Dominican English Creole Phonology: An Initial Sketch

Abstract

0. This paper will present an initial sketch of the English spoken on the island of Dominica, W. I. Dominica is not known for the fact that its population speaks an English creole, but for the fact that its population speaks a French creole ( described extensively by Taylor 1947, 1951, 1955, also by Goodman 1964 and by Amastae 1975). The official language of Dominica is English, but the English of the bulk of the population often differs considerably from received Standard English. The only sustained treatment I know of ( Carrington 1969) considers Dominican English primarily as an 'interference phenomenon' a transitory language variety which is the result of the interference of French creole with speakers' attempts. to learn standard English. While I do not deny that there are in Dominican English many instances of interference, my basic argument is that Dominican English is a creole in its own right (hereafter DEC). I will discuss for the most part only the basilect ( in effect, that variety of creole which is furthest away, or most different from Standard English) of the creole, although I will have some occasion to refer to the decreolizing continuum ( see Bickerton 1973, 1975 for full explanation of these terms; see also footnote 9 for another reference to the variety).

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