Belizean English
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Belizean English is the set of
varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of the
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
spoken in Belize and by members of the Belizean diaspora.


History

The development of
Caribbean English Caribbean English (CE, CarE) is a set of dialects of the English language which are spoken in the Caribbean and most countries on the Caribbean coasts of Central America and South America. Caribbean English is influenced by, but is distinct to ...
, including Belizean English, is dated to the West Indian exploits of
Elizabethan sea dogs The Sea Dogs were a group of English privateers and explorers authorised by Queen Elizabeth I to raid England's enemies, whether they were formally at war with them or not. Active from 1560 until Elizabeth's death in 1603, the Sea Dogs primari ...
, which are credited with introducing to
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
names for Caribbean flora, fauna, and various other things via, for instance, Hakluyt's ''Principall Navigations'' of 1589 and
Raleigh's Raleigh Haberdasher, more commonly called Raleigh's, was a high end, local men's and women's apparel store based in Washington, D.C. History The first store opened on February 16, 1911, at 1109 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, in the Raleigh Hotel. Mr. C ...
''Discoverie of the Empyre of Guiana'' of 1596. As English settlements followed shortly thereafter, Caribbean English has been deemed 'the oldest exportation of that language from its British homeland.'


Phonology

Pronunciation in Belizean English tends towards Caribbean English, except that the former is
non-rhotic The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant, , is preserved in all p ...
. In 2013, it was noted that spoken Belizean English is heavily influenced by Belizean Creole, as 'both the
lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
and syntactic constructions often follow creole.' The influence has been deemed strong enough to argue 'that spoken elizeanEnglish is simply a
register Register or registration may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), ...
of creole, relexified and restructured through contact with mainstream on-BelizeanEnglish.' However, it has been further noted that one may describe this phenomenon 'from the opposite perspective and claim elizeancreole to be a register of elizeanEnglish.'


Lexicology

The largest proportion of the lexicon unique to Belizean English is thought to name local
flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
,
fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...
, and
cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...
. Notably, the most significant donor language to this portion of Belizean English lexicon is thought to be the
Miskito language Miskito ( in the Miskito language) is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras. With around 150,000 speakers, Miskito is th ...
, not
Mayan languages The Mayan languages In linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and a ...
, 'as might be expected.' Other donor languages include Mayan 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 ...
(via
Jamaican English Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is the variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (a creole language), though ...
), and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
(particularly for cuisine). In 2013, it was noted that spelling in official contexts, such as in government, tended to follow British conventions, while that in commercial spaces tended to prefer American usage, with spelling in popular written media described as 'highly inconsistent, following the conventions of the writer.'


Sociolinguistics

In 2017, it was noted that – The aforementioned study suggested that such attitude towards Belizean English might be related to attitudes towards
code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. These alternations are generally intended to ...
between English and Kriol, as the latter was described by the study's Belizean informants 'as an index for educational attainment and therefore for class, as it apparently requires formal training to learn to differentiate the two e English and Kriol' However, the social regard for exogamous dialects of English is thought to be decreasing in Belize, though this has been linked to a concomitant rise in the prestige of Belizean Creole, rather than that of Belizean English.


Study

The earliest scholarly dictionary of Caribbean English is thought to have been the 1967 ''Dictionary of Jamaican English''. During Easter of that same year, the Caribbean Association of Headmasters and Headmistresses resolved – Said resolution was promptly forwarded to Richard Allsopp, who by mid-1967 'already had some ten shoe-boxes each of about 1,000 6 × 4 cards and many loose unfiled cuttings, notes and other material rom Guyana, the Lesser Antilles, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad' In 1971, Allsopp introduced the Caribbean Lexicography Project as 'a survey of nglishusage in the intermediate and upper ranges of the West Indian speech continuum.' This set the stage for the seminal '' Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage'', first published 1996. In 2013, it was noted that Belizean English may not constitute a single dialect. For instance, the English spoken in Garifuna-majority settlements in the southeastern coast of Belize 'includes distinctive borrowings which are not found elsewhere in the country.' It was further noted that, though Belizean English is not a
tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
, some of its words 'are not ''correctly'' pronounced unless the relative pitch heights are accurate.'


Notes and references


Explanatory footnotes


Short citations


Full citations

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