Provincial English Dialects and Barbadian English.

Abstract

Studies of the non-st and ard Englishes of the Atlantic region have insisted on the English-African contact origin, and subsequent input of English and African languages in the process of the development of these languages. But while the contribution of African languages to the non-st and ard English features of these languages has been emphasized, scholars have minimized or neglected the English contribution. This study seeks to determine the nature of the English language brought to the initial seventeenth century contact situation, and thus the nature of the English input in the developing languages and its contribution to the non-st and ardness of the languages. Focusing on the isl and of Barbados where the impact of English and African languages was greatest, the study traces (1) the origins and language of the Barbados seventeenth century English population; (2) analyzes the social and environmental factors impacting on the contact situation and thus the degree of exposure of the African/black population to the language of the English population; (3) presents some grammatical features shared by Barbadian English and the seventeenth and eighteenth century provincial dialect language of the white population; (4) suggests implications for the analysis of the processes of development of Atlantic non-st and ard English languages. The research establishes that the majority of Englishmen in seventeenth century Barbados spoke non-st and ard provincial English dialects, particularly of southwest Engl and . The nature of the seventeenth century contact of Englishmen and the African/black population facilitated the latter's acquiring the language of the former. The similarities in morphological and other features of the seventeenth century dialects and Barbadian English suggest the early acquisition of these non-st and ard features in Barbadian English. Barbadian English developed under a combination of socio-cultural factors not similarly operative in the other English colonies of Plantation America. This effected a comparatively limited African influence in the eighteenth century creolization process, and the development of a language in which the provincial dialect features brought to the contact situation persist in the language. Seventeenth and eighteenth century provincial English dialects were brought to other isl and s and territories of Plantation America, and their non-st and ardness also impacted on the creolization process of these languages. Creolists should then give greater attention to these dialects in order to analyze more accurately the processes of development of these mixed languages.