Belizean Creole - Linguistic Biography

Linguistic Biography

The lingua franca of Belize is, and has always been called "BC", Belizean Creole is a creole language deriving mainly from English. Its substrate languages are the Native American language Miskito, and the various West African languages which were brought into the country by slaves. These include Akan, Igbo, and Twi. The pidgin that emerged due to the contact of English landowners and their West African slaves to ensure basic communication was extended over the years. The actual creolization occurred around 1680–1700, when the British were firmly settled in the Caribbean. It was not, however, the Belizean Creole known today, but the so-called Mískito Coast Creole which developed into the Belizean Creole over the years. Jamaicans were also brought to the colony, further adding to the vocabulary, and eventually it became the mother tongue of the slaves' children born in Belize. Other languages include Caliche slang, Spanish, and Garifuna.

In the Chicago Tribune newspaper in 1987 travel guide, it said that Belizean Creole “a language that teases but just escapes the comprehension of a native speaker of English.”

Today, Belizean Creole is the native language of the majority of the country's inhabitants. Many of them speak standard English as well, and a rapid process of decreolization is going on. As such, a creole continuum exists and speakers are able to code-switch among various mesolect registers between the most basilect to the acrolect ("Mid-Atlantic") varieties. It should be noted that the acrolect, much like the basilect, is rarely heard.