Limonese Creole(also calledLimonese,Limón Creole EnglishorMekatelyu) is a dialect ofJamaican Patois(Jamaican Creole), anEnglish-based creolelanguage, spoken inLimón Provinceon theCaribbean Seacoast ofCosta Rica.The number of native speakers is unknown, but 1986 estimates suggests that there are fewer than 60,000 native and second language speakers combined.[2]
| Limonese | |
|---|---|
| Limón Creole English | |
| Mekatelyu | |
| Native to | Costa Rica |
Native speakers | (55,000 cited 1986)[1] |
English creole
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | limo1249 |
| IETF | jam-CR |
Origin and related creoles
editLimonese is very similar structurally andlexicallyto theJamaican Creolespoken in Jamaica and Panama and to a lesser extent other English-based creoles of the region, such asColón Creole,Mískito Coastal Creole,Belizean Kriol,andSan Andrés and Providencia Creole;many of these are also somewhatmutually intelligibleto Limonese and each other.
Names
editThe nameMekatelyuis a transliteration of the phrase "make I tell you", or in standard English "let me tell you".
In Costa Rica, one common way to refer to Limonese is by the term "patois",a word of French origin used to refer to provincialGallo-Romance languagesof France that were historically considered to be unsophisticated "broken French"; these includeProvençal,OccitanandNormanamong many others.
History
editLimonese developed from Jamaican Creole that was introduced to the Limón Province byJamaicanmigrant workers who arrived to work on the construction of the Atlanticrailway,thebanana plantationsand on the Pacific railway. During theAtlantic slave trade,British colonizers in Jamaica and elsewhere in theBritish West Indiesdelivered African slaves from various regions of Africa who did not speak a common language so various creoles developed to facilitate communication between them, largely influenced by slavers' English.
Early forms of Limonese had to adjust for context that they were being used in so twolanguage registersdeveloped, onemutually intelligibleto and heavily influenced by English for formal contexts and a common vernacular used among Limonese speakers in informal contexts.
Modern day status
editSome linguists are undecided on the categorization of Limonese. According to some authors,[3]Limonese should be treated as a separate language altogether while others contend that it is merely a part of adialect continuumbetween English andJamaican Patois.[4]
Limonese is documented to have been and is being graduallydecreolized.[citation needed]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Jamaican Creole English (Costa Rica)atEthnologue(18th ed., 2015)(subscription required)
- ^"Costa Rica".
- ^Museo Nacional de Costa Rica - Canal Oficial (2016-01-21),¿Kryol, patwá, inglés, mekaytelyu? ¿Lengua o dialecto? ¿Qué se habla en Limón?,retrieved2016-02-03
- ^Price, Franklyn Perry (2011-01-01)."MI LENGUA MATERNA Y YO".Revista de Filología y Lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica(in Spanish).37(2).ISSN2215-2628.
Bibliography
edit- Herzfeld, Anita.Tense and Aspect in Limon Creole.Kansas: The University of Kansas, 1978.
- Herzfeld, Anita (2002). Mekaytelyuw: La Lengua Criolla. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 438 pp.ISBN9977-67-711-5.
- Wolfe, Terry.An Exploratory Study of the Morphology and Syntax of the English of the Province of Limon, Costa Rica.San José: Universidad de Costa Rica, 1970.
- Wright M., Fernando.Limon Creole: A Syntactic Analysis.San José: Universidad de Costa Rica. 1974.
- Wright M., Fernando. "Problemas y Métodos para la Enseñanza como Segunda Lengua a los Habitantes del Mek-a-tél-yu en la Provincia de Limón".Revista de la Universidad de Costa Rica,March–Sept. 1982.
- Wright M., Fernando.Problems and Methods of Teaching English as a Second Language to Limon Creole Speakers.Lawrence: The University of Kansas, 1979.
External links
edit- "¿Qué es el mek-a-tel-yu?"by Dora H. de Vargas (inSpanish)