Book contents
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume V
- General Preface
- Abbreviations
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume V
- PART I The United States
- PART II Canada
- PART III The Caribbean
- 23 Early English-Lexifier Creole in the Circum-Caribbean Area
- 24 The Caribbean Anglophone Contact Varieties: Creoles and Koines
- 25 English in Jamaica: Between Local and Foreign
- 26 The Anglophone Caribbean Rim
- 27 North American–Caribbean Linguistic Connections
- Index
- References
24 - The Caribbean Anglophone Contact Varieties: Creoles and Koines
from PART III - The Caribbean
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2026
Book contents
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume V
- General Preface
- Abbreviations
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume V
- PART I The United States
- PART II Canada
- PART III The Caribbean
- 23 Early English-Lexifier Creole in the Circum-Caribbean Area
- 24 The Caribbean Anglophone Contact Varieties: Creoles and Koines
- 25 English in Jamaica: Between Local and Foreign
- 26 The Anglophone Caribbean Rim
- 27 North American–Caribbean Linguistic Connections
- Index
- References
Summary
The Caribbean is a vast geopolitical region that stretches for a span of 2,754,000 square kilometers and includes approximately 7,000 island land masses. Linguistically speaking, the Caribbean hosts an extraordinarily wide variety of languages and dialects. The sheer magnitude of inhabited islands and the accompanying geographical and social variation within each island locale sets the Anglophone Caribbean apart for other insular areas of the English-speaking world such as Ireland or the South Atlantic. English is the third most widely spoken language in the Caribbean, following Spanish and French. It is the official language of twelve Caribbean as well as of the seven British Overseas Territories in the region. This chapter provides an overview of the sociolinguistic histories and features of the English varieties of the Caribbean region and demonstrates that there are significant traits that serve to define the region. Additionally, it demonstrates that there are differences between the speech of the European-identifying and African-identifying populations of the Caribbean.
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- The New Cambridge History of the English LanguageNorth America and the Caribbean, pp. 726 - 751Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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