Saban English


Saban English is the local dialect of English spoken on Saba, an island in the Dutch Caribbean. It belongs to the group of Caribbean English varieties. It has been classified by some linguists as a decreolized form of Virgin Islands Creole English. Other linguists posit that Saban English may have never undergone creolization, and that it is a contact variety of English with substrate effects from West African languages and Dutch. There is one published dictionary of Saban English, A Lee Chip, authored by Theodore R. Johnson.

History

With a long history of geographical and economic isolation from other islands, Saba developed a distinct dialect of English.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, several languages and language varieties may have significantly impacted the development Saban dialect of English: Dutch, British English, Irish English, and Scots English spoken by European settlers, and West African languages and/or Caribbean creoles spoken by enslaved Africans.
While colonial Saba did have at least two plantations, the island never developed a planation economy like many of the surrounding islands. As such, creolization may or may not have occurred between the early European settlers and enslaved Africans on the island; instead Saban English may be a variety of English with substrate effects from Dutch, West African languages, and other Caribbean creoles such as Bajan Creole.
Saba has a land area of. But despite the island's small size, linguists and locals can distinguish differences in the accents of each of the island's four villages: The Bottom, St. Johns, Windwardside, and Hell's Gate. These differences are likely due to the four villages' distinct settlement histories, as well as intra-island isolation into the early 20th century. In addition to pronunciation differences between the villages, the Saban English dictionary notes many lexical differences as well.''''

Phonology

Vowels

The realization of vowels in Saban English is as follows. The vowels below are named by the lexical set they belong to:
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced as either or.
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced as either,, or.
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced as, or is merged with the vowel in ' as.
  • The ' vowel can merge with the ' vowel, being pronounced as.
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced as or.
  • The ' vowel is pronounced as.
  • The ' vowel is pronounced as.
  • The ' vowel: This vowel is either, or.
  • The ' vowel is generally monophthongized to or ; it merges with the ' vowel before nasal consonants, so words like mean and main are often homophonous.
  • The ' vowel is realized as or.
  • The ' vowel is generally merged with the ' vowel as.
  • The ' vowel: The '/' split has been preserved on Saba, but it appears to be undergoing merger.
  • The ' vowel: in rhotic words, it merges with the ' or '; in non-rhotic words it is realized as.
  • The ' is generally or monophthongized to or.
  • The ' and ' vowels are generally merged, and can be realized as either or.
  • The '/' vowel can be pronounced as either or..
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced as either,, or
  • The ' vowel can be pronounced between and or and.
  • The vowel is pronounced as.

    Consonants

The Saban dialect is not purely rhotic nor non-rhotic. Post-vocalic /r/ is absent in unstressed syllables or following front vowels, but pronounced in stressed syllables and following back vowels, with the exception of the words more and farm. Phrase initially, /r/ is pronounced as .
H-dropping is common in Saban dialects. becomes intervocalically and phrase finally, math is pronounced like /maʔ/. T-glottalization is also common intervocally, phrase finally and in clusters: water, hospital, bet and ate are pronounced like , , and .
There is poor distinction between the and sounds in Saban English. The contrast is often neutralized or merged into, or, so village sounds like, or. This also happens in the Vincentian, Bermudian, Bahamian English and other Caribbean Englishes. This results in the word seventh being pronounced as .
Metathesis is a common feature of Saban English and results in words like "ask" sounding like . Nasal backing is common in Saban English: "Town" sounds like and "ground" sounds like . Consonant cluster are often reduced.

Grammar

Ain't is frequently used in negations and can be used in the place of words like didn’t or haven’t. Saban English also makes extensive use of the expression “for to” as in the sentence: This is ready for to come ripe.