Trinidadian and Tobagonian English

Dialect of the English language used in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidadian and Tobagonian English

Region| Trinidad and Tobago

Language family

Indo-European

* Germanic
* West Germanic
* North Sea Germanic
* Anglo–Frisian
* Anglic
* English
* Caribbean English
* Trinidadian and Tobagonian English

Early forms

Old English

* Middle English
* Early Modern English

Dialects|

* Trinidadian English Creole
* Tobagonian English Creole

Writing system

| Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille[1]
Official status

Official language in

|  Trinidad and Tobago (de facto)
Language codes
ISO 639-3| –
Glottolog| None
IETF| `en-TT`
Part of a series on the

English language
Features

* Phonology
* history
* Grammar
* Vocabulary
* Orthography
* English alphabet

Societal aspects

* History
* English-speaking world
* Commonwealth
* As a second language
* teaching
* As a lingua franca
* Linguistic purism

Dialects (full list)

* American
* AAVE
* Southern
* Australian
* Bangladeshi
* British
* in England
* Scottish
* Welsh
* Cameroonian
* Canadian
* Caribbean
* Belizean
* Trinidadian and Tobagonian
* Jamaican
* Fijian
* Ghanaian
* Hong Kong
* Indian
* Irish
* Kenyan
* Liberian
* Malawian
* Malaysian
* Namibian
* Nepali
* New Zealand
* Nigerian
* Pakistani
* Philippine
* Sierra Leonean
* Singapore
* South African
* Sri Lankan
* Ugandan
* Zimbabwean

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Trinidadian and Tobagonian English (TE) or Trinidadian and Tobagonian Standard English is a dialect of English used in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidadian and Tobagonian English co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely Trinidadian Creole in Trinidad and Tobagonian Creole in Tobago.[2][3][4]

## History

[edit]

Trinidadian English was initially based on a standard of British English, including having a non-rhotic accent.[5] In the Americas, TE now uses many Americanisms, including apartment and trunk (of a car).[6] It is understandable by speakers of international standard English, although it uses a number of terms that are unique to it (perhaps coming from Trinidadian Creole), such as "to lime," meaning "to hang out."[7]

Speech in Trinidad (and, to some degree, in Tobago) may vary by location and circumstance and is often remarked for its "sing-song" (i.e., a rising and falling inflection) intonation. While this may be true, it is not fully clear what prosodic aspects results in this lay reaction from listeners, but it is suggested that both phonological and phonetic characteristics of Trinidadian English and Trinidadian Creole may play a role. Phonologically, Trinidadian English is said to have a high frequency of intonation such as phrase final rises in declarative utterances. Phonetically, the degree of pitch variation may also contribute to this "sing song" perception of the language variety.[8]

## See also

[edit]

* Regional accents of English speakers

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Unified English Braille (UEB)". Braille Authority of North America (BANA). 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
2. ^ Schneider, Edgar W. (April 2024). "Trinidad and Tobago, English and Creoles in". The Handbook of World Englishes. ResearchGate. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
3. ^ "Trinidadian Creole Language". Trinidadian Creole at York College. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
4. ^ Ferreira, Jo-Anne S. (2004). "A Description of Trinidadian English Pronunciation". Academia.edu. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
5. ^ Ferreira, Jo-Anne S. (2004). "A Description of Trinidadian English Pronunciation". Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
6. ^ "Trinidadian English". MoreBooks. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
7. ^ Mendes-Franco, Janine (9 September 2021). "The origins of 'liming' in Trinidad and Tobago". Global Voices. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
8. ^ Meer, Philipp; Fuchs, Robert (19 March 2021). "The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties". Language and Speech. 65 (4): 923–957\. doi:10.1177/0023830921998404. ISSN 0023-8309. PMC 9669731. PMID 33736507. S2CID 232303780.

## Sources

[edit]

* Mendes, John (1986). Cote ce Cote la: Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary. Arima, Trinidad.
* Solomon, Denis. The Speech of Trinidad: A Reference Grammar (ISBN 9766200289). Port-of-Spain: UWI School of Continuing Studies, 1993.
* James, Winford, 2001, Trinidad and Tobago Standard English?.
* James, Winford, 2003, Doing our own thing with English I.
* James, Winford, 2003, Doing our own thing with English II.
* James, Winford, 2004, What kind of question is this?.
* James, Winford, 2004, What kind of question is this? Pt2.

## External links

[edit]

* A Trinidadian accent
* Discussion of a paper by Lise Winer
* An Ethnolinguistic Study of the Trinidadian Creole community in Flatbush, Brooklyn by Keisha T. Lindsay and Justine Bolusi
* Frequently Asked Questions on Caribbean Language by the Society for Caribbean Linguistics
* Wiwords A cross-referencing dictionary of West Indian words with a large number of Trinidadian terms
* The Sociolinguistic Situation of Trinidad and Tobago. 1997.
* Phonological Hypercorrection in the Process of Decreolization--the Case of Trinidadian English.

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Dialects and accents of Modern English by continent

Europe|

| Great
Britain|

| England|

| North|

* Cheshire
* Cumbria
* Barrow
* Lancashire
* Liverpool/Scouse
* Manchester
* Northumbria
* Pitmatic
* Sunderland
* Tyneside/Geordie
* Teesside
* Yorkshire

|

Midlands|

* East Midlands
* West Midlands
* Birmingham
* Black Country
* Stoke-on-Trent

South|

* East Anglia
* London & Thames Estuary
* Cockney
* Multicultural
* Received Pronunciation
* West Country
* Cornwall
* Dorset

Scotland|

* Glasgow
* Highlands

Wales|

* Abercraf
* Cardiff
* Gower
* Port Talbot

Ireland|

* Dublin
* South-West
* Ulster

* Channel Islands
* Gibraltar
* Isle of Man
* Malta

Americas|

| North
America|

| Canada|

* Aboriginal
* Atlantic
* Lunenburg
* Newfoundland
* Multicultural Toronto
* Ottawa Valley
* Quebec
* Standard Canadian

|

United
States|

* Midland
* New England
* Boston
* East
* Maine
* West
* New York City
* accent
* North
* Inland North
* North-Central
* Philadelphia
* Baltimore
* South
* accent
* Appalachia
* Chesapeake/Outer Banks
* New Orleans
* Older South
* Texas
* West
* California
* Pacific Northwest
* Western Pennsylvania

Social and
ethno-cultural|

* African-American
* Vernacular
* American Indian
* Cajun
* Chicano
* General American
* Good American Speech
* Miami Latino
* New York Latino
* Northeastern elite
* Pennsylvania Dutch

Caribbean|

* Antigua and Barbuda
* The Bahamas
* Barbados
* Bequia
* Cayman Islands
* Bay Islands
* Jamaica
* Saba
* Samaná
* Trinidad and Tobago

* Bermuda
* Falkland Islands

Oceania|

| Australia|

* variation
* accent
* Aboriginal
* South
* Torres Strait
* West

|

* Fiji
* New Zealand
* accent
* Palau
* Solomon Islands

Africa|

* Cameroon
* The Gambia
* Ghana
* Kenya
* Liberia
* Malawi
* Namibia
* Nigeria
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa
* accent
* Cape Flats
* South Atlantic
* Uganda
* Zimbabwe

Asia|

| East Asia|

* Hong Kong

|

South Asia|

* Bangladesh
* India
* regional and occupational
* Maldives
* Nepal
* Pakistan
* Sri Lanka

Southeast Asia|

* Brunei
* Cambodia
* Malaysia
* Myanmar
* Philippines
* Singapore
* Thailand

Antarctica|

* Antarctica

Related|

* English language
* Basic
* Broad and general accents
* Commonwealth
* Comparison of American and British English
* E-Prime
* Engrish
* English as a lingua franca
* English-based creole languages
* Englishisation
* Globish
* Gogate
* Nerrière
* International
* Jewish English (Yeshiva English)
* Learning
* Linguistic purism in English
* List of English-based pidgins
* Non-native pronunciations of English
* Plain
* Standard

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