Bay Islands English is an English based creole spoken in the
Bay Islands Department
The Bay Islands (; ) is a group of islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Collectively, the islands form one of the 18 departments of Honduras. The departmental capital is Coxen Hole, on the island of Roatán.
Geography
The Bay Islands co ...
(
Guanaja,
Roatán
Roatán () is an island in the Caribbean, about off the northern coast of Honduras. The largest of the Bay Islands Department, Bay Islands of Honduras, it is located between the islands of Utila and Guanaja. It is approximately long, and le ...
,
Utila), and the Caribbean coast of
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
(most notably in the
Atlántida Department, and
Colón Department). It includes influences from
Spanish,
Indigenous Languages,
African Languages
The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SI ...
, and later other Caribbean English most notably from the Cayman Island
''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
'' reported that there were 22,500 native speakers in 2001.
Mainlanders know this language as ''Caracol'', which literally means "
conch
Conch ( , , ) is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high Spire (mollusc), spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point on both ...
".
Genealogically this variety descends from
Cayman Islands English.
Phonology
The
vowel varies in quality in Bay Islands English. Roatan speakers usually realize it as either
�or
� as do
Utilian speakers (although among them, the balance favors
�over
�. The dialect largely features the
fern-fir-fur split. The FUR vowel is predominantly realized as
�by Roatan speakers. About 3/4 of male Utila speakers also realize it in this way, but about 5/6 of female Utila speakers realize it as either
�̱or
� (Among them,
�̱is also the most common pronunciation for the FERN vowel, while
�is also the most common pronunciation for the FIR vowel.) Some Utila speakers also realize the FUR vowel as
Open-mid back rounded vowel">ɔ">Open-mid_back_rounded_vowel.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Open-mid back rounded vowel">ɔ although pronouncing "turtle" as [tɔɹtil] is also common for Roatan speakers. The FERN vowel is the most varied of the three, as it has possible realizations like [ɔ(:)], [ɒ(:)], [
Open back unrounded vowel, ɑ(:)], [ʌ(:)], [
ɛ(:)],
�̱(:) and
(:) Approximately 12/18 Roatan speakers pronounce it as a low back vowel, while this is not the norm for Utilian speakers. Approximately 5/6 Utilian female speakers pronounce the FERN vowel as a front vowel, while only about 3/18 Roatan speakers pronounce it with a front vowel (in their case, it is never pronounced as
. Graham (1997) has noted that all speakers make a distinction between the vowel qualities in the words "learn" and "girl", while 26/28 speakers distinguish the vowel in "learn" from those in "third" and "bird". He has also theorized that the fern-fir-fur split in Bay Islands English is likely a result of influence from
Scottish English
Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...
, which also has this phenomenon, and neither
RP nor
GA having a strong dominant influence on the dialect's historical phonological development.
Bay Islands English is generally
rhotic. Most white speakers always pronounce it as . It is often elided in post-vocalic, and especially in unstressed word-final position, among black speakers.
Bay Islands English has poor distinction between the sounds
and
The two sounds are often merged with each other (and sometimes,
resulting in a four-way whine-wine-vine-bine merger) or substituted in opposing positions. Graham cites the influence of the
Twi language
Twi (; ) is the common name of the Akan literary language of Asante and Akuapem.
Effectively, it is a synonym for 'Akan' that is not used by the Fante people. It is not a linguistic grouping, but more of a common name used by inland Akans a ...
, which lacks /v/ in its phoneme inventory, and other West African languages with the same feature as a likely cause for this. A similar process also occurs in
Bermudian,
Bahamian,
Saban
Saban or Šaban may refer to:
People
* Saban (name), for people with the name
* Sabans, a small indigenous ethnic group of Sarawak, Malaysia
Other uses
*Saban Capital Group, a private investment firm investing in music and entertainment
*Saban C ...
,
Vincentian, and other
Caribbean Englishes. However, it is also possible for these sounds (
and
Voiced bilabial fricative">β">Voiced_bilabial_fricative.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Voiced bilabial fricative">β to be realized as variants of a single phoneme. Warantz also claims that
occurs categorically before /a/, /ʌ/, and /ə/ and variably with
�in all other environments. However, the phonemic contrast in Bay Island English is generally neutralized in all environments, with possible realizations including [w], [v], [β], [
Voiced labial–palatal approximant, ɥ],
ʋ.html" ;"title="nowiki/> ʋ">nowiki/>Voiced labiodental approximant, ʋ and
Open-mid central rounded vowel">ɞ Graham has judged [w̥">Open-mid_central_rounded_vowel.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Open-mid central rounded vowel">ɞ Graham has judged [w̥as the most common realization, and the usual realization of /v/ post-vocally. A word-final /v/ (as in ''have'', ''live'' or ''love'') is often raised through the influence of the following element, thus causing it to be realized as either [w̥] or a vowel with a [ɞ]-like quality. This results in intervocal sequences such as [ɐw̥], [ɛw̥], and [ɵw̥].
can occur before both front and non-front values, and it is only unlikely to occur before
and
�can only occur before
and
� �occurs before
� and
� occurs in the same positions as in Standard English, but never where SE has
Whenever
occurs intervocally or as the first element of a consonant cluster, it may be dropped altogether. This results in pronunciations such as
ɒ:r(''never''),
ʌn(''having'') and
e:d(''paved'').
is found sporadically among creole-influenced speakers.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Bay Islands Department
Languages of Honduras
Caribbean English
{{pidgincreole-lang-stub