"Bahamian dialect" and "Bahamianese" redirect here. For the variety of English spoken in the Bahamas, see Bahamian English.
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Bahamian
Native to
Bahamas
Native speakers
c. 250,000 (2013)[1]
Language family
English Creole
Atlantic
Eastern
Northern (Bahamian–Gullah)
Bahamian
Language codes
ISO 639-3
bah
Glottolog
baha1260
Linguasphere
52-ABB-an–ao
Bahamian Creole, also described as the Bahamian dialect, is spoken by both white and black Bahamians, although in slightly different forms. Bahamian dialect also tends to be more prevalent in certain areas of the Bahamas. Islands that were settled earlier or that have a historically large Afro-Bahamian population have a greater concentration of individuals exhibiting creolized speech; the dialect is most prevalent in urban areas.[2] Individual speakers have command of lesser and greater dialect forms.
Bahamian dialect shares similar features with other Caribbean English-based creoles, such as those of Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Saint Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, and the Virgin Islands. There is also a very significant link between Bahamian and the Gullah language of South Carolina, as many Bahamians are descendants of enslaved African-American people brought to the islands from the Gullah region after the American Revolution.[3]
In comparison to many of the English-based languages of the Caribbean region, limited research has been conducted on what is known as Bahamian English. This lack of research on Bahamian English is perhaps because for many years, Bahamians have assumed that this language is simply a variety of English. However, academic research shows that this is not the case. In fact, there is much socio-historical and linguistic evidence to support the proposal that it is a creole language.[4]
^Hackert, Stephanie (2013). "Survey chapter: Bahamian Creole". The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures.
^Reaser (2010:161)
^Holm, John (1983). "On the Relationship of Gullah and Bahamian". American Speech. 58 (4): 303–318. doi:10.2307/455145. ISSN 0003-1283. JSTOR 455145.
^McPhee, Helen. "Is Bahamian Dialect a Jargon? Archived June 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine"
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