Difference and similarities between Guyanese Guyanese creole and Hawaiian pidgin in linguistic terms of sounds and grammar

Guyanese Guyanese Creole And Hawaiian Pidgin

Introduction

A term relating to people and languages especially in the erstwhile colonial tropics and subtropics, in the Americas, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. In Portuguese, crioulo appears to have referred first to an animal or person born at home, then to a black African slave in Brazil who was born in his or her master's house. In the 17 - 18c, particularly in the West Indies, the term could mean both a descendant of European settlers (Guyanese creole) or a descendant of African slaves (Guyanese creole).

Later, the term came to apply also to life and culture in Guyanese creole societies: for example, the Guyanese creole cuisine of Louisiana. The intricacy of the term is captured by the comment of J. M. Ludlow: 'There are Guyanese creole whites, Guyanese creole negroes, Guyanese creole horses, &c.; and Guyanese creole whites are, of all persons, the most anxious to be deemed of pure white blood' (A Sketch of the History of the United States, 1862). Since the later 19. century, the term has extended to include a language spoken by Guyanese creoles and has acquired a new sense in linguistics, associated with the development of Hawaiian pidgin languages.

Discussion

There are many English-based Guyanese creoles. In West Africa, they include Aku in Gambia, Krio in Sierra Leone, Kru English in Liberia, and Kamtok in Cameroon. In the Caribbean and the neighbouring mainland they include Bajan in Barbados, Guyanese creolese in Guyana, Miskito Coast Guyanese creole in Nicaragua, Sranan in Surinam, Trinbagonian in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Guyanese creoles of the Bay Islands of Honduras. In North America, they include Afro-Seminole, Amerindian Hawaiian pidgin English, and Gullah. In Oceania, they include Bislama in Vanuatu, Broken in the Torres Straits, Hawaii English Guyanese creole, Kriol in Northern Australia, Pijin in the Solomon Islands, and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea. It has been argued that Black English (Vernacular) in the US has Guyanese creole origins since it shares many features with English-based Guyanese creoles in the Caribbean. In the UK, British Black English, spoken by immigrants from the Caribbean and their children, has features inherited from Caribbean English Guyanese creole.

Typical grammatical features in European-based Guyanese creoles include the use of preverbal negation and subject-verb-object word order: for example (from Sranan in ...