Bajan Creole

Languages

Bajan is the Caribbean creole with grammar that most resembles Standard English. There is academic debate on whether its creole features are due to an earlier pidgin state or to some other reason, such as contact with neighboring English-based creole languages. In one historical model, Bajan arose when captive West Africans were forcibly transported to the island, enslaved and forced to speak English, though learned imperfectly. Bajan later became a means of communicating without always being understood by the slave holders.

Due to emigration to the Province of Carolina, Bajan has influenced American English and the Gullah language spoken in the Carolinas. Regionally, Bajan has ties to Belizean and Guyanese Creoles.

Unlike Jamaica, Guyana or Trinidad, Barbados was the destination of few enslaved African-born captives after 1800. Thus, African Barbadians became "Bajanized" relatively early on in the island's history. This tended to make them less resistant to local culture, with its Anglicised language, religion and customs.

Bajan is a primarily spoken language with no standardised written form. Due to the lack of standardisation, spelling may vary widely from person to person. There is much dialectal variation throughout the island. Barbadians practicing Rastafari on the island also tend to speak more with a Jamaican accent than full Bajan. Bajan words and sentences presented below are largely spelled as they are pronounced. New terminology, expressions, jargon, and idioms are regularly added to the dialect by social commentary sung during the annual Crop Over festival.

Features

As in most English-based Caribbean creoles, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have merged with other consonants (in this case, /t/ and /d/, respectively). Unlike most other Caribbean creoles, Bajan is rhotic. Bajan has a strong tendency to realize word-final /t/ as a glottal stop [ʔ]. Thus the Bajan pronunciation of start, [stɑːɹʔ], contrasts sharply with the pronunciation of other Caribbean speakers, [staːt] or [stɑːt] or [staːɹt].

The word for you (plural) is wuna, similar to Jamaican unnu / unna or Bahamian yinna. They, them, their = /dem/. You, yours = /yu/. Unlike Standard English, Bajan tends towards using a zero copula.

Questions are usually pronounced as a statement with a raised intonation; usually on the last word; to indicate that it is a question e.g. Wunna win de cricket? means "Did you (pl.) win the cricket match?"; dahs yours? means "Is that yours?"

Habitual actions are usually indicated by the word does and done, for example I does guh church punna Sunduh means "I go to church on Sundays", or I went church Sunduh "I went to church on Sunday". It is quite common for this to be shortened to I's guh church pon ah Sunduh. Bajan has a separate locative verb deh e.g. we deh inna de house ('we are in the house')

The tense/aspect system of Bajan is fundamentally unlike that of English. There are no morphological marked past tense forms corresponding to English -ed -t.Verbs in Bajan are not conjugated for tense, which is inferred from time words e.g. I eat all de food yestuhday = "I ate all of the food yesterday", where the word yesterday indicates that the action happened in the past.

The word gine is usually used to mark the future tense e.g. I gine eat = "I am going to eat".

Ain't (frequently shortened to ain') is used as a negative marker e.g. "I didn't do that" becomes I ain' do dat/dah. It is not uncommon for the I and the ain' to be pronounced in Bajan as "Ah'n" i.e. "Ah'n do dah" or "Ah'n able".

Proverbs

Bajan is peppered with a number of colourful proverbs and sayings that have been passed down through the generations. These are just a few examples below:

African words in Bajan

Bajan Creole contains many loanwords, most of which are African in origin. The largest portion contributed to Bajan is from the Igbo language.

wunna

You all from the Igbo word unu, which means You (plural).

obeah

From Igbo Obia, 'doctoring, mysticism, or oracle'.

Bim

From Igbo bé mụ́, 'my place, people, kindred', common nickname for Barbados

de, deh

From Igbo dị̀, 'present in'

eye-water

calque from ányá mmírí (eye + water), tears

duppy

From Twi Adope.

Cou-Cou

Part of the local national dish, but comes from "Fou Fou" in Africa.

nyam

(Pronounced "ng-yam" or "yamm") Means to eat ravenously or greedily, as in "Don't yamm the food like that boy!" – In Manjaku (language spoken in Guinea-Bissau) and in Pulaarit it means to chew (pronounced "nyam"); it also means chew in Luo (language spoken in East Africa).

jook/juk

From the Fula word jukka 'poke, spur'

soso

From the Igbo language word soso 'only'

hard-head

From ísí íké, (head + hard, strength), 'obstinate

okra

From ọkwurụ, a vegetable