Cover not available

Article published In: English World-Wide
Vol. 37:2 (2016) ► pp.168–196

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Diagnostic features of English-lexifier Creoles

Evidence from Antiguan

 | University of Bucharest
Published online: 30 June 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.37.2.03avr
This paper analyzes the attestations in Antiguan of the diagnostic features of English-lexifier contact languages, as proposed by Baker and Huber (2001). It compares the distribution of these features in Antiguan and the seven Atlantic English-lexifier Pidgins and Creoles considered by Baker and Huber (2001). The features identified serve as quantitative measures of the affinity between Antiguan and two Creoles, Bajan and Kittitian, which contributed to its emergence, and between Antiguan and Vincentian, a Creole with significant Antiguan input. A number of selected diagnostic features found in Antiguan are discussed. It is shown that data from Antiguan are relevant to the distribution of diagnostic features across English-lexifier Pidgins and Creoles as well as to their adequate classification.
References (71)
Aceto, Michael. 1999. “The Gold Coast Lexical Contribution to the Atlantic English Creoles”. In Manus Huber, and Mikael Parkvall, eds. Spreading the Word. The Issue of Diffusion among the Atlantic Creoles. London: University of Westminster Press, 69–80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008a. “Eastern Caribbean English-Derived Language Varieties: Phonology”. In Edgar W. Schneider, ed. Varieties of English. Vol. 2: The Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 290–311.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. “Eastern Caribbean English-Derived Language Varieties: Morphology and Syntax”. In Edgar W. Schneider, ed. Varieties of English. Vol. 2. The Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 645–660.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alleyne, Mervyn C. 1980. Comparative Afro-American: An Historical Study of English-Based Dialects of the New World. Ann Arbor: Karoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allsopp, Richard. 1980. “How Does the Creole Lexicon Expand?”. In Albert Valdman, and Albert Highfield, eds. Theoretical Orientations in Creole Studies. New York: Academic Press, 89–107.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andrews, James B. 1880. “Ananci stories”. The Folk-lore Record III1: 53–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antigua Guide. 2004. <[URL]> (accessed February 10, 2012).
Antigua Ppl a da Best Jack…One Ton a Ole Time Saying ya. 2011. <[URL]> (accessed March 2, 2012).
Antiguan Sayings/Old People Talking. 2011. <[URL]> (accessed March 3, 2012).
. 2012. “The Distribution of Diagnostic Features in English-Lexified Contact Languages: The Creoles of Trinidad and Tobago”. In Piotr P. Chruszczewski, and Zdzisław Wąsik, eds. Languages in Contact 2011. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły we Wrocławiu, 9–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Diagnostic Features of English-Lexifier Creoles: A New Look at Bahamian”. Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics XV(1): 133–153.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Diagnostic Features of English-Lexifier Contact Languages: Grenada English Creole”. Linguistica Atlantica 331: 2–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015a. “The Distribution of Diagnostic Features in English-Lexified Contact Languages: Vincentian”. In Paula Prescod, ed. Language Issues in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 113–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015b. “On the Eastern vs. Western Caribbean Creoles Divide”. In Marinela Burada, Oana Tatu, and Raluca Sinu, eds. 11th Conference on British and American Studies – Embracing Multitudes of Meaning. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 8–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Philip. 1999. “Investigating the Origin and Diffusion of Shared Features among the Atlantic English Creoles”. In Philip Baker, and Adrienne Bruyn, eds. St Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles. The Texts of Samuel Augustus Mathews in Perspective. London: University of Westminster Press, 315–364.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Philip, and Lee Pederson. 2013. Talk of St Kitts and Nevis. London and Colombo: Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Philip, and Lise Winer. 1999. “Separating the Wheat from the Chaff. How far Can we Rely on Old Pidgin and Creole Texts?”. In Philip Baker, and Adrienne Bruyn, eds. St Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles. The Texts of Samuel Augustus Mathews in Perspective. London: University of Westminster Press, 103–122.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartens, Angela, and Joseph T. Farquharson. 2012. “African Words in the English-Lexifier Creoles of San Andrés, Providence, and Nicaragua and other Western Caribbean Varieties”. In Angela Bartens, and Philip Baker, eds. Black through White. African Words and Calques which Survived Slavery in Creoles and Transplanted European Languages. London: Battlebridge Publications, 169–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederick G. 1971. “Tracing the Pidgin Element in Jamaican Creole (with Notes on the Method and the Nature of Pidgin Vocabularies)”. In Dell Hymes, ed. Pidginization and Creolization of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 203–221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coleridge, Henry N. 1826. Six Months in the West Indies in 1825. London: John Murray.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cooper, Vincent O. 1999. “St Kitts: The Launching Pad for Leeward Islands Creoles”. In Philip Baker, and Adrienne Bruyn, eds. St Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles. The Texts of Samuel Augustus Mathews in Perspective. London: University of Westminster Press, 379–386.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruickshank, J. Graham. 1916. ‘Black Talk’: Being Notes on Negro Dialect in British Guiana. Demerara: “The Argosy” Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Day, Charles William. 1852. Five Years’ Residence in the West Indies. Vol. II1. London: Colburn & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dictionary of Antiguan Twang/Dialect. 2011. <[URL]> (accessed March 4, 2012).
Farquhar, Bernadette. 1974. “A Grammar of Antiguan Creole”. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University.
Farquharson, Joseph T. 2012. “The African Lexis in Jamaicam: Its Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Significance”. Ph.D. dissertation, The Universities of the West Indies.
Galarza Ballester, Maria Teresa. 2011. “Antiguan Creole: Genesis and Variation”. Ph.D. dissertation, Universitat de Valencia.
Galarza Ballester. 2014. “An Outline of the Social History of the Creole Language of Antigua (West Indies)”. Lengua y migración 61: 81–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaspar, David Barry. 1978. “The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance”. The William and Mary Quarterly 351: 308–323. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985. Bondmen and Rebels. A Study of Master-Slaves Relations in Antigua. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzales, Ambrose. 1922. The Black Border: Gullah Stories of the Carolina Coast (with a Glossary). Columbia: The State Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, Ian. 1987. “A Preliminary Classification of the Anglophone Atlantic Creoles, with Syntactic Data from 33 Representative Dialects”. In Glenn G. Gilbert, ed. Pidgin and Creole Languages: Essays in Memory of John E. Reinecke. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 264–333.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hillhouse, Joanne C. 2008. “Not simply Bad English, Part 5”. The Daily Observer, 5 December 2008.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holm, John. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles. Vol. II: Reference Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “Atlantic Meets Pacific: Lexicon Common to the English-Based Pidgins and Creoles”. Language Sciences 141: 185–196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
If you’re a True Antiguan, you Haffu Min Get Licks/Blow at some Point in ur Life. Tell us about the Worst Set of Licks. 2011. <[URL]> (accessed March 22, 2012).
Jeremiah, Milford Astor. 1976. “The Linguistic Relatedness of Black English and Antiguan Creole: Evidence from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries”. Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University.
Johnson, John. 1921. “Folk-lore from Antigua, British West Indies”. Journal of American Folk-Lore 341: 40–88. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kincaid, Jamaica. 1997. My Brother. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kras, Sara L. 2009. Cultures of the World. Antigua and Barbuda. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanaghan, Frances. 1844. Antigua and the Antiguans. London: Saunders and Otley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luffman, John. 1788. A Brief Account of the Island of Antigua. London: Published by the Author.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massiah-Headley, Fransene. 2007. The Sweetest Food. <[URL]> (accessed April 14, 2012).
Massiah-Headley. 2008. No Culture!. <[URL]> (accessed April 14, 2012).
Norton, Andre. 2009. I Return. <[URL]> (accessed April 19, 2012).
Oliver, Vere Langford. 1894. The History of the Island of Antigua. Vol. I1. London: Mitchell and Hughes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkvall, Mikael. 2000. Out of Africa. African Influences in Atlantic Creoles. London: Battlebridge Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parkvall, Mikael, and Philip Baker. 2012. “Idiomatic (Potential) Calques and Semantic Borrowing”. In Angela Bartens, and Philip Baker, eds. Black through White. African Words and Calques which Survived Slavery in Creoles and Transplanted European Languages. London: Battlebridge Publications, 231–248.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie C. 1933. Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English (Part I). New York: American Folk-Lore Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1936. Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English (Part II). New York: American Folk-Lore Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1943. Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English (Part III). New York: American Folk-Lore Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prince, Mary. 1831. The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave (3rd ed.). London: F. Westley and A. H. Davis; Edinburgh: Waugh & Innes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reismann, Karl. 1964. “‘The Isle is Full of Noises’: A Study of Creole in the Speech Patterns of Antigua, West Indies”. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University.
Rickford, John. 1986. “Short Note”. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 11: 159–163. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, Peter A. 1988. West Indians & their Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. From Oral to Literate Culture. Colonial Experience in the English West Indies. Kingston: The Press University of the West Indies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schaw, Janet. 1774/1923. Journal of a Lady of Quality. Evangeline Walker Andrews ed., in collaboration with Charles McLean Andrews. New York: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith-Lewis, Denise. 2009. I Love my Island in the Sun. <[URL]> (accessed April 19, 2012).
Sturge, Joseph, and Thomas Harvey. 1838. The West Indies in 1837. London: Dawsons.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Summer Job Dip Gives Students the Blues. 2009. <[URL]> (accessed March 25, 2012).
Thanks for the D-Word Article. 2010. <[URL]> (accessed March 25, 2012).
Thone, James A., and Horace J. Kimball. 1839. Emancipation in the West Indies. New York: The American Anti-Slavery Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watson, Richard. 1817. A Defence of the Wesleyan Methodist Missions in the West Indies. London: Thomas Cordeux.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wentworth, Trelawney. 1834. The West India Sketch Book. Vol. II1. London: Whittaker.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winer, Lise 1995. “ Penny Cuts: Differentiation of Creole Varieties in Trinidad, 1904–1906”. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 101: 127–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiwords the Caribbean Dictionary. 2008. <[URL]> (accessed September 30, 2014).
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Bayeck, Rebecca Y.
2022. Positionality: The Interplay of Space, Context and Identity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue