Turks and Caicos Creole

Turks and Caicos Creole is an English-based creole spoken in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a West Indian British overseas territory in the Bahama Archipelago.

Turks and Caicos Creole
Native toTurks and Caicos Islands
Native speakers
(10,700 cited 1995)[1]
English Creole
  • Atlantic
    • Eastern
      • Northern
        • Turks and Caicos Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3tch
Glottologturk1310[2]
Linguasphere52-ABB-ao

The Turks and Caicos Island Creole variety has not been thoroughly studied but may be directly related to Bahamian Creole as one of its dialects as the two are reportedly highly mutually intelligible. As of 1995, the number of speakers of Turks and Caicos Islands Creole is around 10,700,[3] although decreasing and endangered. It seems to be shifting to a variety form of Caribbean English. Turks and Caicos Islands Creole does not have an official status.

Phrases
Word/phraseMeaning
switcha/switcherLemonade/limeade (combination of sugar water and lime/lemon juice)
gal/gyalGirl
chile/chilenchild/children
chileUsed to represent emphasis on a sentence (well chile he een tell me nuttin bout that)
eenaren't (They een goin today) or isn't (That een right) or don't (I een no nuttin bout that)
velwell (usually the 'W' and 'V' are exchanged with each other, e.g. vednesday: Wednesday, weil: veil)
axeask
mussemust be
scorchscratch
jumbeespirit or ghost

References

  1. Turks and Caicos Creole at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Turks And Caicos Creole English". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Ethnologue report for Turks and Caicos Creole English

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.