Belizean English

The development of Caribbean English, including Belizean English, is dated to the West Indian exploits of Elizabethan sea dogs, which are credited with introducing to England names for Caribbean flora, fauna, and various other things via, for instance, Hakluyt's Principall Navigations of 1589 and Raleigh's Discoverie of the Empyre of Guiana of 1596.{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|p=xl}} As English settlements followed shortly thereafter, Caribbean English has been deemed 'the oldest exportation of that language from its British homeland.'{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|pp=xl-xli}}

Pronunciation in Belizean English tends towards Caribbean English, except that the former is non-rhotic.{{sfn|McArthur|Lam-McArthur|Fontaine|2018|loc=entry on 'Caribbean English'}}{{notetag|{{harvnb|McArthur|Lam-McArthur|Fontaine|2018|loc=entry on 'Caribbean English'}} describe the distinctive features of West Indian pronunciation as –

1. rhythm tends to be syllable-timed,
2. there are fewer diphthongs than in Received Pronunciation,
3. final consonant clusters tend to be reduced,
4. there is a preference for a clear /l/ in words like milk, fill, rather than the dark /l/ of Received Pronunciation.

}}

In 2013, it was noted that spoken Belizean English is heavily influenced by Belizean Creole, as 'both the lexicon and syntactic constructions often follow creole.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}} The influence has been deemed strong enough to argue 'that spoken [Belizean] English is simply a register of creole, relexified and restructured through contact with mainstream [non-Belizean] English.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}}{{sfn|Schneider|2017|p=63}}{{notetag|{{harvnb|Blench|2013|p=2}}, for instance, recommends the treatment of Belizean English and Belizean Creole 'as registers of one another,' arguing that 'purely in dialectal terms this [the claim of Creole's being distinct to English] is simply not true, as the Creole and Belizean English share almost all their lexicon and grammar.' Further, {{harvnb|Schneider|2017|p=69}} notes that 'it can be difficult to distinguish [Belizean] Kriol and [Belizean] English in structural terms.' {{harvnb|Schneider|2017|p=69}} additionally observes 'a widespread insecurity [among Belizeans] when it comes to defining what is [Belizean] English and what is [Belizean] Kriol.' {{harvnb|Schneider|2017|pp=69–70}} posits – {{blockquote|It seems that in informal forms of everyday language practice, many speakers in Belize have developed a kind of fused lect where grammatical differences between the codes [English and Kriol] do not necessarily have a boundary marking function and where, therefore, it has become difficult to differentiate codes. Indeed, [...] it can be maintained that what would elsewhere [outside of Belize] be regarded as non-standard forms [of English] (e.g. lack of subject-verb agreement) is appropriate, for example, in public governmental signage or in school signposts, while most of the lexical forms that are defined as Kriol in explicit language ideological discourse are in fact the same as in English, sometimes (but not always) with a slightly different pronunciation.|{{harvnb|Schneider|2017|pp=69–70}}}} {{harvnb|Schneider|2017|pp=69–70}} go on to suggest that the English–Kriol boundary may be pragmatically marked by 'sound features like pitch, intonation and speed rhythm,' rather than by structural differences such as grammar.}} However, it has been further noted that one may describe this phenomenon 'from the opposite perspective and claim [Belizean] creole to be a register of [Belizean] English.'{{sfn|Schneider|2017|p=63}}

The largest proportion of the lexicon unique to Belizean English is thought to name local flora, fauna, and cuisine.{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}} Notably, the most significant donor language to this portion of Belizean English lexicon is thought to be the Miskito language, not Mayan languages, 'as might be expected.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=3}} Other donor languages include Mayan languages, African languages (via Jamaican English), and Spanish (particularly for cuisine).{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=3}}{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|pp=xli-xlii}}{{notetag|African languages, however, are deemed the most significant donor languages to Caribbean English {{harv|Allsopp|2003|p=xxxii}}.}}

In 2013, it was noted that spelling in official contexts, such as in government, tended to follow British conventions, while that in commercial spaces tended to prefer American usage, with spelling in popular written media described as 'highly inconsistent, following the conventions of the writer.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}}{{notetag|{{harvnb|Allsopp|2003|p=xix}} observed that over 90 per cent of dictionaries used in the West Indies, including Belize, were published in England.}}

In 2017, it was noted that – {{blockquote|[The emergence of Belizean English as a distinct dialect] is highly contested among Belizeans and perceived as discrediting by most of [the informants in a 2017 sociolinguistic study] – the status of exogamous 'proper' English is high and most of [the study's] informants perceived the suggestion that there is an endogamous variety as almost offensive.|Britta Schneider in 2017.{{sfn|Schneider|2017|p=71}}}}

The aforementioned study suggested that such attitude towards Belizean English might be related to attitudes towards code-switching between English and Kriol, as the latter was described by the study's Belizean informants 'as an index for educational attainment and therefore for class, as it apparently requires formal training to learn to differentiate the two [ie English and Kriol].'{{sfn|Schneider|2017|p=71}} However, the social regard for exogamous dialects of English is thought to be decreasing in Belize, though this has been linked to a concomitant rise in the prestige of Belizean Creole, rather than that of Belizean English.{{sfn|Schneider|2021|pp=29-30}}{{notetag|However, the former is popularly regarded by Belizeans as 'a dialect of English' {{harv|Schneider|2021|pp=32, 35}}. Further, {{harv|Schneider|2021|pp=31–32}} posits that this association with English may partly explain Kriol's increasing prestige.}}

The earliest scholarly dictionary of Caribbean English is thought to have been the 1967 Dictionary of Jamaican English.{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|p=xx}} During Easter of that same year, the Caribbean Association of Headmasters and Headmistresses resolved – {{blockquote|Be it resolved that this Association request the appropriate department of the University of the West Indies to compile a list of lexical items in each territory and to circulate these to schools for the guidance of teachers.|Resolution 6 of the CAHH Conference of Easter 1967.{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|pp=xx-xxi}}}}

Said resolution was promptly forwarded to Richard Allsopp, who by mid-1967 'already had some ten shoe-boxes each of about 1,000 6 × 4 cards and many loose unfiled cuttings, notes and other material [from Guyana, the Lesser Antilles, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad].'{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|p=xxi}} In 1971, Allsopp introduced the Caribbean Lexicography Project as 'a survey of [English] usage in the intermediate and upper ranges of the West Indian speech continuum.'{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|p=xxi}}{{sfn|Ammon|Dittmar|Mattheier|Trudgill|2006|p=2088}} This set the stage for the seminal Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, first published 1996.{{sfn|Allsopp|2003|pp=catalogue page, xxii}}{{notetag|{{harvnb|Allsopp|2003|p=xxxi}} likens the publication to that of Webster's in 1828, the Dictionary of Canadian English in 1967, and the Australian National Dictionary in 1988.}}

In 2013, it was noted that Belizean English may not constitute a single dialect.{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}} For instance, the English spoken in Garifuna-majority settlements in the southeastern coast of Belize 'includes distinctive borrowings which are not found elsewhere in the country.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=2}} It was further noted that, though Belizean English is not a tonal language, some of its words 'are not correctly pronounced unless the relative pitch heights are accurate.'{{sfn|Blench|2013|p=3}}

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{{refend}}

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Category:Dialects of English

Category:Languages of Belize

Category:Caribbean English