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33-625: Caribbean English ( CE , CarE ) is a set of dialects of the English language which are spoken in the Caribbean and most countries on the Caribbean coasts of Central America and South America . Caribbean English is influenced by, but is distinct to the English-based creole languages spoken in the region. Though dialects of Caribbean English vary structurally and phonetically across

66-505: A narrower constriction in the vocal tract than their corresponding vowels. Nevertheless, semivowels may be phonemically equivalent with vowels. For example, the English word fly can be considered either as an open syllable ending in a diphthong [flaɪ̯] or as a closed syllable ending in a consonant [flaj] . It is unusual for a language to contrast a semivowel and a diphthong containing an equivalent vowel, but Romanian contrasts

99-595: A phonological parallel exists between /o̯a/ and /wa/ , the production and perception of phonetic contrasts between the two is much weaker, likely because of lower lexical load for /wa/ , which is limited largely to loanwords from French , and speakers' difficulty in maintaining contrasts between two back rounded semivowels in comparison to front ones. According to the standard definitions, semivowels (such as [j] ) contrast with fricatives (such as [ʝ] ) in that fricatives produce turbulence, but semivowels do not. In discussing Spanish , Martínez Celdrán suggests setting up

132-578: A significantly higher degree of distinctiveness from both larger varieties than does Canadian English. South African English , New Zealand English and Irish English are also distinctive and rank fifth, sixth, and seventh in the number of native speakers. English language in Europe English language in England : American English : Canadian English : Indian English : These dialects are used in everyday conversation almost all over

165-430: A third category of "spirant approximant", contrasting both with semivowel approximants and with fricatives. Though the spirant approximant is more constricted (having a lower F2 amplitude), longer, and unspecified for rounding ( viuda [ˈb ju ða] 'widow' vs. ayuda [aˈ ʝʷu ða] 'help'), the distributional overlap is limited. The spirant approximant can only appear in the syllable onset (including word-initially, where

198-644: A variety of different accents (systems of pronunciation) as well as various localized words and grammatical constructions. Many different dialects can be identified based on these factors. Dialects can be classified at broader or narrower levels: within a broad national or regional dialect, various more localised sub-dialects can be identified, and so on. The combination of differences in pronunciation and use of local words may make some English dialects almost unintelligible to speakers from other regions without any prior exposure. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into three general categories:

231-483: Is fully rhotic , while Jamaican English is not. Further, within Jamaican English, h -dropping is common in some social classes, but uncommon in others. Additionally, in territories with English-derived creole languages, the phonetic distinction between English and creole is thought to be continuous rather than discrete, with the creole acrolect differing 'only trivially' from English. Nevertheless, there

264-440: Is no room for the inverted breve under a symbol, it may be written above, using U+ 0311 ◌̑ COMBINING INVERTED BREVE . Before 1989, non-syllabicity was represented by U+ 0306 ◌̆ COMBINING BREVE , which now stands for extra-shortness . Additionally, there are dedicated symbols for four semivowels that correspond to the four close cardinal vowel sounds: In addition, some authors consider

297-459: Is thought to be 'a general sense in which a "West Indian accent" is distinguishable as such anywhere in the world.' Likely reasons for this have been described as 'the general quality of CE [Caribbean English] vowels, the sharp reduction in the number of diphthongal glides and, the most distinguishing feature of all, the phrasal intonation [and] separation of syllabic pitch and stress in CE.' Broadly,

330-499: Is thought to be continuous rather than discrete, such that 'structurally it is impossible to draw exact lines between them.' The standardisation of Caribbean English is thought to have begun upon the advent of government-funded public education in the West Indies in 1833. Notably, the earliest public teachers, credited with first developing Standard Caribbean English, had been 'imported direct from Britain, or recruited from among

363-552: Is thought to have been the 1967 Dictionary of Jamaican English . During Easter of that same year, the Caribbean Association of Headmasters and Headmistresses resolved – Be it resolved that this Association request the appropriate department of the University of the West Indies to compile a list of lexical items in each territory and to circulate these to schools for the guidance of teachers. Said resolution

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396-813: The Oxford English Dictionary includes only 'the forms of English as spoken in Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Belize, the Bahamas and Barbados, as well as in some of the smaller Eastern Caribbean nations' in deriving its phonetic transcriptions. The Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage further includes the dialects of Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, and

429-550: The British Isles dialects, those of North America , and those of Australasia . Dialects can be associated not only with place but also with particular social groups. Within a given English-speaking country, there is a form of the language considered to be Standard English : the Standard Englishes of different countries differ and can themselves be considered dialects. Standard English is often associated with

462-599: The English-speaking world . Conversely, a number of countries with historical ties to the United States tend to follow American English conventions. Many of these countries, while retaining strong British English or American English influences, have developed their own unique dialects, which include Indian English and Philippine English . Chief among other native English dialects are Canadian English and Australian English , which rank third and fourth in

495-420: The middle-register of Caribbean English is thought to contain eight fewer phonemes than Received Pronunciation . The lexicon of Caribbean English varies, to an extent, across and within sub-dialects. '[T]he bulk of the vocabulary,' however, has been described as 'identical' across the region. Additionally, in territories with English-derived creole languages, the lexical distinction between English and creole

528-441: The number of native speakers . For the most part, Canadian English, while featuring numerous British forms, alongside indigenous Canadianisms, shares vocabulary, phonology and syntax with American English, which leads many to recognise North American English as an organic grouping of dialects. Australian English, likewise, shares many American and British English usages, alongside plentiful features unique to Australia and retains

561-578: The rhotic approximants [ ɹ ] , [ ɻ ] to be semivowels corresponding to R-colored vowels such as [ ɚ ] . An unrounded central semivowel, [j̈] (or [j˗] ), equivalent to [ɨ] , is uncommon, though rounded [ẅ] (or [w̟] ), equivalent to [ʉ] , is found in Swedish and Norwegian . Semivowels, by definition, contrast with vowels by being non-syllabic. In addition, they are usually shorter than vowels. In languages such as Amharic , Yoruba , and Zuni , semivowels are produced with

594-606: The "coloured" class on the islands who had benefited from their mixed parentage by receiving the rudiments of education.' Linguistically, however, the growth of public education in said standard register resulted in 'a practical bilingualism' that has been described as a typical example of diglossia . By the late twentieth century, as most territories transitioned to sovereignty and adopted English as their official language, 'efforts were made to define norms for Caribbean English usage in public, formal domains, and more specifically examination settings.' These are thought to have culminated in

627-519: The 1996 publication of the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage , commonly deemed the authority on Standard Caribbean English, with the former defining the latter as 'the total body of regional lexicon and usage bound to a common core of syntax and morphology shared with [non-Caribbean forms of standardised English ], but aurally distinguished as a discrete type by certain phonological features.' The earliest scholarly dictionary of Caribbean English

660-507: The Empyre of Guiana of 1596. As English settlements followed shortly thereafter, Caribbean English has been deemed 'the oldest exportation of that language from its British homeland.' Two sorts of anglophone immigrants to the seventeenth-century West Indies have been described in literature – the first, consisting of indentured servants and settlers mainly from southwestern England , predominantly speaking non-standard vernaculars of English;

693-577: The Turks and Caicos. Caribbean English-based creole languages are commonly (in popular literature) or sometimes (in scholarly literature) considered dialects of Caribbean English. The development of Caribbean English is dated to the West Indian exploits of Elizabethan sea dogs , which are credited with introducing to England names for new-found flora and fauna via, for instance, Hakluyt's Principall Navigations of 1589 and Raleigh's Discoverie of

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726-404: The diphthong /e̯a/ with /ja/ , a perceptually similar approximant-vowel sequence. The diphthong is analyzed as a single segment, and the approximant-vowel sequence is analyzed as two separate segments. In addition to phonological justifications for the distinction (such as the diphthong alternating with /e/ in singular-plural pairs), there are phonetic differences between the pair: Although

759-497: The exact details may vary from author to author. For example, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) do not consider the labiodental approximant [ʋ] to be a semivowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet , the diacritic attached to non-syllabic vowel letters is an inverted breve placed below the symbol representing the vowel: U+ 032F ◌̯ COMBINING INVERTED BREVE BELOW . When there

792-656: The grammar styles of United States. Of all [sixteen] World English varieties currently addressed by the OED , delineating a ‘Caribbean English’ provides the greatest challenge [as t]here is vast phonetic and phonological diversity across this region[.] 15°11′14″N 75°10′31″W  /  15.187142636713544°N 75.17538720089601°W  / 15.187142636713544; -75.17538720089601 List of dialects of English Dialects can be defined as "sub-forms of languages which are, in general, mutually comprehensible ." English speakers from different countries and regions use

825-631: The internationally understood variety of Standard English (British English in all former and present British territories and American English in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands ) but with an Afro-Caribbean cadence (Spanish cadence in Puerto Rico and the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina ). The first-order dialects deemed constituent of Caribbean English vary within scholarly literature. For instance,

858-523: The more educated layers of society as well as more formal registers . British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world, excluding countries in which English is spoken natively such as Australia , Canada , Ireland , and New Zealand . In many former British Empire countries in which English is not spoken natively, British English forms are closely followed, alongside numerous American English usages that have become widespread throughout

891-411: The region, all are primarily derived from British English and West African languages . In some countries with a plurality Indian population , such as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana , Caribbean English has further been influenced by Hindustani and other South Asian languages . However, the English that is used in the media, education, and business and in formal or semi-formal discourse approaches

924-474: The second, consisting of colonial administrators, missionaries, and educators, predominantly speaking more standard forms of the language. The former, along with African slaves, are credited with the development and spread of [non-standard-] English-derived creole languages, while the latter are noted as frequent sources of derision of such speech. Caribbean English accents and pronunciation are variable within and across sub-dialects. For instance, Barbadian English

957-488: The semivowel never appears). The two overlap in distribution after /l/ and /n/ : enyesar [ẽɲ ɟʝ eˈsaɾ] ('to plaster') aniego [ãˈn j eɣo] ('flood') and although there is dialectal and idiolectal variation, speakers may also exhibit other near-minimal pairs like ab ye cto ('abject') vs. ab ie rto ('opened'). One potential minimal pair (depending on dialect) is ya visto [ (ɟ)ʝa ˈβisto] ('already seen') vs. y ha visto [ ja ˈβisto] ('and he has seen'). Again, it

990-528: The stage for the seminal Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage , first published 1996. Standard English: ' Where is that boy?' / hw ɛər ɪ z ð æ t b ɔɪ / The written form of the English language in the former and current British-controlled Caribbean countries conforms to the spelling and the grammar styles of Britain and in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands conforms to the spelling and

1023-480: The vowels ee and oo in seen and moon, written / iː uː / in IPA . The term glide may alternatively refer to any type of transitional sound, not necessarily a semivowel. Semivowels form a subclass of approximants . Although "semivowel" and "approximant" are sometimes treated as synonymous, most authors use the term "semivowel" for a more restricted set; there is no universally agreed-upon definition, and

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1056-501: The world, and are used as lingua francas and to determine grammar rules and guidelines. Glides (linguistics) In phonetics and phonology , a semivowel , glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the consonants y and w in yes and west , respectively. Written / j w / in IPA , y and w are near to

1089-578: Was promptly forwarded to Richard Allsopp, who by mid-1967 'already had some ten shoe-boxes each of about 1,000 6 × 4 cards and many loose unfiled cuttings, notes and other material [from Guyana, the Lesser Antilles, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad].' In 1971, Allsopp introduced the Caribbean Lexicography Project as 'a survey of [English] usage in the intermediate and upper ranges of the West Indian speech continuum.' This set

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