Virgin Islands Creole, or Virgin Islands Creole English, is an English-based creole spoken in the Virgin Islands and the nearby SSS islands of Saba, Saint Martin and Sint Eustatius, where it has been known as Netherlands Antilles Creole English.
The term "Virgin Islands Creole" is formal terminology used by scholars and academics, and is rarely used in everyday speech. Informally, the creole is known by the term dialect, as the creole is often perceived by locals as a dialect variety of English instead of an English creole language. However, academic sociohistorical and linguistic research suggests that it is in fact an English creole language.
Because there are various varieties of Virgin Islands Creole, it is also known by the specific island on which it is spoken: Crucian dialect, Thomian dialect, Tortolian dialect, Saint Martin dialect, Saba dialect, Statia dialect.
Read more about Virgin Islands Creole: History, Varieties, Language Use and Perceptions, Grammatical Structure and Pronunciation, Examples of Virgin Islands Creole Proverbs
Famous quotes containing the words virgin and/or islands:
“This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of heav’n’s eternal King,
Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)