Turks and Caicos Creole
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Turks and Caicos Creole | |
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Native to | Turks and Caicos Islands |
Native speakers | (10,700 cited 1995)[1] |
English Creole
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | tch |
Glottolog | turk1310 |
Linguasphere | 52-ABB-ao |
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.
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,[2] 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[citation needed]
Word/phrase | Meaning |
---|---|
switcha/switcher | Lemonade/limeade (combination of sugar water and lime/lemon juice) |
gal/gyal | Girl |
chile/chilen | child/children |
chile | Used to represent emphasis on a sentence (well chile he een tell me nuttin bout that) |
een | aren't (They een goin today) or isn't (That een right) or don't (I een no nuttin bout that) |
vel | well (usually the 'W' and 'V' are exchanged with each other, e.g. vednesday: Wednesday, weil: veil) |
axe | ask |
musse | must be |
scorch | scratch |
jumbee | spirit or ghost. Compare zombie |
References[]
- ^ Turks and Caicos Creole at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
- ^ Ethnologue report for Turks and Caicos Creole English
- Cutler, Cecilia (2003). "English in the Turks and Caicos Islands: A look at Grand Turk". Contact Englishes of the Eastern Caribbean (Varieties of English Around the World) G30, Edited by Michael Aceto, Jeffrey Payne Williams. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027248909.
See also[]
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Turks and Caicos Creole test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
Categories:
- Turks and Caicos Islands culture
- Languages of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- English-based pidgins and creoles
- Languages of the Caribbean
- Languages of the United Kingdom
- Endangered pidgins and creoles
- Languages of the African diaspora
- Pidgin and creole language stubs
- Turks and Caicos Islands stubs