| In 1655 the Spanish colony of the Caribbean | | | | instance: sing - "songish" (Trinidad, Bahamas), |
| Islands was occupied by the English, who brought | | | | "rhotic" (Bajan, Guyanese), noting - "nutten or |
| along new influences. With the invaders there | | | | notin", influenced by Irish English dialects |
| came soldiers recruited from England, Barbados, | | | | (Jamaican). |
| and Montserrat; natives from Barbados, Bermuda, | | | | In Barbados, for example, the official language is |
| New England, and Virginia, indentured servants | | | | English, but the Bajan natives use words in a |
| from Bristol (Southwest England dialect), midland | | | | colorful and expressive manner that can be |
| and northern lower-class natives, convicts from | | | | difficult to follow sometimes. There are also |
| large prisons in England and many African | | | | words and expressions that have a very |
| speakers. | | | | particular local meaning like: |
| The birth of the cities, such as Port Royal, | | | | "Duppie" = Ghost |
| Passage Fort, and Kingston, facilitated the meeting | | | | "To lime" = To hang around |
| of various speakers. Africans came to acquire | | | | "Licking ya mout" = Talking too much |
| forms of English due to the domination of white | | | | "Sweet fa so" = Very nice |
| dialects. | | | | "The sea en' got no back door" = Once you get |
| Caribbean English comprises the dialects spoken in | | | | into a situation, you might not be able to get back |
| the Caribbean islands and is a language of large | | | | out. |
| variation according to the region where it is | | | | The official language is, nevertheless, English in |
| spoken. However, all the dialects derive from 17th | | | | some of the following countries that use |
| century English and African languages. | | | | Caribbean dialects: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, |
| The dialects have some common traits and it is | | | | Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, |
| very frequent to have different pronouns, such | | | | Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. Virgin Islands, Panama, |
| as: me - meh, or mi, you - yuh, (he, she, it,) we - | | | | Guyana, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Puerto Rico |
| wi or alawe, allyuh or unu, and dem or day for | | | | (where Spanish is the main language of the |
| "them". The phonetics of the language is greatly | | | | government and population). |
| influenced by the geographical position, for | | | | |