s - Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu

ANDREI A. AVRAM
UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
The distribution of diagnostic features
in English-lexified contact languages:
The creoles of Trinidad and Tobago
ABSTRACT. This paper presents the earliest attestations in the creoles of Trinidad and
Tobago diagnostic features of English-lexified contact languages proposed by Philip Baker
and Magnus Huber (2001). It compares the distribution of these features in the creoles of
Trinidad and Tobago and in the seven Atlantic English-lexified pidgins and creoles
considered by Baker and Huber (2001). Also included is a discussion of a number of selected
features.
KEYWORDS. Diagnostic features, creole, Atlantic, Caribbean, world-wide
1. Introduction
The creoles of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidadian and Tobagonian, have not
been subject to extensive systematic analysis in comparative work on the Atlantic
English-lexified pidgins and creoles. Moreover, most previous studies of
these varieties focus on synchronic data.
Only a rather limited number of comparative studies have looked at data
from Trinidadian. Thus, Mervyn C. Alleyne (1980), Lise Winer (1984) and
Peter A. Roberts (1988) include occasional remarks on various features occurring
in Trinidadian. Ian Hancock (1987) is an investigation of a number of syntactic
features, on the basis of 50 sentences and phrases in 33 Atlantic Englishlexified
creoles, including Trinidadian. John C. Wells (1987) analyzes eight
phonetic characteristics which exhibit regional variation in several Atlantic
English-lexified contact languages, including Trinidadian. Richard Allsopp
(1996) lists mainly lexical items, phrases and idioms. Andrei Avram (1999 and
2004a) supplements Philip Baker’s (1999) list of first attestations in Atlantic
English-lexified creoles with data from Trinidadian and discusses a number of
selected features.
Similarly, data from Tobagonian have been included in only a few comparative
studies. Various features are mentioned by Alleyne (1980).Tobagonian
figures among the 33 Atlantic English-lexified creoles considered by Hancock
(1987). A comparison of mainly lexical items from Tobagonian and other Atlantic
English-lexified creoles is found in Lise Winer and Glenn G. Gilbert
(1987). Tobagonian lexical items, phrases and idioms are also listed in All-
LANGUAGES IN CONTACT 2011