English-based creole languages
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An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the lexifier, meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creole's lexicon.[1] Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The main categories of English-based creoles are Atlantic (the Americas and Africa) and Pacific (Asia and Oceania).
Over 76.5 million people globally are estimated to speak an English-based creole. Sierra Leone, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, Suriname and Singapore have the largest concentrations of creole speakers.
Origin
[edit]It is disputed to what extent the various English-based creoles of the world share a common origin. The monogenesis hypothesis[2][3] posits that a single language, commonly called proto–Pidgin English, spoken along the West African coast in the early sixteenth century, was ancestral to most or all of the Atlantic creoles (the English creoles of both West Africa and the Americas).
List of languages
[edit]Atlantic
[edit]| Name | Country | Number of speakers[4] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Western Caribbean[edit] | |||
| Bahamian Creole |  Bahamas
|
330,000 (2018) | |
| Turks and Caicos Creole English |  Turks and Caicos
|
34,000 (2019) | |
| Jamaican Patois |  Jamaica
|
3,000,000 (2001) | |
| Belizean Creole |  Belize
|
170,000 (2014) | |
| Miskito Coast Creole |  Nicaragua
|
18,000 (2009) | Dialect: Rama Cay Creole |
| Limonese Creole |  Costa Rica
|
55,000 (2013) | Dialect of Jamaican Patois |
| Bocas del Toro Creole |  Panama
|
270,000 (2000) | Dialect of Jamaican Patois |
| San Andrés–Providencia Creole |  Colombia
|
12,000 (1981) | |
Eastern Caribbean[edit] | |||
| Virgin Islands Creole | 90,000 (2019) | ||
| Anguillan Creole |  Anguilla
|
12,000 (2001) | Dialect of Leeward Caribbean English Creole |
| Antiguan Creole |  Antigua and Barbuda
|
83,000 (2019) | Dialect of Leeward Caribbean English Creole |
| Saint Kitts Creole |  Saint Kitts and Nevis
|
51,000 (2015) | Dialect of Leeward Caribbean English Creole |
| Montserrat Creole |  Montserrat
|
5,100 (2020) | Dialect of Leeward Caribbean English Creole |
| Vincentian Creole |  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
|
110,000 (2016) | |
| Grenadian Creole |  Grenada
|
110,000 (2020) | |
| Tobagonian Creole |  Trinidad and Tobago
|
300,000 (2011) | |
| Trinidadian Creole | Trinidad and Tobago
|
1,000,000 (2011) | |
| Bajan Creole |  Barbados
|
260,000 (2018) | |
| Guyanese Creole |  Guyana
|
720,000 (2021) | |
| Sranan Tongo |  Suriname
|
670,000 (2016–2018) | Including 150,000 L2 users |
| Saramaccan | Suriname
|
35,000 (2018) | |
| Ndyuka | Suriname
|
68,000 (2018) | Dialects: Aluku, Paramaccan |
| Kwinti | Suriname
|
250 (2018) | |
North America[edit] | |||
| Gullah |  United States
|
390 (2015) | Ethnic population: 250,000 |
| Afro-Seminole Creole | 200 (1990)[10][11][a] | Dialect of the Gullah language | |
West Africa[edit] | |||
| Krio |  Sierra Leone
|
8,200,000 (2019) | Including 7,400,000 L2 speakers |
| Kreyol |  Liberia
|
5,100,000 (2015) | Including 5,000,000 L2 speakers |
| Ghanaian Pidgin |  Ghana
|
5,000,000 (2011) | |
| Nigerian Pidgin |  Nigeria
|
120,000,000 | Including 120,000,000 L2 users |
| Cameroonian Pidgin |  Cameroon
|
12,000,000 (2017) | |
| Equatorial Guinean Pidgin |  Equatorial Guinea
|
200,000 (2020) | Including 190,000 L2 users (2020) |
Pacific
[edit]| Name | Country | Number of speakers[4] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaiian Pidgin[b] | 600,000 (2015) | Including 400,000 L2 users[14][15][16][17] | |
| Ngatikese Creole |  Micronesia
|
700 (1983) | |
| Tok Pisin |  Papua New Guinea
|
4,100,000 | Including 4,000,000 L2 users (2001) |
| Pijin |  Solomon Islands
|
560,000 (2012–2019) | 530,000 L2 users (1999) |
| Bislama |  Vanuatu
|
13,000 (2011) | |
| Pitcairn-Norfolk | 1,800 | Almost no L2 users. Has been classified as an Atlantic creole based on internal structure.[18] | |
| Australian Kriol |  Australia
|
17,000 | Including 10,000 L2 users (1991) |
| Torres Strait Creole | Australia
|
6,200 (2016) | |
| Bonin English |  Japan
|
Possibly 1,000–2,000 (2004)[citation needed] | Sometimes considered a mixed language[19] |
| Singlish |  Singapore
|
2,100,000[citation needed] | |
| Manglish |  Malaysia
|
10,000,000[citation needed] |
Marginal
[edit]- Iyaric ("Rastafarian")
- Jamaican Maroon Spirit Possession Language
Other
[edit]- Bay Islands English
- Bermudian English (Bermudian Creole English)
- Cayman Islands English
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Black Seminoles have also been known as Seminole Maroons or Seminole Freedmen and were a group of free blacks and runaway slaves who joined with a group of Native Americans in Florida after the Spanish abolished slavery there in 1793.[12]
- ^ Although Hawaii is part of the United States, Hawaiian Pidgin is mostly considered a Pacific rather than Atlantic creole language, which is further discussed in John Holm's An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ Velupillai, Viveka (2015). Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 519. ISBN 978-90-272-5272-2.
- ^ Hancock, I. F. (1969). "A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic creoles". African Language Review. 8: 7–72.
- ^ Gilman, Charles (1978). "A Comparison of Jamaican Creole and Cameroon Pidgin English". English Studies. 59: 57–65. doi:10.1080/00138387808597871.
- ^ a b Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
- ^ "Virgin Islands English Creole". Ethnologue. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
- ^ Villanueva Feliciano, Orville Omar. 2009. A Contrastive analysis of English Influences on the Lexicon of Puerto Rican Spanish in Puerto Rico and St. Croix
- ^ "Virgin Islands Creole English". Find a Bible. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
- ^ Staff Consortium. "What Does the USVI and Puerto Rico Have in Common? A Summary of a Stimulating Discussion on Self-Determination in the Virgin Islands". The Virgin Islands Consortium. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
- ^ Sprawe, Gilbert A. "About Man Betta Man, Fission and Fusion, and Creole, Calypso and Cultural Survival in the Virgin Islands" (PDF). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
- ^ "Afro-Seminole Creole". Ethnologue. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
- ^ "Creoles in Texas – 'The Afro-Seminoles'." Kreol Magazine. March 28, 2014. Accessed April 11, 2018.
- ^ Kuiper, Kathleen. "Black Seminoles." In: Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 13, 2018.
- ^ Holm, John A. (2000). An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780521584609.
- ^ Sasaoka, Kyle (2019). "Toward a writing system for Hawai'i Creole". ScholarSpace.
- ^ Velupillai, Viveka (2013). "Hawai'i Creole". In Michaelis, Susanne Maria; Maurer, Philippe; Haspelmath, Martin; Huber, Magnus (eds.). The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 252–261. ISBN 978-0-19-969140-1.
- ^ "Hawai'i Pidgin". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
- ^ Velupillai, Viveka (2013), "Hawai'i Creole structure dataset", Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved 2021-08-20
- ^ Avram, Andrei (2003). "Pitkern and Norfolk revisited". English Today. 19 (1): 44–49. doi:10.1017/S0266078403003092. S2CID 144835575.
- ^ Long, Daniel (2006). "English on the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands". American Speech. Publication of the American Dialect Society, 91. 81 (5). American Dialect Society (Duke University Press). ISBN 978-0-8223-6671-3.
Further reading
[edit]- Holm, John A., ed. (1983). Central American English. Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag. ISBN 3-87276-295-8.
- Holm, John A. (1989). "English-based varieties". Pidgins and Creoles. Vol. 2, Reference Survey. Cambridge University Press. pp. 405–551. ISBN 978-0-521-35940-5.
- Holm, John A. (2000). An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58581-1.
- Schreier, Daniel; Trudgill, Peter; Schneider, Edgar W.; Williams, Jeffrey P., eds. (2010). The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-48741-2.
- Arends, Jacques; Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval (1995). Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 90-272-5236-X.
