Phonological description

Introduction

Firstly, we must acknowledge considerable phonological variability in both islands and a situation of ongoing flux in the language varieties caused by internal and external influences upon them. It is unclear whether the language varieties are achieving a measure of overall stability in relation to one another or whether there is a steady process of decreolization brought about by the overarching effect of English in education.

In public contexts too, the upper mesolect is merging to some extent with the Standard in general usage with the result that many educators are not entirely clear on their separate and distinct features. So where we might still expect to hear Standard English, as for example in church or school, a pseudo-acrolect is emerging within which both grammatical and phonological features often show variability (cf. Youssef, James and Ferreira 2001). Some speakers, constrained towards Standard, but limited in its grammar, imitate a pseudo Standard ‘accent’ with which they are not very familiar, and a great deal of variation results.

It is worth noting again that we may link Trinidad and Tobago more readily at the acrolectal and mesolectal levels but, beyond this, need to consider the Tobagonian basilect separately.