Please Register / Login to take part in discussions about the Virgin Islands.
*What is the origin or the history of the Virgin Island language or dialect?
We speak English.
Ronnie
Ronnie: Melicer has a legitimate question. Although the official language is English, the dialect spoken among locals is an English creole that developed during the slavery era. Although the Virgin Islands was a Danish colony, English was the main language, and most of the slave masters and planters were from England, Ireland, and Scotland, so the African slaves had to develop this creole to communicate. The sentence structure is quite different from standard English and I believe the structure is based on West African languages. It is debated by many whether it is a dialect or a language of its own. Similar creoles with similar origins are found in other islands like Jamaica and throughout the Lesser Antilles.
Hope this helps,
Dominic
Hello Melicer,
We have a fairly detailed page on language (today & history) in the culture section of this site. Click Here https://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/culture/language.php
--Islander
Dominic: Also, the original overseers were Dutch, so the earliest Creole was a Dutch Creole, which gave way over time to an English-based Creole.
I believe that it is a separate language as it has syntactic and semantic rules which are different from Standard English. Most children here (and in other parts of the Caribbean) are taught that they should not speak "poor English", but that is what they hear all around them. There is a group who believes that Standard English should be taught as ESL. Two languages, different rules. The child learns to code switch, or use the proper language in the proper situation.
There was a great little book I bought many years ago on STJ I think it was titled "What a Pistarkel!" and went into great detail on some of the more unusual word that VIers use. Pistarkel if memory serves me means conflageration/conundrum. A car wreck was called a "mash up". It really was a delightful little book>
Wes: It is a great book- and out of print! There is also a "Supplement" with all the "taboo" words.
Does anyone else remember when there WERE taboo words???
