From English for Dominicans to Dominican English

Abstract

IntroductionDominica was officially ceded to Britain in 1763 at the end of the Seven Years' War, after more than a century of rivalry between that nation and France for possession of it. At that time, three different languages were in general use on the island - Island Carib, the language of the indigenous inhabitants, French, the language of the first European settlers, and Kweyol ('French Creole') or Patwa, spoken by African slaves who had originally come to Dominica mainly from the neighbouring French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.The new administration soon took steps to establish English as the official language. Thus, in 1770, it was decreed that all Deeds, Conveyances and other instruments of writing, except wills and testaments, should be written in English. This Act was repealed during a five- year period of French control from 1778 to 1783, but it was revived on the return of the English. A proclamation in 1771 announced the Anglicisation of several place-names, but this was largely unsuccessful, as most of the places mentioned in it have retained their original names to this day. They include the capital Roseau, which was to have been renamed Charlotte ville after the wife of the English king. Portsmouth, the second town, on what was then labelled Prince Rupert's Bay, is still popularly known as Gwantans, a name derived from the French Grande Anse.The English language faced stiff competition from French, largely due in the first place to the continuing influence of the French settlers. These had been offered renewable leases for an initial period of not less than seven years, on condition that they consented to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England. These leases covered a maximum of three hundred acres and it was further decreed that each lessee, his heirs or assigns, should pay to the King of England, his heirs or successors, the sum of two shillings sterling per annum for every two acres of land of which the lease consisted. The French residents were, moreover, forbidden, for a limited period, to dispose of their land without the governor's permission. Many of them complied and stayed on, despite having been denied political power (Baker 1 994: 63). Their loyalty to the British remained shaky, however, especially during three unsuccessful attempts by French invaders to capture the island between 1793 and 1805, during the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars.These French settlers were mainly small-holders. However, they not only outnumbered the English but also had the most valuable plantations. This resulted from the profitability of their coffee production, which lasted until well into the nineteenth century. An anonymous writer commented as follows:In Dominica which was first settled by the French, many of the coffee planters are still Frenchmen or their descendants, speaking the French language, and being French in manners and habits, as are also their slaves, though living in a British colony. (A Resident, 1828:222-3)According to Trouillot (1988: 54), at the time of the abolition of slavery in 1834, coffee production still accounted for a half of Dominica's export revenues. However, the importance of the French planters declined by the end of the nineteenth century after their coffee plantations had been attacked by blight.A far more lasting barrier to the spread of English than French, as such, was the 1 French-lexifier Creole (Kweyol) spoken by the vast majority of African slaves. According to Borome (1 967: 37), in 1 763, the population of Dominica had consisted of 1,718 Whites, 500 free Negroes and 5,872 slaves. The slave population, therefore, even then, outnumbered Europeans 3:1. Many additional Africans who landed on the island after Roseau and Portsmouth became free ports in 1766, were destined for other islands; but the number actually living on Dominica rose sharply after the establishment of labour-intensive sugar plantations during the first decade of British rule. …

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