Bahamian English or Bahamian Creole? A Socio-Historical Investigation

Abstract

In this paper I propose to examine particular socio-historical conditions prevailing in the formative years of the Afro-Bahamian contact situation that contributed to the evolution of the Afro-Bahamian speech variety. Through such an investigation I attempt to shed some light on the question posed in the title, which seeks to identify the genesis of Afro-Bahamian, more specifically, the question of whether the linguistic system of the Bahamian slave society in the eighteenth century was genetically and topologically related to an English grammar or to an African grammar. A number of socio-historical factors were linguistically significant during the early years of colonization of the Bahama Islands which created a contact situation far removed from that of plantation colonialism in the Caribbean Islands. To this end I consider early settlement of the islands, the economic and social organization, the relative distribution of the African and English populations, codes of social interaction and settlement patterns. These factors, in varying degrees, contributed to the distinct acculturative processes resulting in a unique Afro-Bahamian speech variety, locally referred to as Bahamian dialect. Given the archipelagic nature of the Bahama Islands, and the relative isolation of one from the other during the eighteenth century, I further consider differences in socio-historical circumstances among the islands that contributed to differences in emerging linguistic system of the slave society. This investigation is confined to three areas: the northeast islands (Harbour Island and Eleuthera), New Providence and the southeast islands (Cat Island, Exuma, San Salvador, Long Island, Crooked Island and Caicos).