Guyanese Creole English
A language of Guyana
| Population | 650,000 in Guyana. 250,000 Blacks and 400,000 Hindustanis. Population total all countries: 700,000. |
| Region | Georgetown, coast, and Rupununi River area. May be some in French Guiana. Also in Suriname, United States. |
| Language map |
Guyana |
| Alternate names | Creolese, Guyanese Creole |
| Dialects | Afro-Guyanese Creole, Rupununi, Indo-Guyanese Creole. May be intelligible with other English-based creoles of the Caribbean. Most similar to creoles of Saint Vincent and Tobago (Holbrook). Rupununi dialect may be a separate language. Rupununi, Berbice Creole Dutch [brc], and Skepi Creole Dutch [skw] speakers claim they are not mutually inherently intelligible. |
| Classification | Creole, English based, Atlantic, Eastern, Southern |
| Language use | The first or second language of most, but it has no official status. Home and alongside Standard English (Adler 1977). There is a creole continuum with Standard English. Mixed language attitude. |
| Language development | Grammar. |
| Writing system | Latin script. |
Also spoken in:
Suriname
| Language name | Guyanese Creole English |
| Population | 50,000 in Suriname (1986 SIL). |
| Alternate names | Creolese, Guyanese Creole |
| Language use | All domains. All ages. Negative language attitude. |
| Language development | Literacy rate in L2: 25%–50%. |
Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:
Academic Publications
HOLBROOK, David J.; HOLBROOK, Holly A., authors. 2002. "Guyanese Creole survey report."
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HOLBROOK, David Joseph, author. 2012. The Classification of the English-Lexifier Creole Languages Spoken in Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent, and Tobago Using a Comparison of the Markers of Some Key Grammatical Features.
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