all of the food yesterday", where the word yesterday indicates that the action happened in the past.^{[citation needed]}

The word gine is usually used to mark the future tense e.g. I gine eat = "I am going to eat".^{[citation needed]}

Ain't (frequently shortened to ain') is used as a negative marker e.g. "I didn't do that" becomes I ain' do dat/dah. It is not uncommon for the I and the ain' to be pronounced in Bajan as "Ah'n" i.e. "Ah'n do dah" or "Ah'n able".

Proverbs

Bajan is peppered with a number of colourful proverbs and sayings that have been passed down through the generations. These are just a few examples below:

African words in Bajan

This section requires expansion.

According to the Ethnologue, Bajan has "fewer than 20 lexical items that are traceable to an African origin".^[11]

wunna

You all from the Igbo word unu, which means You (Plural)

bim

Nickname for Barbados, derived from Igbo 'Ndi Ibem' or 'Ibem' meaning 'My people'

obeah

From Igbo Obia, 'doctoring, mysticism, or oracle'

doppy

From Twi Adope

Cou-Cou

Part of the local national dish, but comes from "Fou Fou" in Africa.

nyam

(Pronounced "ng-yam") or "Yamm--") which means to eat ravenously or greedily, as in, "Don't yamm- the food like that boy!" – In Manjaku (language spoken in Guinea-Bissau) and in Pulaar it means to chew^{[citation needed]}

Further reading

• Blake, Renee A. 1997. All o’ we is one? Race, class and language in a Barbados community. Ph. D., Stanford University.
• Burrowes, Audrey (in collaboration with Richard Allsopp). 1983. Barbadian Creole: A note on its social history and structure. In Lawrence Carrington, Dennis Craig, & Ramon Todd Dandaré, eds., Studies in Caribbean Language. St. Augustine, Trinidad: Society for Caribbean Linguistics, 38-45.
• Cassidy, Frederic (1986), "Barbadian Creole–possibility and probability", American Speech 61 (3): 195–205 
• Fields, Linda. 1995. "Early Bajan: Creole or non-Creole?" In Jacques Arends, ed., The early stages of creolization. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, 89-112.
• Hancock, Ian (1980), "Gullah and Barbadian–origins and relationships", American Speech 55 (1): 17–35 
• Holm, John A. 1988. Pidgins and creoles, vol. II: Reference Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Le Page, Robert (1957), "General outlines of Creole English dialects in the British Caribbean", Orbis 7: 54–64 
• Rickford, John R. 1992. "The Creole residue in Barbados". In Nick Doane, Joan Hall, & Dick Ringler, eds. Old English and new: Essays in language and linguistics in honor of Frederic G. Cassidy. NY: Garland, 183-201.
• Rickford, John R. & Renee Blake. 1990. "Copula contraction and absence in Barbadian Creole English, Samaná English and Vernacular Black English". In Kira Hall et al., eds. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Berkeley CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society, 257-68.
• Rickford, John R and Jerome S. Handler. 1994. "Textual evidence on the nature of early Barbadian speech, 1676–1835". Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 9: 221-55.
• Roberts, Peter A. 1988. "West Indians and their language". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (written by a Bajan)
• Winford, Donald. 2000. "‘Intermediate’ Creoles and degrees of change in Creole formation: The case of Bajan". In I Neumann-Holzschuh and EW Schneider, eds., Degrees of restructuring in Creole languages. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins, 215-245.
• A~Z of Barbados Heritage, by Sean Carrington, Macmillan Caribbean – Macmillan Publishers Limited Press, 2007, paperback, ISBN 0-333-92068-6
• Notes for: A Glossary of Words and Phrases of Barbadian Dialect, by Frank A. Collymore, Second Edition – Advocate Co. Limited Press, 1957, paperback
• From Bajan To Standard English, by Jerome Davis ^[12]
• Barbadian Dialect Poetry, by Kathleen Catford^[13]

See also

• Queen's English
• British English
• English in Barbados
• Gullah language
• English-based creole languages
• Barbadian culture
• Music of Barbados

References

1. ^ Burrowes, Audrey. (1983). "Barbadian Creole: A note on its social history and structure". Studies in Caribbean Language. St. Augustine, Trinidad: Society for Caribbean Linguistics, pp. 38-45.
2. ^ Hancock (1980:22), citing Le Page (1957:58–59)
3. ^ Hancock (1986:195)
4. ^ Barbados Tourism Encyclopaedia
5. ^ New York Times – The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It
6. ^ Carrington, Sean (2007). A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean Publishers Limited. pp. 113, 114. ISBN 0-333-92068-6. 
7. ^ "Historical Facts on George Washingtons visit to Barbados in 1751". http://www.georgewashingtonbarbados.org/index.asp?pgid=5. Retrieved 6 April 2010. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Radula-Scott, Caroline, ed. (25 February 2000) [1986] "Features: All o' we is Bajan" Insight Guide Barbados Insight Guide (3rd ed.) APA Publications Pte. Ltd. p. Pg. 58 ISBN [[Special:BookSources/981-234-067-1|981-234-067-1]] 
9. ^ Carrington, Sean; Fraser, Henry (2003) "African Heritage" A~Z of Barbados Heritage Macmillan Caribbean, pp. 2–3 ISBN 0-333-92068-6 "Direct African influence declined in Barbados earlier than in other major Caribbean societies. In 1817 only 7 percent of Barbadian slaves had been born in Africa, whereas in Jamaica the proportion was 36 percent and 44 percent in Trinidad. An important result was that the precess of acculturation, whereby Afro-Barbadians were persuaded or coerced into accepting European cultural norms was more intensive in Barbados. To give two examples, the proportion of words of African origin in the Barbadian vocabulary is much lower than it is in Jamaica, and there are in Barbados none of the religions of African or partly African origin found elsewhere in the Caribbean, such as Voodoo in Haiti, Shango in Trinidad, or Kélé in St. Lucia. (It may be claimed that the Spiritual Baptists are an exception, but this church came to Barbados from Trinidad in comparatively recent times.)" 
10. ^ Cassidy (1986:202)
11. ^ ethnologue.com – "Barbadian Creole English"
12. ^ Website of author Jerome Davis, former Barbadian Consul to Canada
13. ^ COMMON SENSE & EVIDENCE: The art of Bajan dialect, Nation Newspaper

External links

• Caribbean Poetry-Barbados
• http://www.barbadosdialect.page.tl : Introduces the book "From Bajan To Standard English". Highlights Bajan Dialect. See 50 common Bajan expressions
• Reflections of Barbados (A RADIO PROGRAMME - AUDIO ONLY), The Barbados Government Information Service - Example of short stories in Bajan