Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of English used in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. Trinidadian and Tobagonian English co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely

Trinidadian Creole Trinidadian Creole is an creole language commonly spoken throughout the island of Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago. It is distinct from Tobagonian Creole – particularly at the basilectal level – and from other Lesser Antillean creoles. En ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

and

Tobagonian Creole Tobagonian Creole is a creole language that is generally spoken in Tobago. It is distinct from Trinidadian Creole Trinidadian Creole is an creole language commonly spoken throughout the island of Trinidad in Trinidad and Tobago. It is distin ...

Tobago Tobago, officially the Ward of Tobago, is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger islan ...

History

Trinidadian English was initially based on a standard of

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

, including having a non-rhotic accent. In the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, TE now uses many Americanisms, including ''apartment'' and ''trunk'' (of a car). It is understandable by speakers of international

standard English In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...

, although it uses a number of terms that are unique to it (perhaps coming from

), such as "to lime," meaning "to hang out." Speech in Trinidad (and, to some degree, in Tobago) may vary by location and circumstance and is often remarked for its "sing-song" (i.e., a rising and falling

inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...

) intonation. While this may be true, it is not fully clear what prosodic aspects results in this lay reaction from listeners, but it is suggested that both phonological and phonetic characteristics of Trinidadian English and Trinidadian Creole may play a role. Phonologically, Trinidadian English is said to have a high frequency of intonation such as phrase final rises in declarative utterances. Phonetically, the degree of pitch variation may also contribute to this "sing song" perception of the language variety.

References

Sources

* Mendes, John (1986). ''Cote ce Cote la: Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary''.

Arima Arima, officially The Royal Chartered Borough of Arima is the easternmost and second largest in area of the three boroughs of Trinidad and Tobago. It is geographically adjacent to Sangre Grande and Arouca at the south central foothills of the ...

. *Solomon, Denis. The Speech of Trinidad: A Reference Grammar (). Port-of-Spain: UWI School of Continuing Studies, 1993. * James, Winford, 2001
Trinidad and Tobago Standard English?
* James, Winford, 2003

* James, Winford, 2003
Doing our own thing with English II
* James, Winford, 2004

* James, Winford, 2004

External links

by Keisha T. Lindsay and Justine Bolusi

by the Society for Caribbean Linguistics
Wiwords
A cross-referencing dictionary of West Indian words with a large number of Trinidadian terms

1997.
Phonological Hypercorrection in the Process of Decreolization--the Case of Trinidadian English
Languages of Trinidad and Tobago Caribbean English {{Trinidad-stub

History

See also

References

Sources

External links