Барбадосский креольский язык: особенности и история

English based creole of Barbados

Bajan '/b//eɪ//dʒ//ə//n/, or Bajan Creole, is an English based creole language with African and British influences spoken on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Bajan is primarily a spoken language, meaning that in general, standard English is used in print, in the media, in the judicial system, in government, and in day to day business, while Bajan is reserved for less formal situations, in music, or in social commentary. Ethnologue reports that, as of 2018, 30,000 Barbadians were native English speakers, while 260,000 natively spoke Bajan.

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 neighbouring English based creole languages. 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 "Bajanised" relatively soon after British colonization. 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 practising 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.

As in most English based Caribbean creoles, the interdentals and (as in "thing", and "the" respectively) have merged with other consonants (in this case, and , respectively, resulting in "ting" and "de"). Unlike most other Caribbean creoles, Bajan is fully rhotic, and if anything more rhotic than North American Standard English. Bajan also has a strong tendency to realize syllable final as a glottal stop Thus the Bajan pronunciation of start, , contrasts sharply with the pronunciation of other Caribbean speakers, or or .

The structure of questions in Bajan Dialect varies from that of Standard English, as it is generally the same format as regular statements. Questions seeking yes or no answers are usually pronounced as a statement with only a raised intonation to differentiate, usually on the last word. For example, Wunna win de cricket? means "Did you (pl.) win the cricket match? "; das yours? means "Is that yours?" On the other hand, questions asking for information, i. e. who, what, when, where, why or how, usually begin with a 'question word/phrase', saying what is being asked for, followed by a partial, or incomplete statement. For example, "Wha he wan?" means "What does he want?" or "He wants what?" Some question words, however, do not exist, or are seldom used in Bajan dialect, including when, where and why, and are achieved by making questions beginning with "wha" (what). For example, "Wha time you see he?" means "When did you see him? ", and "Wha part de Chefette?" means "Where is the Chefette?" In addition, "why" questions can be achieved by asking "how come". For example, "How come you get hay so late?”

Some of the common Bajan proverbs are listed below. Proverbs Meaning De higha de monkey climb, de more he show he tail The more you show off the more you show your faults. Gol' (gold) teet (teeth) doan suit hog mout (mouth) Fancy things don't suit those that aren't accustomed to them. Cat luck ain' dog luck What one person may get away with may cause problems for another. Wuh ain' miss you, ain' pass youJust because you got away with something so far does not mean that it won't catch up with you later. Ef greedy wait hot wud (would) cool Patience will be rewarded. A eyeful en' a bellyful Seeing is one thing, having it in your possession is another thing.