Bajan dialect

Résumé du document

Barbados is a small Caribbean country situated in the East of the West-Indies Archipelago. The capital is Bridgetown. In the administrative side, Barbados is divided into 11 'parishes' and has about 270,000 inhabitants. Historically speaking, Barbados was colonized by Great Britain, in 1625. So, English became 'de facto', the official language, even if it has never been proclaimed in a law or in the Constitution. But a great majority of the inhabitants speak the Barbadian Creole, an English-West African 'mixture' called 'Bajan'. In fact, nothing would prevent Barbados from being equipped with two official languages, English and Bajan. This report will examine Bajan dialect in terms of implementation, linguistic components and will also describe the development of Barbadian culture which is connected to this dialect. We will also answer the question : Is Bajan bad English which should be eliminated or is it a language which needs to be preserved?

Extraits

[...] According to Oswin Harris, from St-Lucy, fact, people from St-Lucy and St-Philip don't have the same intonation when speaking Bajan. Instead of saying like everybody, I will say or we will say instead of for example”. It is not so strange to hear someone ask someone else if he or she is from St-Lucy or St-Philip, by hearing his or her accent. People can not really explain this difference but they tend to explain it because of the long distance between these parishes and towns. “Both are half an hour from Oswin adds. II. HOW TO SPEAK BAJAN! [...]

[...] Bajan uses a mixture of West African and British English to produce a unique Barbadian (West Indian) vocabulary and speech pattern. Bajan is easily distinguishable from the dialects of neighbouring Caribbean islands, as many of the other Caribbean islands are based on Irish or Scottish-based pronunciation such as Jamaican Patois. It's useful to precise that even if Standard English remains the official language, the Barbadians speak Bajan in the daily life. B. From the past Origins : In a general way, dialects appeared between sixteenth and nineteenth centuries as a result of the conquest of the world by five European nations : Spain, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, and Portugal. [...]

[...] The inevitable daily Bajan radio Comedian. Victor affectionately BBC A. trained Fernandes, called Vic, is a broadcaster with facets of the over 35 years in all radio and television industry. His career has spanned morning radio, drive time radio, documentaries, production, sales, marketing, news and current affairs. At age 29, Vic was appointed to manage CBC radio and a few years later took on the challenge of managing both radio and television. The daily Bajan radio Comedian known as "De Market Vendor", introduces each morning, on radio station 100.4 at 7.40 am, a chronicle in Bajan Dialect. [...]

[...] evah in de ole goat never out the kiddie”: their parents. help yuh buy a big guts mule don' help yuh feed Who get you in trouble does not get you out of it. “When big man in trouble, lil man trousers an fit'e”: When a man is in trouble, he loses much dignity of his and pride, self“Cat luck en' dog What one person may get away, may cause problems for another. “Hungry mek cat eat Necessity often causes people to act contrary to their “Wha' do in the dark does come out in the light”: It is impossible to hide all of one's actions. [...]

[...] The capital is Bridgetown. In the administrative side, Barbados is divided into 11 "parishes" and has about 270,000 inhabitants. Historically speaking, Barbados was colonized by Great Britain, in 1625. So, English became facto”, the official language, even if it has never been proclaimed in a law or in the Constitution. But a great majority of the inhabitants speak the Barbadian Creole, an English-West African “mixture” called In fact, nothing would prevent Barbados from being equipped with two official languages : English and Bajan. [...]