Currently, Saban English has gained great relevance in different areas, generating a significant impact on society. Since its emergence, Saban English has sparked numerous debates and reflections, becoming a topic of interest for academics, professionals and the general public. Its influence ranges from cultural and economic to political and environmental aspects, which demonstrates its importance today. In this article, we will analyze the impact of Saban English and its role in shaping various scenarios, with the aim of better understanding its relevance today.
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Saban English | |
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Region | Saba |
Early forms | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | saba1263 |
IETF | en-u-sd-bqsa |
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Saban English is the local dialect of English spoken on Saba, an island in the Dutch Caribbean. It belongs to the group of Caribbean English varieties, and has been classified as a decreolized form of Virgin Islands Creole English. There is one published dictionary of Saban English, A Lee Chip, authored by Theodore R. Johnson.
The Saban dialect is not purely rhotic nor non-rhotic. Post-vocalic /r/ is absent in unstressed syllables or following front vowels, but pronounced in stressed syllables and following back vowels, with the exception of the words more and farm. Phrase initially, /r/ is pronounced as .
H-dropping is common in Saban dialects. becomes intervocalically and phrase finally, math is pronounced like /maʔ/. T-glottalization is also common intervocally, phrase finally and in clusters: water, hospital, bet and ate are pronounced like , , and .
There is poor distinction between the and sounds in Saban English. The contrast is often neutralized or merged into , or , so village sounds like , or . This also happens in the Vincentian, Bermudian, Bahamian English and other Caribbean Englishes. This results in the word seventh being pronounced as .
Metathesis is a common feature of Saban English and results in words like "ask" sounding like . Nasal backing is common in Saban English: "Town" sounds like and "ground" sounds like . Consonant cluster are often reduced.
The realization of vowels in Saban English is as follows. The vowels below are named by the lexical set they belong to:
Ain't (, or ) is frequently used in negations and can be used in the place of words like didn’t or haven’t. Saban English also makes extensive use of the expression “for to” as in the sentence: This is ready for to come ripe.