Дипломная работа: Linguistic Аspects of Black English

Now here is the same passage written in a phonemic orthography devised by Le Page and Cassidy for the Dictionary of Jamaican English (1980):

“Mama a jos kudn stan op an no du notin so mi juk wan ina him ai an him staatid to krai mi tomp wan ina him mout an him staatid tu shout mi kik wan pan him shin an him staatid tu spin mi tomp him pan him chin an him drap pan a bin an krash an DED. Mama Muor pliisman kom doun an biit mi tu di groun dem chaaj Jim fi sos dem chaaj mi fi morda.” (34)

People of Afro‑Caribbean descent who have been born in Britain nearly always learn the local variety of British English as their first language. Usually, they speak and understand Creole as well (though how well they know it varies from person to person) but use it less often than British English. Especially in private, informal conversations, both British English and Creole may be used. When a speaker "switches" from one language variety to another in the course of the same conversation ‑ sometimes even within one sentence ‑ this is called code switching. It is common behaviour among bilinguals of all kinds (though in some communities, it is frowned upon).

The following is an extract from a conversation among some young women in London. Most of the conversation is in British English but the speaker B. switches twice into Creole (underlined):

B it's that same guy that you go back to and have the

best life cause you know that guy you know [ what

C [ yeah

B to expect you two can sit down and (.) sort out

Where you went wrong=

C = yeah that's it, yeah

B an' you might end up marryin' that guy me know who

me want marry a'ready! [softly] so, you know it's

just [ * * * [inaudible]

C [ * * * [inaudible] gonna marry

J you see this is what I'm saying about Graham right,

I don't really know but you know when you see

someone and I tell you I did like Graham from the

First time I saw him, I mean it does take time

gettin' to know the right person

B Let me tell you now wiv every guy I've been out wiv,

it's been a ‑ a ­whole heap o' mont's before I move

wiv the nex' one!

J Next one, yeah!

The two switches to Creole by speaker B are both marked by a noticeable change in the pronunciation (not shown in the transcription), for example, "whole" is pronounced /h l/. In the "British English" parts, the speakers have fairly strong London accents (e.g. "with is pronounced" /w v/) but in the "Creole" parts, the phonemes and intonation patterns are pronounced as in Creole.

Linguists have identified many reasons for code switching. One persuasive theory is that in some bilingual communities, the language which has a longer association with the community (in this case Creole, which has its origin in the Caribbean) is used as a sign of solidarity, to signal membership of a group and show closeness to other group members. Research has shown that in the Afro-Caribbean community, Creole is often used to emphasise an important point (only in informal, personal conversations). There is no "right" or "wrong" answer to the question of why a speaker switches at a particular moment (usually they are not aware of switching). If you know any bilingual speakers, you might try recording them in conversation with other bilinguals to see whether, when, and in what ways they code switch. (16. 37)

The following Creole creative writing narrative was written by a London school pupil of Caribbean descent.

“Bull, Babylon, the Wicked

One manin in January me and my spars dem was coming from a club in Dalston. We didn't have no donsi so we a walk go home. De night did cold and di gal dem wi did have wid we couldn't walk fast. Anyway we must have been walking for about fifteen minutes when dis car pull up, it was this youthman ah know and him woman. We see sey a mini cab him inna. Him sey "How far you ah go?”(30,335)

Me sey "Not far, you ketch we too late man”.