English-based creole languages#Table of creole languages

{{short description|Creole language derived from the English language}}

{{redirect-distinguish|English creole|Middle English creole hypothesis}}

An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the lexifier, meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creole's lexicon.{{Cite book|title=Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages|last=Velupillai|first=Viveka|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|year=2015|isbn=978-90-272-5272-2|location=Amsterdam|pages=519}} Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The main categories of English-based creoles are Atlantic (the Americas and Africa) and Pacific (Asia and Oceania).

Over 76.5 million people globally are estimated to speak an English-based creole. Sierra Leone, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, and Singapore have the largest concentrations of creole speakers.

Origin

It is disputed to what extent the various English-based creoles of the world share a common origin. The monogenesis hypothesis{{cite journal|last=Hancock|first=I. F.|year=1969|title=A provisional comparison of the English-based Atlantic creoles|journal=African Language Review|volume=8|pages=7–72}}{{cite journal|last=Gilman|first=Charles|year=1978|title=A Comparison of Jamaican Creole and Cameroon Pidgin English|journal=English Studies|volume=59|pages=57–65|doi=10.1080/00138387808597871}} posits that a single language, commonly called proto–Pidgin English, spoken along the West African coast in the early sixteenth century, was ancestral to most or all of the Atlantic creoles (the English creoles of both West Africa and the Americas).

Table of creole languages

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Name

!Country

!Number of speakers{{e25}}

!Notes

|-

!colspan="4"|

=Atlantic=

|-

!colspan="4"|

==Western Caribbean==

|-

|Bahamian Creole

|{{Flag|Bahamas}}

|{{nts|328000}} (2018)

|

|-

|Turks and Caicos Creole English

|{{Flag|Turks and Caicos}}

|{{nts|34400}} (2019)

|

|-

|Jamaican Patois

|{{Flag|Jamaica}}

|{{nts|3043280}} (2001)

|

|-

|Cayman Islands English

|{{Flag|Cayman Islands}}

|{{nts|84400}} (2019)

|

|-

|Belizean Creole

|{{Flag|Belize}}

|{{nts|170000}} (2014)

|

|-

|Miskito Coast Creole

|{{Flag|Nicaragua}}

|{{nts|18400}} (2009)

|Dialect: Rama Cay Creole

|-

|Limonese Creole

|{{Flag|Costa Rica}}

|{{nts|55100}} (2013)

|Dialect of Jamaican Patois

|-

|Bocas del Toro Creole

|{{Flag|Panama}}

|{{nts|268000}} (2000)

|Dialect of Jamaican Patois

|-

|San Andrés–Providencia Creole

|{{Flag|Colombia}}

| {{nts|12000}} (1981)

|

|-

!colspan="4"|

==Eastern Caribbean==

|-

|Virgin Islands Creole

|{{Flag|US Virgin Islands}}

{{Flag|Puerto Rico}}{{refn|{{cite web |title=Virgin Islands English Creole |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/vic/ |website=Ethnologue |access-date=27 March 2023}}Villanueva Feliciano, Orville Omar. 2009. [https://www.proquest.com/openview/272a2f934bbb815bfdbf5dcc6ba9c82c/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 A Contrastive analysis of English Influences on the Lexicon of Puerto Rican Spanish in Puerto Rico and St. Croix]{{cite web |title=Virgin Islands Creole English |url=https://find.bible/languages/vic/ |website=Find a Bible |access-date=11 February 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Staff Consortium |title=What Does the USVI and Puerto Rico Have in Common? A Summary of a Stimulating Discussion on Self-Determination in the Virgin Islands. |url=https://viconsortium.com/vi-opinion/virgin-islands-what-does-the-usvi-and-puerto-rico-have-in-common-a-summary-of-a-stimulating-discussion-on-self-determination-in-the-virgin-islands- |website=The Virgin Islands Consortium |access-date=10 July 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Sprawe |first1=Gilbert A. |title=About Man Betta Man, Fission and Fusion, and Creole, Calypso and Cultural Survival in the Virgin Islands |url=https://folklife-media.si.edu/docs/festival/program-book-articles/FESTBK1990_11.pdf |access-date=6 April 2023}}}}

|{{nts|89700}} (2019)

|

|-

|Anguillan Creole

|{{Flag|Anguilla}}

|{{nts|11500}} (2001)

|Dialect of Antiguan and Barbudan Creole

|-

|Antiguan Creole

|{{Flag|Antigua and Barbuda}}

|{{nts|82500}} (2019)

|Dialect of Antiguan and Barbudan Creole

|-

|Saint Kitts Creole

|{{Flag|Saint Kitts and Nevis}}

|{{nts|51000}} (2015)

|Dialect of Antiguan and Barbudan Creole

|-

|Montserrat Creole

|{{Flag|Montserrat}}

|{{nts|5130}} (2020)

|Dialect of Antiguan and Barbudan Creole

|-

|Vincentian Creole

|{{Flag|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines}}

|{{nts|108000}} (2016)

|

|-

|Grenadian Creole

|{{Flag|Grenada}}

|{{nts|107000}} (2020)

|

|-

|Tobagonian Creole

|{{Flag|Trinidad and Tobago}}

|{{nts|300000}} (2011)

|

|-

|Trinidadian Creole

|{{Flag|Trinidad and Tobago}}

|{{nts|1000000}} (2011)

|

|-

|Bajan Creole

|{{Flag|Barbados}}

|{{nts|257000}} (2018)

|

|-

|Guyanese Creole

|{{Flag|Guyana}}

|{{nts|715200}} (2021)

|

|-

|Sranan Tongo

|{{Flag|Suriname}}

|{{nts|669600}} (2016–2018)

|Including 150,000 L2 users

|-

|Saramaccan

|{{Flag|Suriname}}

|{{nts|34500}} (2018)

|

|-

|Ndyuka

|{{Flag|Suriname}}

|{{nts|67800}} (2018)

|Dialects: Aluku, Paramaccan

|-

|Kwinti

|{{Flag|Suriname}}

|{{nts|250}} (2018)

|

|-

!colspan="4"|

==Southern-Caribbean==

|-

|Venezuelan English Creole

|{{Flag|Venezuela}}

|unknown, likely endangered (2018)

|

|-

|San Nicolaas English

|{{Flag|Aruba}}

|{{nts|15000}} (estimation) (2020)

|Spoken in San Nicolaas, Aruba

|-

!colspan="4"|

==North America==

|-

|Gullah

|{{Flag|United States}}

|{{nts|300}} (2023)

|Ethnic population: 250,000

|-

|Afro-Seminole Creole

|{{Flag|United States}}

|{{nts|200}} (1990){{cite web |title=Afro-Seminole Creole |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/archive-redirect |website=Ethnologue |access-date=11 February 2023}}[https://kreolmagazine.com/culture/history-and-culture/creoles-in-texas-the-afro-seminoles/#.Ws7wBFLMygQ "Creoles in Texas – 'The Afro-Seminoles'." Kreol Magazine. March 28, 2014.] Accessed April 11, 2018.{{efn|According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Black Seminoles have also been known as Seminole Maroons or Seminole Freedmen and were a group of free blacks and runaway slaves who joined with a group of Native Americans in Florida after the Spanish abolished slavery there in 1793.[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Seminoles Kuiper, Kathleen. "Black Seminoles." In: Encyclopedia Britannica.] Accessed April 13, 2018.}}

|Dialect of the Gullah language

|-

!colspan="4"|

==West Africa==

|-

|Krio

|{{Flag|Sierra Leone}}

|{{nts|8237900}} (2019)

|Including 7,420,000 L2 speakers

|-

|Kreyol

|{{Flag|Liberia}}

|{{nts|5113000}} (2015)

|Including 5,000,000 L2 speakers

|-

|Ghanaian Pidgin

|{{Flag|Ghana}}

|{{nts|5002000}} (2011)

|

|-

|Nigerian Pidgin

|{{Flag|Nigeria}}

|{{nts|120650000}}

|Including 116,000,000 L2 users

|-

|Cameroonian Pidgin

|{{Flag|Cameroon}}

|{{nts|12000000}} (2017)

|

|-

|Equatorial Guinean Pidgin

|{{Flag|Equatorial Guinea}}

|{{nts|200000}} (2020)

|Including 185,000 L2 users (2020)

|-

!colspan="4"|

=Pacific=

|-

|Hawaiian Pidgin{{efn|Although Hawaii is part of the United States, Hawaiian Pidgin is mostly considered as a Pacific creole language rather than Atlantic, this is further mentioned in John Holm's "An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles". Therefore, it does not have to follow its political boundaries on being a U.S. state.{{cite book |last1=Holm |first1=John A. |author1-link=John A. Holm |title=An introduction to pidgin and creoles |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge [England] |isbn=9780521584609 |page=95}}}}

|{{Flag|Hawaii}}

|{{nts|600000}} (2015)

|Including 400,000 L2 users{{refn|{{Cite journal |last=Sasaoka |first=Kyle |date=2019 |title=Toward a writing system for Hawai'i Creole |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/25a8f799-25da-4f99-985e-3e7ec71118cf/content |website=ScholarSpace}}{{Cite book|last=Velupillai|first=Viveka|date=2013|title=Hawai'i Creole|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZkeAAAAQBAJ&dq=Velupillai%2C+Viveka.+2013.+%22Hawai%E2%80%99i+Creole&pg=PA252|journal=The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages|pages=252–261|isbn=978-0-19-969140-1}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hwc|title=Hawai'i Pidgin|work=Ethnologue|access-date=2018-06-25|language=en}}{{Citation|last=Velupillai|first=Viveka|title=Hawai'i Creole structure dataset|date=2013|url=https://apics-online.info/contributions/26|work=Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online|place=Leipzig|publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology|access-date=2021-08-20}}}}

|-

|Ngatikese Creole

|{{Flag|Micronesia}}

|{{nts|700}} (1983)

|

|-

|Tok Pisin

|{{Flag|Papua New Guinea}}

|{{nts|4125740}}

|Including 4,000,000 L2 users (2001)

|-

|Pijin

|{{Flag|Solomon Islands}}

|{{nts|564000}} (2012–2019)

|530,000 L2 users (1999)

|-

|Bislama

|{{Flag|Vanuatu}}

|{{nts|12570}} (2011)

|

|-

|Pitcairn-Norfolk

|{{Flag|Pitcairn}}

|{{nts|1786}}

|Almost no L2 users. Has been classified as an Atlantic Creole based on internal structure.{{cite journal |last=Avram|first=Andrei|year=2003|title=Pitkern and Norfolk revisited|journal=English Today|volume=19|issue=1|pages=44–49|doi=10.1017/S0266078403003092|s2cid=144835575}}

|-

|Australian Kriol

|{{Flag|Australia}}

|{{nts|17160}}

|Including 10,000 L2 users (1991)

|-

|Torres Strait Creole

|{{Flag|Australia}}

|{{nts|6170}} (2016)

|

|-

|Bonin English

|{{Flag|Japan}}

|Possibly {{nts|1000}}–2000 (2004){{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

|

|-

|Singlish

|{{Flag|Singapore}}

|{{nts|2140000}}{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

|

|-

|Manglish

|{{Flag|Malaysia}}

|{{nts|10300000}}{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

|

|-

|}

Marginal

Bonin English, sometimes considered a mixed language
Iyaric ("Rastafarian")
Jamaican Maroon Spirit Possession Language

Other

Not strictly creoles, but sometimes called thus:

Notes

References

External links

[http://apics-online.info/ Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures]

English-based creole languages#Table of creole languages

Origin

Table of creole languages

=Atlantic=

==Western Caribbean==

==Eastern Caribbean==

==Southern-Caribbean==

==North America==

==West Africa==

=Pacific=

Marginal

Other

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links