All along the East coast of Nicaragua (the Miskito coast) Miskito Creole English is spoken, something that provided us with great amusement on our trip. The words that are spoken are English, but the accent is so heavy (like a Jamaican accent but stronger), the words are spoken so fast, and the grammar is terrible (some of it is Spanish grammar), that it was almost impossible for us to understand.
A creole language is a type of language, which is a combination of two or more languages but with unique features of its own as well. All along the East coast of Central America - in Beliz, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, English creole languages exist. We had fun trying to speak it as well, although we didn't get very far; you just have to say 'man' a lot, miss out some words in your sentences and swap the grammar around a bit. Here is a long document on the Miskito English Creole for any language fanatics out there. We tried to find out some unique Creole expressions from our creole friend on Little Corn Island, though we didn't get much -
"Its as easy as kissing your teeth"
"Fire on one end, and a fool on the other" (when someone is smoking a cigarette)
Though I don't think these are really uniquely creole.
So we've recently started to develop our own creole language - a unique blend of English and Spanish. Sentences must contain words from both languages, but all words are spoken with an English accent, and the different rules of the formations and conjugations of verbs from both languages can be mixed together. It provides for great entertainment while helping each other out learning new vocabulary. Why not try it out yourself?
1 comment:
People should read this.
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