Bay Islands English
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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 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 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 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