Grammar
Pronouns in Bahamian are generally the same as in Standard English. However, the second person plural can take one of three forms:
- yinna,
- y'all or
- all a ya
Possessive pronouns in Bahamian often differ from Standard English with:
- your becoming or ya
- his or hers becoming he or she
and
- their becoming dey.
For example, das ya book? means 'is that your book?'
In addition, the possessive pronouns differ from Standard English:
| English | Bahamian |
|---|---|
| mine | mines |
| yours | yawnz (s.) or yawz (s.) |
| yinnas (pl.) | |
| his | he own |
| hers | she own |
| ours | ah own |
| theirs | dey own/des |
When describing actions done alone or by a single group, only..one is used, as in only me one sing ('I'm the only one who sang') and only Mary one gern Nassau ('Mary was the only one who went to Nassau')
Read more about this topic: Bahamian Creole
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Grammar is a tricky, inconsistent thing. Being the backbone of speech and writing, it should, we think, be eminently logical, make perfect sense, like the human skeleton. But, of course, the skeleton is arbitrary, too. Why twelve pairs of ribs rather than eleven or thirteen? Why thirty-two teeth? It has something to do with evolution and functionalism—but only sometimes, not always. So there are aspects of grammar that make good, logical sense, and others that do not.”
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