My Point of View

Trinbagonian Creole English

I wanna tell allyuh about Trinidadian and Tobagonian Creole English.

Our creole is an English-based language, meaning majority of the vocabulary is English, which includes Standard Englsih, American English, and British English. The other languages that make up our creole language is African (West and Central Africa), East Indian (mostly Hindi/Bhojpuri, or what we call Hindustani), Chinese (Hakka and Cantonese), Spanish, Portuguese, French, French Creole (Patois/Patwa depending on your spelling), Arabic, Amerindian, and English and French Creoles from other countries in the Caribbean.

What makes our creole different from others like Jamaica aside from our accents, Trinbagonian Creole has a large vocabulary of East Indian languages that you don't find in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries except Guyana. However, our creole does not have a lotta African vocabulary like Jamaica.

What allyuh will see below is words we use for singular and plural forms of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons:

1st person singular: I, ah, me

2nd person singular: you, yuh

3rd person singular: he, she, him, ee

1st person plural: we, awe, alawe

2nd person plural: allyuh, allyou, ahyou

3rd person plural: dey, dem

There're words that are found all over the Caribbean such as likkle, fi, foo, fuh, fo, for.

Another thing, Trinidad and Tobago Creole is a common language in our country. That means, we share a majority of vocabulary, however, there are words used specifically in either Trinidad or Tobago. This doesn't mean we're restricted from using these words. An example is in Tobago they use the word nyakaty-nyakaty which means filthy-looking, this doesn't restrict a Trinidadian from using this word if they choose and vice-versa.

We have a lotta names for food or ingredients: calaloo, hala, dasheen, roti, dhalpourri, sapodilla, curry, chutney, bacalao, alloo, bake, dumplings, akra, adobo, and carne de vinho e alhosto name a few.

A lot of places in Trinidad and Tobago are not all English names. Tobago changed hands from Spanish, English, French, and Courlanders. Trinidad was once a Spanish colony and there are names still left in Trinidad such as places like San Fernando, San Juan, Rio Claro, La Brea, and Sangre Grande, or we call it Sandy Grandy. During Spanish reign, the government sent a Cedula de Población in 1776 and a wider one in 1783, which encourage development and settlement by Roman Catholics. Most of them were French, which left us names like Blanchisseuse, Charlotteville, Laventille, and Croisee. Others are East Indian like Fyzabad, Debe, and Chaguanas. Lastly, we have places with Amerindian names like Arima and Icacos. This is but a few of the names we have.

So this is but the surface of our language, but mostly I'm tired of al this typing so imma end it here for now. If anything, I'll probably make a part 2 if I'm missing anything.