CS MOD 2 REGIONAL CREOLE FEATURES V.

RAMOUTAR-SINGH
JAMAICAN CREOLE

 Omission of ‘h’ sound throughout speech word initially. E.g. herb- ‘erb’, hotel- ‘otel’,
hour- ‘our’, happy- ‘appy’, heat- ‘eat’

 Addition of ‘h’ sound throughout speech at the beginnings of words where they do not
belong. E.g. egg>‘hegg’, exam> ‘hexam’. This is called hypercorrection- speakers insert
the ‘h’ sound at the beginning of words where it does not belong because they rely on their
limited knowledge of the language and assume that an ‘h’ belongs there.

 ‘Th’ words are realized/reduced as ‘t’. E.g. thick> tick

 The use of ‘t’ sounds preceding ‘l’ sounds changes to ‘k’ sound. E.g. little> ‘likl’, bottle >
‘bakl’

 The use of ‘d’ sounds preceding ‘l’ sounds changes to ‘g’ sound. E.g. needle> ‘nigl’,
middle> ‘migl’

 The use of ‘a’ sounds realised as ‘o’ E.g. bad man > ‘bod mon’

 The use of ‘aan’. E.g. bull horn- ‘bull haan

 The use of ‘aas’ E.g. horse- ‘haas’

 The insertion of ‘w’ after ‘p’ or ‘b’ sounds. E.g. boy- ‘bway’, boil- ‘bwayl, spoil-
‘(s)pwayl’

 The insertion of ‘y’ in some sounds. E.g. Garden- ‘gyarden, Girl- ‘gyal’, Captain-
‘cyaptain’, Cap- ‘cyap’, Gas- ‘Gyas’, Can’t- cyan/cyah, Galvanize- gyalvanize, Garbage-
gyarbage

 The use of ‘im’ instead of ‘him’ for subject pronoun. E.g. “ Im rel nice”

 Use of ‘mek’ where Standard English has ‘let’. E.g. ‘Mek me tell yu’ vs ‘Let me tell you’.

 Use of ‘fi’ for possessive. E.g. ‘A fi mi book’

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 Use of ‘haffi’ for the verb ‘have to’ in Standard English. E.g. Mi haffi tell yu

 The use of ‘a’ as a verb marking present tense. E.g. Mi a run- I am running

 Negation is marked by the use of ‘neva’ and ‘kiaan’. E.g ‘Mi neva do it’/ ‘Mi kiaan tell
yu’

 Pluralisation is marked by the use of the word ‘dem’. E.g. ‘De boy dem’/ ‘Dem boy’/’De
two mango dem’

 Zero copula- main form of the verb ‘to be’. E.g. Mi hungry- verb form ‘am’ is not included.

 Front focusing/Preposing-the structure of a sentence changes for emphasis. Parts of the

sentence are put to the front. E.g.

‘The cake was eaten by Mary’>‘Is Mary eat di cake’.

‘He tile di floor’ > ‘Is tile he tile di floor’

 Use of ‘from’ in front of ‘when’. E.g. ‘From when I see him’ vs. ‘When I saw him’

 The use of ‘after’ is inserted after the word ‘laugh’. E.g. ‘Dey laugh after her’ vs. ‘They
laughed at her’

 Vocabulary items:

Maasta- to address a male figure in authority, instead of ‘Sir/Mister’, ‘facety’/’facey’

means ‘boldface’, ‘Jinal’- trickster/con man, ‘Wah gwaan’- hello, Pikni- children, Eye
water- tears, Foot battam- sole, ‘ignorant’ to mean ‘aggressive’. However, in Standard
English ‘ignorant’ means ‘lacking knowledge’, Chati chati (reduplication)- outta timing
talk, Friedi friedi- afraid, Chaka chaka- dirty, messy, deplorable, ‘belly’ to mean pregnant-
E.g. ‘She have belly’, ‘Nose hole’- nostril, ‘Yeye- wata’- crying, ‘Missus’- miss, ‘Big up
yuhself’- to feel proud/special, ‘Bless up’- thanks, take care

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 BARBADIAN/BAJAN CREOLE

 Highly nasalised language- ‘oy’- ‘I’, ‘my’ ‘rice’, ‘might’, ‘bite’

 Pronunciation of ‘r’ - they’re (highly rhotic language)

 ‘f’ and ‘v’ are sometimes used in place of ‘th’. E.g. bathe> ‘bave’, Path> ‘paf’, Teething>
‘teeving’, with>wif

 Use of ‘Bo’ used at the beginning and end of some utterances in place of Standard
English ‘alas’ which expresses disappointment.

 Use of the word ‘used’ in place of ‘eat’. E.g. Did you eat the food?- Yu used di thing? Yu
used di food?

 Use of the words ‘thing’ and ‘something’ to mean ‘alcoholic drink’. E.g. Take a ‘ting’.

 Glottal stops- tighten or restrict the air passage to produce sound

GUYANESE CREOLE

 Use of ‘a’ instead of ‘o’ E.g. ‘jab’ vs ‘job’, ‘dag’ vs ‘dog’, ‘gat’ vs ‘got’ ‘baks’ vs ‘box’

 Vocabulary items: ‘chicken curry’ vs ‘curry chicken’, ‘golden apple equivalent to

‘pommecythere’, ‘batam house’ means ‘downstairs’

 Use of ‘by’ in place of ‘when’ e.g. ‘By them meet the house the gas use out’ vs Standard
English- ‘When they reached the house the gas finished’.

 Use of conjunctions such as ‘whichin’ and ‘becausin’ in place of Standard English ‘which’
and ‘because’

 Use of ‘mek’ for ‘let’ just as in Jamaica

 Use of ‘boy’ at the beginning and ends of sentences/utterances. E.g. Boy, I goin home /I
goin home, boy
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 Use of ‘bin’ as a verb indicating past form- Standard English ‘went’

 Use of ‘a’ as continuous form- Mi bina come

 Pronouns: Use of ’Awi’ which is a second person plural pronoun meaning ‘all of us’, ‘Ayu’
which is a second person plural pronoun meaning ‘ you all’, ‘Abey’ and ‘abeydeez’- plural
forms e.g. ‘abeydeez went to the mall’

 ‘Chirren’ and ‘pikni’ for ‘children’

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