| Saban English | |
|---|---|
| Region | Saba |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | saba1263 |
| IETF | en-u-sd-bqsa |
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Saban English is the local dialect of English spoken on Saba, an island in the Dutch Caribbean. It belongs to the group of Caribbean English varieties. It has been classified by some linguists as a decreolized form of Virgin Islands Creole English. [1] Other linguists posit that Saban English may have never undergone creolization, [2] and that it is contact variety of English with substrate effects from West African languages and Dutch. [2] [3] There is one published dictionary of Saban English, A Lee Chip, authored by Theodore R. Johnson. [4] [5] [6]
With a long history of geographical and economic isolation from other islands, Saba developed a distinct dialect of English. [2] [3] [4]
In the 17th and 18th centuries, several languages and language varieties may have significantly impacted the development Saban dialect of English: Dutch, British English, Irish English, and Scots English spoken by European settlers, and West African languages and/or Caribbean creoles spoken by enslaved Africans. [2] [3] [4]
While colonial Saba did have at least two plantations, [7] [8] the island never developed a planation economy like many of the surrounding islands. [3] [9] As such, creolization may or may not have occurred between the early European settlers and enslaved Africans on the island; [2] instead Saban English may be a variety of English with substrate effects from Dutch, West African languages, and other Caribbean creoles such as Bajan Creole. [2] [3]
Saba has a land area of 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi). [10] But despite the island's small size, linguists and locals can distinguish differences in the accents of each of the island's four villages: The Bottom, St. Johns, Windwardside, and Hell's Gate. [4] [2] [3] These differences are likely due to the four villages' distinct settlement histories, as well as intra-island isolation into the early 20th century. [4] [2] [3] In addition to pronunciation differences between the villages, the Saban English dictionary notes many lexical differences as well. [4]
The realization of vowels in Saban English is as follows. [11] [2] The vowels below are named by the lexical set they belong to:
The Saban dialect is not purely rhotic nor non-rhotic. [2] Post-vocalic /r/ is absent in unstressed syllables or following front vowels, but pronounced in stressed syllables and following back vowels, with the exception of the words more and farm. Phrase initially, /r/ is pronounced as [ɹ].
H-dropping is common in Saban dialects. [θ] becomes [ʔ] intervocalically and phrase finally, math is pronounced like /maʔ/. T-glottalization is also common intervocally, phrase finally and in clusters: water, hospital, bet and ate are pronounced like [wɒʔa], [haspɪʔl], [bɛ:ʔ] and [ɛ:ʔ]. [2]
There is poor distinction between the [v] and [w] sounds in Saban English. The contrast is often neutralized or merged into [v], [w] or [β], so village sounds like [wɪlɪdʒ], [vɪlɪdʒ] or [βɪlɪdʒ]. This also happens in the Vincentian, Bermudian, Bahamian English and other Caribbean Englishes. This results in the word seventh being pronounced as [sɛβənʔ].
Metathesis is a common feature of Saban English and results in words like "ask" sounding like [æks]. Nasal backing is common in Saban English: "Town" sounds like [taʊŋ] and "ground" sounds like [graʊŋ]. Consonant cluster are often reduced. [2]
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Ain't ([ɛ̃ː], [ɛn] or [ɛnt]) is frequently used in negations and can be used in the place of words like didn’t or haven’t. Saban English also makes extensive use of the expression “for to” as in the sentence: This is ready for to come ripe.
Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. The United Kingdom has a wide variety of accents, and no single "British accent" exists. This article provides an overview of the numerous identifiable variations in pronunciation. Such distinctions usually derive from the phonetic inventory of local dialects, as well as from broader differences in the Standard English of different primary-speaking populations.
Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England". He views Estuary English as an emerging standard accent of England, while also acknowledging that it is a social construct rather than a technically well-defined linguistic phenomenon. He describes it as "intermediate" between the 20th-century higher-class non-regional standard accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), and the 20th-century lower-class local London accent, Cockney. There is much debate among linguists as to where Cockney and RP end and where Estuary English begins, or whether Estuary English is even a single cohesive accent.
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The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the cot–caught merger.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can be used to represent sound correspondences among various accents and dialects of the English language.
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Bay Islands English is an English variety spoken on the Bay Islands Department, Honduras. Ethnologue reported that there were 22,500 native speakers in 2001. Mainlanders know this language as Caracol, which literally means "conch". Genealogically this variety descends from Cayman Islands English.
South Atlantic English is a variety of the English language which is spoken on islands in the Southern hemisphere. South Atlantic English is spoken on Tristan da Cunha and Saint Helena, but its spread on other islands is unknown. An intelligibility with British English, a linguistic variety of the same country, exists. There are fewer than 10,000 speakers of South Atlantic English. South Atlantic English does not have official status anywhere.
English in Southern England is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England.
Australian English (AuE) is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world. Australian English is notable for vowel length contrasts which are absent from many English dialects.
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Bahamian Creole, also described as Bahamian dialect or simply Bahamian, is an English-based creole language spoken by both Black and White Bahamians, sometimes in slightly different forms. In comparison to many of the English-based dialects of the Caribbean, it suffers from limited research, possibly because it has long been assumed that this language is simply a variety of English. However, socio-historical and linguistic research shows that this is not the case and it is, in fact, a creole language, related to but distinct from English as spoken in The Bahamas.
Older Southern American English is a diverse set of English dialects of the Southern United States spoken most widely up until the American Civil War of the 1860s, gradually transforming among its White speakers—possibly first due to postwar economy-driven migrations—up until the mid-20th century. By then, these local dialects had largely consolidated into, or been replaced by, a more regionally unified Southern American English. Meanwhile, among Black Southerners, these dialects transformed into a fairly stable African-American Vernacular English, now spoken nationwide among Black people. Certain features unique to older Southern U.S. English persist today, like non-rhoticity, though typically only among Black speakers or among very localized White speakers.
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