Barbadian Creole

Barbadian Creole or Bajan Is an English based Creole spoken on the West Indian Island of Barbados. Bajan uses a mixture of English, West African, and Barbadian / West Indian vocabulary. Bajan also uses a mixture of English and/or West African syntax and also the manipulation or pronunciation of words come from West Africa and the way that they are use to pronouncing words. Bajan was first created when West African Slaves brought to the island were forced to speak English altough some African words and syntax was kept.

Barbadian Creole / Bajan
Native to	Barbados
Language family	Creole Barbadian Creole / Bajan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Pluralization in Bajan is done by adding dem at the end of a noun just as in many other West Indian Creoles. This type of pluralizing was inherited by the Afro West Indians from their West African languages. Sometimes though Bajans don't even bother with pluralizing a word.

example-

English: The girls

Bajan: De gyal dem

English: There are alot of men here

Bajan: Deh's bare man heh

Most of Bajan's lexicon is from or derived from English but their are lixical items that stem from other languages such as Twi or French.

Bajan Origin Meaning bassa-bassa possibly from Twi kasa-kasa, an argument n. a fight or uproar buckra-johnny of unknown African origin, mbakara, a Caucasian n. a brown or light-skinned negro duppy from Twi adope n. an evil ghost or spirit fete from French fete, a party n. a party juk from Fula chuk, to poke v. to poke or push nani from English nasty adj. to be nasty obeah from Twi obi, sickness n. a West African sorcery similar to voodoo stepney indeginous n. a spare tire wunna from Twi unu, you all pronoun. you all yam from Twi nnyam, to eat / food / meat v. to eat