San Andrés–Providencia Creole

The population of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina uses three languages: Creole, English, and Spanish. San Andrés–Providencia Creole is an official language in its territory of influence, according to the Colombian Constitution of 1991, which guarantees the rights and protections of languages in the country. Approximately 20,000–30,000 people speak San Andrés–Providencia Creole. It is closest to Belize Kriol. While many scholars often suggest a common West African pidgin as the source of most Caribbean creole languages, San Andrés Creole, in particular, may partially derive from the Jamaican Patois of the latter half of the 18th century. Between 1902 and 1926, a process of forced Hispanization deprecated use of English and Creole. In 1946 and 1956, English was banned in, respectively, public and private schools. Large-scale migration from continental Colombia, where most people spoke Spanish, resulted in the creole people of San Andrés becoming marginalised. According to Carlos Augusto Arias, "Creole plays a symbolic role in the cohesion and identity of raizals, as the vehicle and an important piece of the cultural heritage, as well as the phenomenology of group identity." == Phonology ==

Consonants : // and // only occur in loanwords, e.g. nyam ‘to eat’, José (a Spanish first name). : When moving towards the acrolect, speakers depalatalize // and //: kyan ‘can’ > kan, gyal ‘girl’ > gal. : //, like in okiezhan ‘occasion’, only occurs in the acrolect Vowels : Short /a/, /i/, and /u/ contrast with long /aː/, /iː/, and /uː/. : The duration of the nasal vowels corresponds more to the duration of the long oral vowels than of the short ones. For some contrasts, there are very few minimal pairs: /ĩ/ contrasts with /iː/ only in ihn ‘he/she/it’ vs. iin ‘in’ (this is the form when postposed, the San Andres Creole English preposition is iina; Providence Creole English has in and ina). Similarly, /ã/ vs. /aː/ as in faahn ‘from’ vs. faam ‘to pretend’. On the other hand, other contrasts occur very frequently: /a/ vs. /aː/ as in hat ‘hot’ vs. haat ‘heart’. In addition, San Andres Creole has six minor vowel allophones: [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɛː, ɔ, ɔː]. == Characteristics ==

• It marks the time. The auxiliary (~ben~men) marks a past simple. Future tense is marked with and . Progressive tense is marked by . • The auxiliaries and before the sentence is a polite way to ask permission or asking something. • Other auxiliary words before the verb mark probability like , , , , and ; willingness with and ; and obligation with , and • There is no grammatical distinction for gender. • Plural is marked with after the noun. == Sample text ==

A comparison of the Lord's Prayer : San Andrés Creole : ‘Fi wi Faada weh deh iina hevn, : mek wi kiip yo niem huoly. : Mek yo Kingdom kom, : ahn mek weh yuu waahn fi hapm, : hapm pan ort, jos laik how ih deh hapm iina hevn. : Pliiz gi wi di fuud weh wi niid evry die, : ahn fargiv wi sin dem, : jos laik wii fargiv evrybady weh du wi bad tingz tu. : Ahn kiip wi weh fahn temtieshan, : ahn fahn di Bad Wan weh waahn liid wi astrie. : English : Our Father in heaven, : hallowed be Your name. : Your kingdom come, : Your will be done, : on earth, as it is in heaven. : Give us this day our daily bread, : and forgive us our debts, : as we also have forgiven our debtors. : And lead us not into temptation, : but deliver us from evil. ==See also==