Creole Continuum/Dialectal Variation

Question 1

What is the creole continuum?

Answer 1

acrolect -> mesolect -> basilect

it links the more standard end of the linguistic range to the creole end

Essentially within one country for example, Trinidad, there is TSE however, there are or always will be variations, a person from the country as opposed to the city will speak differently

Question 2

Dialect

Answer 2

A dialect is a form of a language spoken by a smaller group. Someone’s accent is a part of their dialect.

Standard dialect, southern American dialect, African American Vernacular English

Question 3

Acrolect

Answer 3

Acrolect is the standard variety of a language. So therefore acrolect will be Jamaican Standard English. Acrolect is spoken more in formal situations, so therefore the Parliamentarian should be using it. This is what people refer to as “good english”.

e.g. Yes, we went to the river today to get some fish for the broth

Question 4

Mesolect

Answer 4

In the middle there we have mesolect, this a a mixture of the Creole and Standard English. However it leans more on the standard English side. You find this more in the urban areas.

e.g. Yeah, we went to de riva today to get some fish for de broth.

Question 5

Basilect

Answer 5

this is basically Creole. It’s used more in the rural areas and if you ever get a question about farmers you assume they speak it.

e.g. Yer gyal, me and he went dung by de riva taday ta geh some fish for de brot

Question 6

Definition for dialect

Answer 6

Dialect is one of the various forms of a particular language, spoken (or written) by a group in the language community