Language
Throughout Guyana, English is the main language, and it is the only English speaking country of South America, although it is primarily spoken with a Caribbean dialect. Although Guyanese speak English, the Latin influence and words remain. For example "Chico" is gum in Guyana also referred to a boy. "bailar" is a common phrase used when people are about to dance. The Spanish/Portuguese languages are used very little now in Guyana because of the British influence, but the Hispanic culture still appears in certain words, particularly surnames, as well as the sounds of Musical instruments used
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Guyana
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The “sayings” of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life. Such an idiom makes the finest language any writer can have; and he can never get it with a notebook. He himself must be able to think and feel in that speech—it is a gift from heart to heart.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“Neither Aristotelian nor Russellian rules give the exact logic of any expression of ordinary language; for ordinary language has no exact logic.”
—Sir Peter Frederick Strawson (b. 1919)