Islands is predominantly an English speaking island; however the most popular language spoken over the past 400 years has been a Virgin Islands Creole English, as well as Dutch Creole. The U.S. Virgin Islands became an English speaking country in 1917 when the island was formerly the Danish West Indies. Over the years Virgin Islanders have communicated with each other with a dialect some Virgin Islanders call “broken English”, although some scholars call it Creole English. Virgin Islanders have also
Jenn Beckmann Part 1 2. Define pidgin and creole and explain the difference between them. Pidgins and creoles are both languages that occur when two people of different languages are communicating (p.232). In order to define a pidgin, it is important to look at the process in which a pidgin develops. When contact between speakers of two different languages occurs and they begin to create ways of communication through words and phrases, pre-pidgin is developing. A pidgin develops as a new language
1. Introduction Over the last 10 years the Caribbean Examinations Council has reported that in the English Language Examination which tests students competence in understanding and expression, there are increasing problems. Among these are the ‘low level of ability to differentiate between a descriptive essay and a story’, ‘fewer candidates showed an understanding of the requirements of a descriptive essay’ and ‘organisation was weak’ (CXC, 2014). Although the performance the year before was more
Background information about the African languages that contributed to Gullah. Gullah (or Geechee or Sea Island Creole English) formed separately on the Sea Islands off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida throughout the 18th and 19th centuries among enslaved Western Africans. They developed a language that combined grammatical, phonological, and lexical features of the non-standard English varieties spoken by white slaveholders and farmers in that region of the United States along with those
auxiliaries within the same verb phrase. However, in order to study pragmatic context and linguistic structure of double modals, other researchers compile naturally occurring double modals heard or overheard in conversations. Montgomery does find some difference in usage according to social class: although double modals are used by upper-, middle-, and lower-class speakers, the percentage of usage in LAGS increases as class decreases. Di Paolo believes that all Southerners have used a double modal at least
example of a diglossic situation is in India, where there is a competition between the use of Hindi and English. This began nearly 175 years ago when Thomas Babington Macaulay proposed the Macaulay’s Minute, which was a
vocabulary from one language and supplementing that with vocabulary from another language they are characterized as having a simplified syntax (grammar) (Alleyne, 1966). Although, there is some debate as to what the difference between a pidgin and a creole is, it is generally accepted that creoles are spoken as a first language evolving from a pidgin and are therefore more complex with regards to syntax then a pidgin but still simplified compared to the root language(s) (Carroll,
African American Vernacular English Background: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety previously known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English by sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic community. However, some characteristics of AAVE are seemingly unique in its structure. It also includes a number of standard and nonstandard English varieties are spoken by the US and the Caribbean people. AAVE has been the core of many public debates
1. Introduction African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is one special dialect of American English, and it is different from Standard American English. African American Vernacular English can also be called as Black English, Black Vernacular English or African American Language (AAL).Black English had been discriminated for a long time in history. There was a saying that “Black English is not a language”. The saying is not correct. According to Montgomery, culture should not be biased, but should
be seen as far more complex than in the past, due to the growing number of cultural factors influencing it, language has been a social and cultural phenomenon since its inception. The development of language overtime illustrates the relationship between language and culture. To have a holistic appreciation for language and meaning, this relationship must be understood. It is likely that all human languages developed from one single language (Gee & Hayes, 2011). As human moved, language developed