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Guyanese Creole language

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Guyanese Creole
Spoken in: Guyana
Total speakers:
Language family: Creole
 Guyanese Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: to be added
ISO/FDIS 639-3: gyn 

Guyanese Creole (Creolese by its speakers; also called Guyanese Creole English or simply Guyanese) is a creole language spoken by several hundreds of thousands of persons in Guyana.

Guyanese Creole is based on and strongly influenced English language. It is similar to Jamaican Creole, as well as other West Indian dialects and related to Paramaccan and Aluku. Along the Rupununi River a distinct form of Guyanese Creole exists. Also, a socially stratified creole speech continuum exists between Guyanese Creole and English. A phrase like I told him may be pronounced in various parts of the continuum:

Utterance Represents the speech of
[ai tɔuld hɪm] acrolect varieties of middle-class
speakers
[ai toːld hɪm]
[ai toːl ɪm]
[ai tɛl ɪm]mesolect varieties of lower-middle
and urban class speakers
[a tɛl ɪm]
[ai tɛl ɪ]
[a tɛl i]
[mi tɛl i]rural working class
[mi tɛl am]basilect speech of illiterate rural laborers.


[edit] Phrases

  • I am on the phone - Meh deh pon de phone
  • I don't know - Meh nah know
  • What do you want - Wuh yuh want
  • girl - gyal, binni
  • boy - bai, banna
  • children- pickney
  • car - cyar, ride
  • what is happening?-Wappenin?
  • I am not talking about that.- Meh en talkin bout dat.
  • Good Morning - Good marning.
  • We are going to cook - Aweeh a go mek something fuh eat.
  • Dont bring your ass back- Nah mek ya rass come back heh
  • I am going back to work on Tuesday - Mi a go bak a wuk pan Chewsdey
  • where are the kids? - a whey de pickney dem deh?
  • dont laugh boy! - nah skin yuh teet bai!
  • where is Andre? - a whey Andre deh?
  • he is over there. - he deh deh
  • gay man. - antiman
  • come over here boy. - come nuh bhai?
  • whats wrong with you. - a wha de rass rong wid yuh?

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