Virgin Islands Creole English
| Virgin Islands Creole | |
|---|---|
| Netherlands Antilles Creole English | |
| Native to | British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rican Virgin Islands, Saba, Saint Martin, Sint Eustatius, Virgin Islands and SSS islands diaspora |
|
Native speakers
|
(76,000 cited 1980–2011) |
|
English Creole
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | virg1240 |
| Linguasphere | 52-AAB-apa to -ape and 52-AAB-apg to api (SSS varieties) |
Virgin Islands Creole, or Virgin Islands Creole English, is an English-based creole consisting of several varieties spoken in the Virgin Islands and the nearby SSS islands of Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius, where it is known as Saban English, Saint Martin English, and Statian English, respectively.
The term "Virgin Islands Creole" is formal terminology used by scholars and academics, and is rarely used in everyday speech. Informally, the creole is known by the term dialect, as the creole is often perceived by locals as a dialect variety of English instead of an English creole language. However, academic sociohistorical and linguistic research suggests that it is in fact an English creole language.
Because there are several varieties of Virgin Islands Creole, it is also colloquially known by the specific island on which it is spoken: Crucian dialect, Thomian dialect, Tortolian dialect, Saint Martin dialect, Saba dialect, Statia dialect.
The creole was formed when enslaved Africans, unable to communicate with each other and their European owners due to being taken from different regions of West Africa with different languages, created an English-based pidgin with West African-derived words and grammatical structure. This was creolized as it was passed on to subsequent generations as their native tongue.
St. Thomas and St. John, although Danish colonies, had a European population of mainly Dutch origin, which led to enslaved Africans first creating a Dutch-based creole, known as Negerhollands (now considered a dead language, although there may be a few who recall some of the vocabulary and may have passed it down to the next generation). Negerhollands was in mainstream usage on St. Thomas and St. John up until the 19th century, when the British occupied the Danish West Indies from 1801 to 1802 and 1807 to 1815. In addition, as English became preferred as a trade and business language in the busy port of Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands Creole became established in preference to Negerhollands. Some of the population continued to use Negerhollands well into the 20th century.
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