From Caribbean English to Creole

Abstract

This chapter has two themes: first, the English language in the Caribbean, and second, the English-based creole languages on the islands of the West Indies and elsewhere in the world. These themes are closely related: although English-based creoles are widely spread across the tropical or subtropical parts of the world, they are concentrated most densely in the Caribbean, and their historical development cannot be better exemplified than by Jamaican Creole in that region. The first question to answer is ‘What is a creole?’ But before that, here is a little Caribbean history. (The word Caribbean can be pronounced with two stress patterns: usually with the stress on the third syllable as Caribbean, but in connected speech also as Caribbean — a phenomenon known as ‘stress shift’.)

This is my ocean, but it is speaking Another language, since its accent changes around Different islands.

Derek Walcott, New Yorker (14 March 1983)