Bajan Creole

Bajan
Native to Barbados
Native speakers
 300,000 (2010)[1]
English Creole

  • Atlantic

    • Eastern
      • Southern
        • Bajan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 bjs
Glottolog baja1265[2]
Linguasphere 52-ABB-ar

Bajan (/ˈbeɪdʒən/) is an English-based creole language spoken on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Bajan is primarily a spoken language, meaning that in general, standard English is used in print, in the media, in the judicial system, in government, and in day-to-day business, while Bajan is reserved for less formal situations, in music, or in social commentary. Ethnologue estimates that Barbados has around 13,000 people who use English as their main language and 256,000 people who use Bajan as their main language.

Like many other English-based Caribbean creole languages, Bajan consists of a West African substrate and an English superstrate. Bajan is similar but distinguishable from the creoles of neighbouring Caribbean islands, as many of the other Caribbean creoles are theorized to have Hiberno-English or Scottish English as their superstrate variety, for example Jamaican Patois.

Language

Bajan is the Caribbean creole with grammar that most resembles Standard English.[3] There is academic debate on whether its creole features are due to an earlier pidgin state or to some other reason, such as contact with neighboring English-based creole languages.[4] In one historical model, Bajan arose when captive West Africans were forcibly transported to the island, enslaved and forced to speak English, though learned imperfectly. Bajan later became a means of communicating without always being understood by the slave holders.

Due to emigration to the Province of Carolina, Bajan has influenced American English[5][6] and the Gullah language spoken in the Carolinas.[7][8] Regionally, Bajan has ties to Belizean and Guyanese Creoles.

Unlike Jamaica, Guyana or Trinidad, Barbados was the destination of few enslaved African-born captives after 1800.[9] Thus, African Barbadians became "Bajanized" relatively early on in the island's history. This tended to make them less resistant to local culture, with its Anglicised language, religion and customs.[9][10]

As of 2014, Bajan is a more popular regional term for nationals of Barbados, in addition to the official name, Barbadian. In general, the people of Barbados speak standard British English on TV and radio, in courthouses, in government, and in day-to-day business, while Bajan is reserved for less formal situations, in music, or in social commentary. Standard English is a secondary native tongue of most Barbadians, and is usually used when talking formally. Barbadians may opt to speak Bajan amongst themselves or when in a very relaxed setting. Bajan is a primarily spoken language with no standardised written form. Due to the lack of standardisation, spelling may vary widely from person to person. There is much dialectal variation throughout the island. Barbadians practicing Rastafari on the island also tend to speak more with a Jamaican accent than full Bajan. Bajan words and sentences presented below are largely spelled as they are pronounced. New terminology, expressions, jargon, and idioms are regularly added to the dialect by social commentary sung during the annual Crop Over festival.[11]

Features

As in most English-based Caribbean creoles, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have merged with other consonants (in this case, /t/ and /d/, respectively).[12] Unlike most other Caribbean creoles, Bajan is rhotic. Bajan has a strong tendency to realize word-final /t/ as a glottal stop [ʔ]. Thus the Bajan pronunciation of start, [stɑːɹʔ], contrasts sharply with the pronunciation of other Caribbean speakers, [staːt] or [stɑːt] or [staːɹt].

The word for you (plural) is wuna, similar to Jamaican unnu / unna or Bahamian yinna. Unlike Standard English, Bajan tends towards using a zero copula.

Questions are usually pronounced as a statement with a raised intonation; usually on the last word; to indicate that it is a question e.g. Wunna win de cricket? means "Did you (pl.) win the cricket match?"; dahs yours? means "Is that yours?"

Habitual actions are usually indicated by the word does and done, for example I does guh church punna Sunduh means "I go to church on Sundays", or I went church Sunduh "I went to church on Sunday". It is quite common for this to be shortened to I's guh church pun ah Sunduh.

The tense/aspect system of Bajan is fundamentally unlike that of English. There are no morphological marked past tense forms corresponding to English -ed -t.Verbs in Bajan are not conjugated for tense, which is inferred from time words e.g. I eat all de food yestuhday = "I ate all of the food yesterday", where the word yesterday indicates that the action happened in the past.

The word gine is usually used to mark the future tense e.g. I gine eat = "I am going to eat".

Ain't (frequently shortened to ain') is used as a negative marker e.g. "I didn't do that" becomes I ain' do dat/dah. It is not uncommon for the I and the ain' to be pronounced in Bajan as "Ah'n" i.e. "Ah'n do dah" or "Ah'n able".

Proverbs

Bajan is peppered with a number of colourful proverbs and sayings that have been passed down through the generations. These are just a few examples below:

Proverbs Meaning
De higha de monkey climb, de more he show he tail The more you show off the more you show your faults.
Gol' (gold) teet (teeth) doan suit hog mout (mouth) Fancy things don't suit those that aren't accustomed to them.
Cat luck ain' dog luck What one person may get away with may cause problems for another.
Wuh ain' see you, ain' pass you Just because you got away with something so far does not mean that it won't catch up with you later.
Ef greedy wait hot wud (would) cool Patience will be rewarded.

African words in Bajan

Bajan Creole contains many loanwords, most of which are African in origin. The largest portion contributed to Bajan is from the Igbo language.

wunna
You all from the Igbo word unu, which means You (plural).
obeah
From Igbo Obia, 'doctoring, mysticism, or oracle'.
Bim
From Igbo bé mụ́, 'my place, people, kindred', common nickname for Barbados
de, deh
From Igbo dị̀, 'present in'
eye-water
calque from ányá mmírí (eye + water), tears[13]
duppy
From Twi Adope.
Cou-Cou
Part of the local national dish, but comes from "Fou Fou" in Africa.
nyam
(Pronounced "ng-yam" or "yamm") Means to eat ravenously or greedily, as in "Don't yamm the food like that boy!" – In Manjaku (language spoken in Guinea-Bissau) and in Pulaarit it means to chew (pronounced "nyam"); it also means chew in Luo (language spoken in East Africa).
jook/juk
From the Fula word jukka 'poke, spur'
soso
From the Igbo language word soso 'only'
hard-head
From ísí íké, (head + hard, strength), 'obstinate
okra
From ọkwurụ, a vegetable

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bajan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Bajan". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Hancock (1980:22), citing Le Page (1957:58–59)
  4. ↑ Hancock (1986:195)
  5. ↑ Barbados Tourism Encyclopaedia
  6. ↑ New York Times – "The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It"
  7. ↑ Carrington, Sean (2007). A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean Publishers Limited. pp. 113, 114. ISBN 0-333-92068-6.
  8. ↑ "Historical Facts on George Washingtons visit to Barbados in 1751". Retrieved 6 April 2010.
  9. 1 2 Radula-Scott, Caroline, ed. (2000). "Features: All o' We Is Bajan". Barbados. Insight Guide (3rd ed.). Singapore: APA Publications. p. 58. ISBN 981-234-067-X.
  10. ↑ Carrington, Sean; Fraser, Henry (2003). "African Heritage". A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean,. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-333-92068-6. Direct African influence declined in Barbados earlier than in other major Caribbean societies. In 1817 only 7 percent of Barbadian slaves had been born in Africa, whereas in Jamaica the proportion was 36 percent and 44 percent in Trinidad. An important result was that the process of acculturation, whereby Afro-Barbadians were persuaded or coerced into accepting European cultural norms was more intensive in Barbados. To give two examples, the proportion of words of African origin in the Barbadian vocabulary is much lower than it is in Jamaica, and there are in Barbados none of the religions of African or partly African origin found elsewhere in the Caribbean, such as Voodoo in Haiti, Shango in Trinidad, or Kélé in St. Lucia. (It may be claimed that the Spiritual Baptists are an exception, but this church came to Barbados from Trinidad in comparatively recent times.)
  11. ↑ Musings: In this jurisdiction, solely
  12. ↑ Cassidy (1986:202)
  13. ↑ Allsopp & Allsopp (2003:201)
  14. ↑ Website of author Jerome Davis, former Barbadian Consul to Canada
  15. ↑ Common sense & evidence: The art of Bajan dialect, Nation Newspaper

External links

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